Kielder 100

>>>Lots of base miles needed at the moment – 70%ish effort.

If youre doing base at 70%, come Kielder the rest of us should be VERY worried!!

I spoke to a guy in my road club and he said it was all about mental prep. You need to be comitted to finishing because you will have a hundred reasons to quit when it get's tough.

My training so far has been commuting 50 miles a week and a couple of 70 miles road rides (4 hilly hours each so reasonably brisk). Unfortunately my forks on my mtb have broken and I'm moving house so I imagine my riding over the next month will be a road ride if I'm lucky and commuting.

I'm going to start taking the scenic route home once or twice a week adding 20 miles to the journey so nearly doubling my commuting miles. During the lighter months I'll take the very very scenic route home on my road bike and do 50 miles. I am hoping to be doing 200+ miles a week by June with a good number of long rides by September.

First training ride at Kielder will be over Easter (the next weekend I'm free!) I was planning on doing the border crossing to Newcastleton then a quick lap of Deadwater. I'll then see how I feel about doing any more miles.

Oh and I have a new bike, which has gears and full suspension. Everybody "knows" that the amount of training you do is irrelevant if only you can get the right equipment so I'm sorted now.

Well in Pete read's training manual(black book) base endurance is done at level 2 which is 75-80%

The classic heart rate zone in which to train aerobic base is in the Level 2 zone. It is loosely 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. I say 'loosely' because everyone’s training levels vary a few beats. In fact what is an easy Level 2 ride for one may be feel like racing to another so use the chart as a rough guide and adjust your Level 2 heart rate accordingly. It's quite likely
that your Level 2 is in exactly the same zone as on my chart as most cyclists are.

If you want an idea of how you'll do with 100 miles offroad, have a go at one of the BHF's South Downs Way randonnees. That's only 10K feet climbing (the Kielder is 15K iirc), but as others have said it's as much about the hours in the saddle. The one towards the end of July should be ideally placed in a Keilder 100 training schedule.

im in 😀

like stoo above – puffer is under my belt and im just planning to ride my normal season tbh – no special training for keilder as generally cover further in a 10 hour event. although the guys i know that did it last year say its harder than any of the 10s they have done

200/300/400&600k audaxs on consecutive early season should see me right for a finish !

the real question is gears or SS ! and what sorta gear were the SS boys running last year ?

The classic heart rate zone in which to train aerobic base is in the Level 2 zone. It is loosely 75-85% of your maximum heart rate

What's HR zone 5 then?

75-85% according to my info is HR zone 3-4

Which is where I do most of my exercise anyway

HR zone 2 would be 60-70%

Lots of good training advice already posted. I rode last year's event. My twopenneth is:

You need to be prepared to sit on your bike for 10 hours, so do at least 1 ride for that amount of time.

The riding is not technical, so get your bike as light as possible, as there's about 14,000ft of climbing.

It's a lot harder than the SDW in terms of climbing, but there are fewer steep climbs and lots of fireroads.

Work out on your long practice ride what you're going to eat and when.

The conditions last year were wet & gritty so you'll need spare brake pads, even if you've just fitted new ones. I needed new rotors as well as pads afterwards…

Sort your accommodation out now as there's a limited supply of rooms in the vicinity.

Good luck!

Is there any camping space there?

plenty of camping space at the kielder campsite. Only a 3 or 4 minute walk to the start line at the castle. Plenty of midges tho – bring the repellent!!
It was also pretty boggy last year, so for me at least, wellies were a must!!

What's HR zone 5 then?

75-85% according to my info is HR zone 3-4

Which is where I do most of my exercise anyway

HR zone 2 would be 60-70%

In his book he shows 4 levels

I'll be lording it up in the YHA place which is also right next to the start

shall be living in my van – i presume there is a car park !

the real question is gears or SS ! and what sorta gear were the SS boys running last year ?

32:18 on my Genesis io

shall be living in my van – i presume there is a car park !

Ditto.. i'll have my t4 with bed in the back

I know some guys slept in cars behind the pub just down from the castle. Otherwise you'd have to pay to stay in the campsite. Plenty of space though. Theres also some kind of camping pods there IIRC.

jonb – Just realised. I think you may be jon bayley from gosforth RC? If so, I dont know if youre heading out for the club run this weekend, but I'll be leaving early (0730) from Regent Centre for an hour and a half before the club run starts. I usually do a loop out towards Tranwell and then head back for the start of the club ride. Let me know if you fancy it.
Meant to say, I'm Rich Holland – the guy from the Gosforth forum!

7.30? it'll be dark!

I'm supposed to preparing presentations for a Job interview on Monday, Getting my forks fixed, buying a fidge, freezer and washing machine, packing my house, cleaning my house to move out, doing some food shopping and I've just realised it's valentines day.

So at the minute my plans for a ride are not looking good.

Its not too bad at that time – plus im guessing you have lights!?
Its not valentines day til the sunday! Good thing is you can be back for midday if you dont hang around. Still then got rest of the day to do every thing else!

I rode it on rigid SS last year. 32:17 on a 26"-wheeled bike.

I wish I'd changed the pads at the lunch stop, because I was on almost zero brakes for the final descent (in the dark with no lights). If I pulled the lever to the bars, I could almost lock the rear wheel. The front made a funny noise all the time, so I didn't touch it for the last 25 or 30 miles – it was the retaining spring being eaten by the disk.

teflon – whereabouts are you in N Yorks? I'm near Guisborough and would be up for joining you on some training rides if you want some company – I've decided against Kielder this year but i'm doing the 700km raid Pyrenees in July so need to get some miles in sharpish! Also planning to drive across to do the Whinlatter thing.

From experience of last years event – i'd say don't underestimate the time cut-offs and get your nutrition right – I was predicting a time of around 10-11 hours but ended up at 13. Oh yeah and make sure you've got at least two sets of pads if its wet and bring some industrial midge repellant!

In my very humble opinion it's not worth doing any rides over 75-80 miles in training – better off doing plenty 5-7 hour rides at a good pace. Big miles often equals a higher chance of injury.

Personally I found the biggest challenge was psychological – spent a couple of dark hours between 35-55 miles convinced i wouldn't make the distance. It may be cheesy but the mantra of 'Pain temporary – quitting permanent' kept my legs turning. After the Newcastleton feed station (at 65 miles) it was relatively plain sailing as i knew i could make it – even felt i could have gone further once i had a beer in my hand at the end…

PS – The route isn't technical and 15K ft total climbing may not sound too much but it's either up or down – very few flat sections.

What's HR zone 5 then?

75-85% according to my info is HR zone 3-4

Which is where I do most of my exercise anyway

HR zone 2 would be 60-70%

I take base training as being able to ride along and hold a converstaion (usually with myself!)

First training ride at Kielder will be over Easter (the next weekend I'm free!) I was planning on doing the border crossing to Newcastleton then a quick lap of Deadwater. I'll then see how I feel about doing any more miles.

Don't read too much into it if you're knackered after that, it'll be easier on the day.

15,000 ft of climbing!! OFFS I didnt know that before I entered 😯

Thats me committed then…. Must be nearly full now if 500 is the limit.

Anyone know if there is still camping space available… not managed to speak to the campsite yet.

Cheers,

Paul

The campsite was full by july last year, so hurry. I'm either coming up on the day from Newcastle or sleeping in a camper van by the side of the road…

According to the schedule for last year you will need to be there on Friday. Dunno if they have changed it, but with the early start, I doubt it.

I'm riding 33:20 on a 29er, I emailed Paul Errington who won the ss category last year (and is an endurance monster) and he said he ran 32:16 on a 29er last year but this year his bike was light enough to drop to 34:16.
Given his calibre its kind of like asking Lance what he rides up Alpe D'huez; What seems like undergearded at 25 miles may seem like 53:12 at 90 miles.
Most of the endurance racing forums I've been on talking about 32:19/20 on 29ers on 100 mile races.

The campsite was full by july last year,

I bet the grass was a bit yellow under the tents by the time race day came around 😀

I turn 30 2 days after this, I reckon its a good target.

I find heart rate is only a good indicator if taken alongside perceived effort. If your training plan is too rigid and you end up forcing yourself to keep your HR high, you will eventually overtrain.

600 rider limit.

benho- I was grappling with such a dilemma. Then I came up with a really wacky concept rather tahn a single gear why not take 3, one for up one for down and one just for kicks. Im gonna call it Sturmley Archer. I reckon this concept could be extended to 27 gears although at the minute this just sounds like crazy talk.

There's last year's route here if anyone is interested

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remember everyone: Training is for losers!!

A couple of quick spins to the pie shop and back will be my training plan this year!!………… and a bit of luck i guess!!

It's all about the gear. Everyone knows training is no substitute for having the right tyres. That's the only reason I never went pro, I couldn't afford enough tyres.

Uplink – you don't have that as a GPS file do you by any chance? Wondering if I could build a pacing file for a very slow finish – clearly if I make the final cut off I'll be going into walking speed mode (or possibly walking).

Please, don't show me those climbing figures again 😥

clearly if I make the final cut off I'll be going into walking speed mode (or possibly walking).

That's pretty much what I did. I left the last checkpoint 15 minutes before the cut off and was last in.

They seem keen on avoiding people finishing in the dark this year, so I suspect there will be a later cutoff. On the bridge over the river would make sense as I think there's a fairly short road route back to the start/finish from there?

I had a sticker on my top tube on which I'd written down the distances to each of the published checkpoints, along with a code for whether is was water or food and a time that I needed to kit to make an 8mph average speed.

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This was useful, but only survived the first half of the race.

Cut offs at 55, 65 and 78 this year I think.

Thinking about it that photo gives some idea of how speed will vary during the race – which may be all I need to build some pace notes I think.

Uplink – you don't have that as a GPS file do you by any chance?

sorry, no

Uplink – Ah well – thanks anyway

Mike – I assume the right-hand one is the actual times – no?