Hi 🙂

Doing JOGLE in May next year, 4 guys, 8 days.

The max I have ridden in 1 day is 200Km – I cycle to work (14 miles) every day and try and do about 50/60 miles at the weekends – road and off road (over Dartmoor).

I have stepped up the distances a little in teh last 2 weeks but as of 2012 what should I be aiming for – I pretty much ride every day but do the longer and hilly rides at the weekends. My mate is starting night riding now – what have other people done/aimed for?

You’re fine. I did it – 10 x 100 miles – this year and wasn’t doing any more than you are now.

Cool – thanks D. I am trying not to over do it and be bolloxed by May and not be interested in cycling at all (as I have been there before) if you know what I mean 🙂

something like that is more comfort and food than fitness, so I’d suggest one long ride a month, 5-6 hours or so.

Cool – well did a 90 Km last weekend but was only 3.5 hours ride time so as you say long and steady rides are probably the way to go to get my arse used to long days – I got some arse butter as well 🙂 Oh and getting some uber comfy short/tights etc for Xmas 🙂

That sounds like a very good baseline of fitness / training to me. Throw in the occasional century ride, just to get the Time In The Saddle and you’re there. I didn’t get anywhere near that level of mileage until the last three or four weeks before JOGLE this year, and was fine with the 1,000 miles in 9 days that we took, so I’m sure you’ll be absolutely flying – have fun! 😀

Gonna be great to see parts of the country I have never seen before 🙂

Looking forward to it should be fun

As long as I stop coughing? 😉

You’ll be fine from that base level of fitness, just make sure you get some back to back long days in the lead up to it.

I did it in 8 days this September – total distance 1014 miles. I’d not ridden 100 miles on the road before and never done back to back century days.

Far from ideal preparation for most people, but I have a good level of fitness from fell racing and adventure racing through the summer. I’d only just finished a 4 day adventure race 5 days before I set off on LEJOG!

Had a few minor niggles towards the end mainly a sore neck, so I’d definitely recommend doing some other conditioning work off the bike.

The main things are really make sure you are comfortable on the bike, try and keep weight to a minimum to make and most of all enjoy it. Its a great way to see the country.

Pah, get out and nail a century each month over winter, then in the spring look at doing two in a weekend.

That way you’ll do it and be able to walk afterwards and want to stay on the bike as opposed to “finishing” and hobbling round for a few days afterwards.

You’ll be fine, I reckon you want to be a little ‘under-fit’ so that it feels like a great achievement.

Enjoy. If I hadn’t done TP it’d have been the best riding I did this year.

Gonna be great to see parts of the country I have never seen before

And realise how big Scotland is!

I did it with my best mate on our Bromptons in 8 days.. neither of us did any specific training but are both generally quite fit.

eating enough is the biggest challenge – quite different to doing mega miles in one day as you have to make sure you eat enough the current day and the day ahead..

I have gps route for each of our 8 days if need them – also off main roads where possible, though we did Lejog rather than jogle in order to get the climbing days done first.

Also take two pairs of shorts, both comfy, but take different makes… do not take two of the same make and model – nice to swap

I think from all the comments I’ll carry on until say Feb then step up with some bigger rides and a few back to backs – I think that sounds feasible to me 🙂

@rootes – yeah email them to me (email in profile) – be interesting to see what speed you avg’d etc – give us an idea of what to expect 🙂

I rode LEJOG this year – loved it 🙂

I rode it with a friend in 10 days (1000 miles), didn’t really get much training in, a couple of 120mile rides and one weekend of 100 miles each day about 6 weekes before we set off (I have reasonable MTB fitness – rode Kielder 100 last year). We were lucky, had great weather and took it easy, even having a couple of beers each night. By the end of it I was feeling fighting fit and sorry to have to stop, so on your level of fitness you should be fine.

However – we were well supported and only carried minimal kit, staying in YHAs & B&Bs as we went, it would be a different matter if I had been trying to ride fully loaded…

No were doing it with vehicle support so no panniers and staying in B&B’s so not too horrendous on that front 🙂

support vehicle! that is cheating 😉 but useful

we took out own stuff on the bromptons – one 3 litre saddle bag + one 12 litre front pannier + jersey pockets each..

some food carried, most bought on route..

ps in Scoland Irn-bru, tablet and empire biscuits are the sport nutrition of choice!

will email over gps plots – they are course files that we use to follow in the garmin edge 500 – very easy to navigate with

We have devised our prelim routes but would be interesting what you guys did 🙂

I hear one guy did it on sausages alone?

Quite happy to eat lovely junk food and not feel guilty about it – another plus 🙂

Cheers rootes 🙂

Maybe look for some audax rides – long steady rides all over the country most weekends, usually including decent cafe stops, perfect practice.

Google “audax uk calender” for details

I think I can probably dig out the gpx files from my Cyclemeter app for the 9 day JOGLE if you want them to square up with rootes1’s LEJOG files. Just let me know.

I have some GPX files too. Our run was planned in such a way as to have suitable (mostly cheap) accommodation for 30 folk, so sometimes it takes a bit of a wander. As has been said above, if it’s not too inconvenient, try LEJOG rather than JOGLE. That way you get the toughest rides over at the start.

We have nearly sorted/booked the accommodation and legs/stops 🙂

looking about £25pppn 🙂

We have scoured the CTC routes as well 🙂

@MCTD – yes were onto that as we speak – trying to meet up for a few audaxs 🙂

Cheers for the tips though 🙂

Support vehicle,training,B&B’s,GPS???!!

Seriously where the heck are your bloody adventurous spirits?

Jeez

did joggle in 2000 stayed in YHA / SYHA for best prices
training consisted of plymouth to lee mill everyday for work as fast as I could, then back over the moors on the way home. most i’d ever ridden was exeter 1 way went I set off, did 1000 in 13 days, had a couple of 1/2 days to make more of holiday. but could have gone further each day, just stopped where the accommodation was booked.

Just treat it like a work day on the road before 9am stop at 5pm have plenty of stops and you only need to do 13-14 mph average.

@Brack – cheers for the nice comments 🙄 even though I didn’t ask to be criticised – Have you ever heard that saying “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”? No, well you have now!

Sorry just my opinion on a public forum..

Well maybe on my posts you be best keeping your opinions to yourself then? Jeeez

Wasn’t just aimed at you…so calm yourself.

Why post if all you want to hear is ‘ god aren’t you marvelous’ posts?

But why post your garbage when my post was not aimed at you either?

You didn’t even answer my question – you just wrote how you thought we were all unadventurous people unlike you?

Your post was insulting and pointless – my OP was not to make me look wonderful – I am genuinely excited as are my mates – we are doing it for a good cause and you just felt you would crap all over it. Just keep your judgements to yourself next time?

Ok sorry..

But foxytider have you considered doing the ride unsupported- carrying the items that you will need, self supporting and self sufficient. If you don’t have it you suffer but learn from it, if you have too much ditto.

Perhaps as a cyclist already you might like to treat this adventure as an opportunity to just challenge yourself without any physical/ mental preparation – treat it as a real challenge, a journey rather than an item to be ticked off a’to do ‘ list.

Oh and staying in B&B’s means you miss out on the absolutely best part… The meeting of others, the sharing of strangers stories. Hostels or camp sites are the way.

What I’m trying to say via my iPhone keypad…

Is that …shouldn’t a challenge be you stepping outside of your comfort zone?

Rather than over preparing to ensure your challenge is comfortable?

No worries

At this stage in my life this is the biggest thing I have ever undertaken and to me it will be an adventure – I only know 1 of the guys I am riding with (and the organisation is needed to get us all together as we live miles apart) and I cannot speak for the others. I have never been to many of the places on our route before so as I can relate to what you are saying can I just say one step at a time – it may pave the way for more adventures in the future – I am planning some more epic MTB rides in the future so … 🙂

Rather than over preparing to ensure your challenge is comfortable?

Rather wanting my trip to be enjoyable rather than comfortable – I know parts of it will be arduous and painful – I am not that super fit or that strong minded!

The lad can do it how he wants, it’s his challenge after all. Good luck with it fella, sounds brilliant. A guy from our running club did it earlier this year at a nice steady pace over a fortnight. Scotland is indeed big (also wet and windy apparently! ;0))

foxyrider – brack is obviously one of these “round the world adventure” types. Most of us don’t aspire to quite that level.

Enjoy your challenge and don’t let negativity spoil your plans.

And bloody good on you for even entertaining the idea – I’m a sanctamonious git I know.

Yes the first 3 stages are entirely in Scotland!! – yeah basically 1/2 of the ride is pretty much Scotland! Its huge! 😉 Wet n’ windy I am expecting – anything else is a bonus 😉

Brack – i’ve just finished a winter LEJOG going up via the Hebrides, unsupported using B and B’s

Best bit was meeting and chatting with the owners. Every bit as good as hostels.

We all find our adventure in different places.

Don’t get me wrong I have Hosteled in Scotland on an MTB trip riding the 7 Staines for a week and YHA in the Scouts as a nipper – the only negative thing I encountered was the snoring 😉

My pig headed post was not aimed purely at Foxy

Perhaps just an over passionate plea to perhaps explore another way of approaching a life changing challenge?

The mingling bit is a bonus of touring, but I do think I do more of it when I’m travelling solo.