Training advice, signed up for a solo 12hr race!

Hi,

In a stunning moment of bravado over sense, I have signed up for the 12 solo cat at pivot twentyfour12 next year! I am normally back of the pack in any race I enter, but I have given myself the goal of completing and maybe reaching the dizzy heights of not being in the bottom 20% of finishers!

I have 10 months to prepare, so any advice from seasoned long distance soloists about training? Is *shudder* road riding a good idea to get some base fitness in? I cycle to work 3* a week, 13 miles each way, but I know I am going to need to do a lot more!

Cheers

Awesome! I’ll get Mrs Yak to give you the beta for this sort of daft endeavour 😀

She uses a singlespeed for base miles, not a road bike.

The embarrassing thing is, I was chatting to her on Sunday at the race and said that I couldn’t see myself riding 12hr solo races! One FB message from pivot and I find myself signing up! I am such an impulse racer!

Yes any advice she could give would be great, she seems to have a bit of a knack for it 😀

C’mon Phil, you know you want to come on one of my training rides 😉 I’ll satisfy your whim for any distance or duration as long as it’s no more that 5 days! I’ll even ride my fatbike…

6hrs is a smash to the end, 24 is going slowly and finishing. Surely it’s somewhere in between…

I’ve done a few 12hr solos.

Training wise, long consitent rides (>4hrs) always help me.
You need to do a few long MTB rides to highlight issues with bike position, feeding etc.

During the race I tend to set a pace I could do for 6 hrs in training and then just suffer for the next 6.

Worryingly I am tempted by your offer Dovebiker, although I doubt I could keep up with you even on a motorcycle! Looking at suggestions it seems I need to be on the hunt for a single speed fatbike! Mrs40 won’t be happy! Let me get some fitness and we can sort a ride, you seem to come right past my house on some of your epic training rides!