Lands end to John'o groats that is…

Me and two pals are doing it this year. The idea is to do it unsupported, with fast audax type bikes and taking the southern softy option of staying in B&B's.

I've really got no idea how to train for 10 days of consecutive ~100 mile rides. I normally knock off a couple of cyclosportives each year like The Dragon or La Marmotte, but those are the sort where you kill yourself over one day and put your feet up for the following week after.

Realistically I'm not going to be able to put any more time in to it than my usual of three to four 1.5-2hr rides in the week and then one long ride in the weekend.

If you've done it how did you find the whole experience? Any practical advice?

A couple mates, one who used to do represent the uk at roller hockey (or some similar niche sport) and one that only really rode DH did it with me. My two mates did very little training and I was rolling on base fitness.

We JOGLE'd which is reputedly harder but did have support so only had bar bags, had fast audax / non full race bikes and did ten days easily (I would have liked to have done seven or eight but it was unrealistic for the other two and we were only doing it to raise awareness for a charity so the longer on the road the better).

I would say though that even without luggage a few bits of the Highlands and Cornwall were quite tricky on 39-23 but walking never occurred.

I thought it was a glorious experience and one I would love to repeat, don't bring many tools or spares as bikes rarely break and these bits are heavy.

Oh and it's not 100 mile days, more like 85's if you do it over 10 days. In a Sportive you are basically racing (whatever you pretend) so it's not really comparable.

Oh and make sure you have mudguards, raceblades if thats all the bike will allow, I got "Drives" to take us to a bike shop in Inverness or Tain (can't remember which) and mate Adam who didn't have guards buy some raceblades; it worked and gave us glorious weather every day.

LE to JOG you stand a better chance of tail winds (didn't work for me though).

Cornwall is the toughest.

Scotland is easy as you are fit by then and the hills are more of the long and gradual variety.

Important to find a balance between quiet scenic roads and actually getting where you want to go. B roads seemed to fit that bill for me.

I did 14 days B&Bs and youth hostels all pre-booked so I wasn't riding around at 6pm in a strange town looking for accommodation. If I did it again I'd take camping gear and not book anything so I could ride further on the days I wanted to.

Great way to see your own country. I managed to stay with mates/family along the way which was also nice.

Your training sounds fine. If you can do some even longer rides then great. Start riding with your bike loaded up. I highy recommend a weekend overnight trip as a shake down for your kit.

Pack light.

we did it 3 years ago, 7.5 days, stayed in travel lodges. i took 6 other lads with me, 2 of which purchased their first bikes since being kiddies only 6 months before. did it on very little training really and less than half a dozen 100s in training the longest bei ng a sat/sun back to back 110mile/95mile ride.
what is important (for us was anyway) was learning to ride together effectively, that made all the difference, our little chain gang worked. we also had a man and a van who was at each 25 mile point for us to fill up drinks bottles and eat cake.
riding wise, depends on route i guess but cornwall and the A30 was easily the worse, like riding on motorway. you may well be suprised how (generally) flat the uk seems and we went end of may to get the mainly south westerly winds although it freaked on us and we had cold rain and northerlys on every day apart from one which was the perth to inverness leg which was fantastic, audax bike is good choice, did mine on a thorn audax 853 and it never missed a beat and galloped along nicely.
the last 70 miles is somewhat falkland like peat moors and misty and when you get to john o you may well feel its an anticlimax in a "oh, what next then" kinda way
if you come close to wotton under edge, let me know, i will supply hot pasta (its a welcome break from cake cake and more cake)
good luck and by end day 4 the fitness wont matter, you legs will be made of steel if you are still riding

Honest opnion…

Do no training and little planning, carry bare minimum with definitely no support.

Relax, and enjoy the 'journey'.

A mate of mine is doing the JOGLE in a few months. But he's running it!!!!!!!!! 😯 😯 http://www.colinfitzjohn.com/?p=218

A friend of mine is organising a charity thing in summer and has asked me to come along, I'm right up for it. The plan is 8 days I think which is about 110 miles a day. BB's each night.

He's using this previous attempt as a guide.

http://www.klc-lejog.org.uk/routes.htm

Did it last summer (JOGLE) and it was awesome. Managed to choose the hottest two weeks of the year which helped.
My blog has all the B&B info which will save you a lot of time.
http://www.spokeshirts.co.uk/blog/Al_Mel_s_JOGLE_2009(4).pdf

Wouldn't want to do LEJOG – ending up in JOG is not fun. Prevailing wind is a myth too – once you're north of Edinburgh the wind goes round in circles……

Did it in July 2003 with two mates. LEJOG in 8 days. Did no training whatsoever as I had been working abroad for two years and returned 5 days before starting the ride. Although I had been a racing cyclist for many years, I had let myself slip a bit, and was 18 stone and smoking 40 fags a day. As you do.
We did it with saddlebags and barbags on audax/road bikes, staying at B and Bs.
After 3 days of hell, I started to get used to the effort, and by the end was comfortable (apart from my arse, which was in tatters) doing 100+ miles/day. I lost 2 1/2 stone in 8 days despite horsing down flapjacks, pork pies, jumbo bags of fruit gums and about 4 litres of Coke a day. Also we did hit the beer heavily of an evening to replenish the carbs.
The other two guys were 2nd cat. roadies (as I had been), so the pace was a bit brisk. We averaged 15mph for the ride. Every day started with much moaning about hangovers, sore backsides etc. and the first couple of hours was very slow. By the end of each day we were going through and off at 20+ mph.
I loved the experience, and would do it again if I had the time, but would take about 14 days and really chill out.

Be warned, it is very difficult to find a Scotch egg in Scotland.

My friend's wife and her 70 odd year old father did it last summer. They went the more scenic route and took about 2 and a half weeks to do it, unsupported and staying in B&B's. I think they went fairly normal to start with, then up the Welsh borders, through the Lakes and up the West coast of Scotheggland and then over the Highlands to the finish. Bike shop in Thurso boxed up the bikes and arranged a courier to send them home for the reasonable price of £20 each. She rode a Specialized CX bike with slicks, dunno what her Dad rode.

As said up there. Cornwall is the toughest bit, so it's a bit in at the deep end.

the severity depends on how many days you spend doing it and the weather you encounter. It's not that tough and nice way to travel through the uk. travel light. start from cornwall as that's harder cycling and generic prevailing winds are sou-westerlys. there's a dedicated page on the ctc website. enjoy it and good luck.

Honest opnion…

Do no training and little planning, carry bare minimum with definitely no support.

Relax, and enjoy the 'journey'.

That is honestly what me and 2 pals did last summer. Did it in two weeks unsupported staying in the cheapest youth hostels we could find, Camped in Scotland and lived on 1/2 kilo pasta each every night. My only tip would be pack light, if you have to 'think' about bringing something, chances are you probably won't need it.

I've done Lancaster to JOG, so about half of it.

If you need recommedations for B&Bs near Lancaster then drop me a pm.

Scotland was a real mixed bag in terms of accommodation – some okay but some real grotty stuff too. Quite a surprise actually. So do as much research as you can about where to stay, if this is important to you.

I lost 2 1/2 stone in 8 days

that's roughly a 1/3 stone a day!

I've just been adding up the cost of doing it the luxury way (train down there, BB's on the way up, train back home). It's actually quite expensive this way, has anyone who's done it got any cost guidelines. As far as I can tell the train journeys will be around 200 quid in total plus the BB's at say 25 quid a night is 200 quid in total.

Did this in May last year – 9 Days, unsupported, staying in b&b's.

Cost was @£500.00 all in. Flew to Bristol – Hire car to Penzance, cycled to Lands End, overnight in b&b and set off.

IMO You need to have done a few long rides of 60 – 70 Miles when training. Then just set off around 8:00am every day, this gives you at least 10 Hours cycling time.

Averaged 13.5 miles and hour throughout the trip. Fastest speed was 52mph, down Berridale Brae. Worst places to cycle were A30 & A38 – Best places Yorkshire Dales & The Highlands.

Highly recommended ! Slept for 19 hours the day after I completed it….

Did it in sep 2009. three of us unsupported camping. 10.5 days we hired a van one way to get from preston to penzance. book early if you do that to get a better price. weather was shit. lots of heavy rain so b and b some nights but tail winds most days. you get fitter as you go. next time and there will be one we'll take longer and see more. you'll have a ball. don't worry too much about the training you ll ride yourself fitter

Graham.

[As far as I can tell the train journeys will be around 200 quid in total plus the BB's at say 25 quid a night is 200 quid in total]

I looked at doing it this year, until other stuff came up.

Train can be quite cheap if you book 3 months in advance. From Leeds to LE and then back from JoG was about £70. Depends how 'close' to the route you live. Kent or west Wales is going to be more expensive.

Did it last year, have a support vehicle and mates shared the driving.
Stopped at B&B's and mates houses along the way.
Did it in 12 days, averaging 80m per day.
Also took in the scenic route totalling 935m

The last day was dull, not only were the climbs out of Helmsdale and Berridale killers after 11 days in the saddle. The scenery changed dramatically. We came through Glencoe and the east coast up to JOG is a little flatter.

We only had a couple of flats, and some broken spokes so not bad in all.

Don't listen about the prevailing winds from south to north, the wind was in our face all the way.

Thanks for all the input. Its heartening to know that many have done it and didn't have to train like champs in the process. Must remember to travel light!!!

JOGLE is all downhill isn't it?

bernaard wrote…….The last day was dull, not only were the climbs out of Helmsdale and Berridale killers

absolutely, the hardest 2 climbs on the whole trip, got to top of helmsdale and remember it to be the only place i have been where it appeared to be raining (hail) upwards!
dull describes it perfectly….

Two of my mates did it the year before last in 10 days, just regular road bikes with rear racks fitted. Booked most of the B&B's before they started and had a rough plan of where they wanted to get to each day.

100 or so miles a day with a mid morning stop, lunch stop, afternoon stop at a reasonably easy pace.
They did put in a couple of 100 mile training days but other than that they just knocked out the usual 2-3 hour training rides.

Take plenty of money for food! Some nights they were eating 2 fish suppers each!

Mingsta… space here in Edinburgh if your passing… happy to help….

Did it with a mate in 2005. JoGLE, which we felt made getting home on the train easier with more options. The 'prevailing' winds (SW) decided to change course for us and on one particular day we were blown down the side of one of the lochs at 25mph, absolutely loved it. Did it in 11 days staying in YHAs, used Caradice 'Super C' saddle bags only, travelled as light as poss. We did it for charity and hardly ever had to pay for food as cafes etc. seemed happy to give us food instead of money. Also, we stopped every hour and ate and drank something, usually malt loaf, which I used to love but have only just re-aquainted myself with! It rained alot as we circled Glasgow!