Off to Wales this evening and might have a go at the Beast again tomorrow. Last time I surprised myself in doing [most of **] it pretty quickly* and I was wondering if it's possible for a mere mortal to do it in 2.25 hours. 2 hours would clearly be the target to aim for, but although that equates to only 11.9mph, I guess it's not possible for a weekend warrior type of rider.
What's your thoughts on how long it should take.
* Pretty quickly for a fat middle aged IT middle manager. Not quick by the standards of racers or proper fit people.
** There was a small diversion.
Sounds like a terrible waste to me!
2 of my challenges this summer consist of a sub hour for MBR and sub 2 for Beast. So we'll see.
Sounds like a terrible waste to me!
In what way? Tell me more..
I saw some nob at Gisburn. He was filming himself after a fast lap. He stopped bulling himself up at one point to throw his ring up.
I, however, really enjoyed my lap and post ride brew and cake. I'd rather enjoy the ride, take in the views, have a laugh than howl round on't rivet.
I think he will say you should enjoy it not race it
Clearly YMMV
If its a trail you know well than why not try and push yourself and see how quickly you can do it?
Nowt wrong with that.
I'm trying to get a sub 20 minute lap of Cathkin Braes before the end of the summer
thegeneralist - MemberIn what way? Tell me more..
Take in the views, stop at the cafe halfway round, drop sticks in the river 😉
hmmm its would be pretty tough to average 11.9 mph moving speed for your average weekend warrior
id consider myself above average fitness wise - but no way on this planet id get near 11.9 average speed on the beast - the climbs are tough, and although the descents are fast some are techy'ish and require a bit of thought, rather than just ploughing through (not all but some)
if you rode it alot and it was your local im sure you could knock more time of it every ride, but as a 'weekend warrior' whose probably not ridden it much if at all(?) then i genuinely think unless your super fit you'd struggle to get anywhere near that time/speed on average
i did it in 2 hr 44 mins moving time with an average moving speed of 8.0 mph and its got 3700feet of climb in total, so its not flat (we did stop once for some flapjacks circa 5 mins or so)
we arent slouches and conditions were ok....we were going llandegla straight after so didnt push as hard as im sure as we could have done, but again we still werent slow in my mind
you'd have to be fairly fairly fit to get sub 2 hours, and if your only a weekend warrior i think most would struggle sub 3hr's be honest
i reckon i could if i tried i could up it by a bit of time i guess, it was a day out planned with mate (whos no slouch either) but we both said we could knock 15 mins off easily if we really went for it taking it to about 2hr 30mins ~
again we were'nt racing we had a day planned out and it was a great day, we knew full well we were going llandegla straight after so obviously that played on our minds about how much we went for it at CYB
Take in the views, stop at the cafe halfway round, drop sticks in the river
hmm yes. To be honest although the views are nice, they're not exactly spectacular. But the key thing is that I will have two kids an the missus waiting for me at the centre so my preference would be to baz round quickly then she can go off for a lap whilst I take the kids to the cafe, throw stones in the river, generally chill out and maybe do the MinorTaur at a slow pace with them.
We then go to the campsite at Bala, fire up the BBQ and get the boat out. Swim across the lake and back then chill.
If I dawdle on the Beast then we just don't get time to do all the other things in the day. Net result is that I'll be limited to the MBR or Red Bull next time round.
If I do it fast then everyone's a winner.
id consider myself above average fitness wise
Everyone does, ironically.
Current KOM time on Strava is 1:51:38
http://app.strava.com/activities/7099095#
If you've not been lately there's a new-ish trail (Minotaur?) which might be fun for the kids to do?
It would be very good to get anywhere near 2hrs IMHO.
The guy who holds the KOM is very fast and a very good rider, there's rather alot of climbing to rattle it off that quick
If I do it fast then everyone's a winner.
But you're the biggest winner.
😉
I did it in about 3.5 hours with a bit of strategic dawdling on a warm day. I would say 2.5 hours is pretty quick, but much more likely if you slice out the slightly pointless fire road loop at the top of Dragon's Back.
what's the distance?
22miles. Officially it's given 40km, but it's nowhere near that.
ScottChegg - Member
id consider myself above average fitness wise
Everyone does, ironically.
well given that would put us about circa ~ top 20ish of the hundreds of strava guys that have done it, i think its safe to say i am above average, again that wasnt particularly hammering it by any stretch, so with knowing the route and specifically 'going for it' id knock off some minutes off the time we did that day
so yeah although there are a fair few who talk the talk on here, i can safely say im above average fitness 🙂
and yes getting to 2hours is some achievement, seriously
2hr 41 at a decent pace as said above, could do quicker, but absolutly no chance on this planet id get near to 2 hours
1 hour 51mins is nuts, seriously seriously fast
im sure i could do a 2hour 30mins loop trying and going for it, it would be pretty painful and non stop at that though
infact im gonna head back there this summer and give it a go!
http://www.strava.com/segments/the-beast-738326
2 hr 31 is the top 20 anything above that is pretty darned fit IMO, anything under 2hours has got to be borderline elite xc territory fitness wise
I did all trails at CyB in under 25 mins. I then took great pleasure in coming on here to tell everyone but did so in a very matter of fact way and asked if anyone else had done so. I then felt really smug that everyone now knew just how damn fast I was and that I wasn't the sort of person who would gloat about such things, safe in the knowledge that there are also a considerable number of people on here who are as sad as I am and get overly worked up about such nonsensical things. I even threw in a nice self deprecating comment so that people knew I was grounded and didn't take myself too seriously. I now feel ten foot tall as they now know, in a 'roundabout' way, that I am so damn fast.
Life is great sometimes.
P.S. can't wait for Mayhem or whatever other gathering of fools is around the corner so I can surround myself with people just like me so we can all bore ourselves silly and come on here and bore everybody else for weeks afterwards.
😕
muuuuuhahaha
who would have thought people like to be competitive and have a competitive nature, i must have totally misunderstood what strava was about
Getting back to the op's question. Looking at the strava times and some of the names well over 2hrs I would say 2 1/2 hrs would be a more realistic goal for your w/end warrior type, and a very fit one at that !!!
Last ride I did a ride anywhere like that profile was 44km in 2hrs 20 but with only 700m climbing, but then less descending as well I suppose, so 2:30 for the beast is pretty doable, dunno how much you'd enjoy it though
Why do people think that you can't enjoy something if you're trying to do it fast?
I really like going fast. In fact it's a primary reason for mtbing. Speed is fun.
Right, got some good context there.
It's fairly clear that the diversion when I did it must have taken off a lot more distance than I thought. I was a bit suspicious at the time.
2.5 sounds way optimistic. I'll see how it goes.
23% of Brits are obese. OW is probably correct, he is above average fitness. We all probably are. Could he do a 2hr30 lap of the beast? WGAF?
Right, got some good context there.
It's fairly clear that the diversion when I did it must have taken off a lot more distance than I thought. I was a bit suspicious at the time.2.5 sounds way optimistic. I'll see how it goes.
If you look at the Strava link from earlier, you can cut out the big sticky out four mile fire road loop that starts at about mile 12 - you just carry on up a steep tarmac section. That brings it down to around the 19 mile mark - well within range for 2hrs 30 I'd have thought.
You could even swap out the annoying first couple of sections, Badger and Pinderosa, for the first bit of Minotaur, which is much faster.
And if you get back to 'Beginning of the End' and you're running late, you can just bale at the end of that section, or after 'Glide' and knock another five minutes or so off.
I'm interested wrecker ! Certainly more interested than a what tyre for the beast question.
Let us know how you get on OP.
I reckon thats rather quick. Plus dont forget Strava only counts moving time, so you can sprint a section, rest, sprint rest etc and get a good time even if it took you all day.
The times are for the Beast as a single segment, so resting time counts too.
Ho hum,
I've worked out why people hate the long fireroad slog after the second cafe on the Beast... It's because the bits of trail just above the Mawdach/Eden river confluence (ie just before the MBR and Beast split) are so good.
They're just awesome, completely absorbing and flowy and fast and interesting and brilliant. They suck every last bit of effort and energy from you... which means that when you get to the fireroad you're completely empty and have nothing more to give. So the fireroad seems even worse than it actually is. The comparison between amazing trail and okish trail is so strong.
I can't remember how much of that is from the original Karrimor trail but it really is great. Even after so many years CYB is still one of the best.
taxi25
Let us know how you get on OP.
2 hours 26 minutes or thereabouts, followed by a very cold swim in the river with the kids. Top top day out.
Is "the beast" the old "Karrimoor trail"?
Is "the beast" the old "Karrimoor trail"?
Short answer is yes...
Sort of. The bit after it splits from the MBR is Karrimor most of the way home I think.
But one bit that was Karimor is now tagged onto the end of the Old Red Bull, which I think is now called Tawr or something like that.
Actually, thinking about it, the Dragon's Back is probably much closer to the Karrimor than the Beast is.
Which would sort of tie in with what I said above... the bit of the Beast after it splits from MBR is indeed Dragons Back.
Isn't Dan Evans a national hill climb champion, hence his frankly silly kom time?
I've tried it since I first started riding and it took us about 5 hours to get round. Would do a tad better than that now!
Thegeneralist - you aint no weekend warrior 😉
Fair play bud if that's total time to get round sub 2hr 30 is pretty fast/fit in my eyes, no way a standard overweight weekend warrior could manage that time though! So you must be fitter than you thought!
Ste- that would explain the crazy fast time, super human that!