Managed a black completion last year with just 1000miles in the legs all year come November. Having a young family and a big house diy project as well as limited commuting due to covid destroyed any regularity, didn’t do any training at all.

All that happened relative to when I was fitter and stronger was that the wheels fell off much earlier and I threw the toys out the pram in that rutted lane of doom!!

I Leaned heavily on experience, didn’t faff, didn’t stop long at the cafe, kept moving and got round in 18hours.

Took me the same time in 2017 but that route felt way harder than last years!

4. Week 1/Ride 2

After life getting in the way of training, and me being critically aware of sLarge' advice that I need to get out and ride 5 times per week, I managed to grab some time and do a ride today. Well, yesterday now but still on the same working day as I'm on a night shift.

Went with the aim of an hour or 3 but to ensure I was back in time to depart for work. Aimed for a HR of around 150 max and I reckon I achieved it. Also aimed for minimal faff and stopping time. Took a couple of photos and stopping time including when I had to get off and walk comes in at 8 minutes with just shy of 11 miles in the legs.

Hopefully get out for another blast on eid day early morning so I've achieved 50% of my 5 rides target. Leg has been niggling for a few days but thankfully it was fine. Also the left arm took some hits of 'scratchy bushes' the other day and seemed to have become a little infected (lots of pain and a bit of swelling for past couple days). Thankfully the honey I applied over the soreness managed it well (Alhamdulillah).

Lots of (foam) rollering soon to ensure the knee's in tiptop shape for this here training...

5. Week1/Ride3

Managed about 24 miles with a significant amount of bridleway. Tried not to fall, did some cooking, had plenty of HAB and had to use the road to shortcut it home. Sadly stopping time was way off the scales. Too much too talk about

Week 2/Ride 1

Went to work with the bike and had a route drawn up. Work cancelled due to some miscommunication errors with the agency between themselves, so I managed to go exploring and training.

Aimed for the 8.8kph total average and reckon I caught it, just. Some HAB but not much. Enough brambles and sharp things to be worried briefly. Finally understand (part of) the Fosse Way a little more. Kept the HR at about 140 as much as I could and not sure if it counts as training as it was a lot of 'flat'.

Stats:

28 miles
2000ft up
Probably about 40% road
Moving time 3H15min with total time of 4H30min.

So, hopefully getting there, slowly!

Moving time 3H15min with total time of 4H30min.

Have you worked out what you were doing for those 45 minutes Shaf?

75 minutes?

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 9:46 pm 75 minutes?

Yes. 75 it is...
Maybe about 10 in wee stops.
25ish at the shop (km 44 or 46 so tge ride was technically done and I had a total stopping of only 44mins at that point) when I had bought myself plenty of time ahead of the 8.8kph overall average.
About 10 gates (Karl, if you're reading, yes I did think of how you'd laugh at me for taking so long through a gate) at around 3 mins each I think.
Pics - which I'll not be doing on the day God Willing - probably about 15 mins.

Getting there (hopefully).

75 minutes?

Oh yes, sorry.

With around a quarter of your time stopped, you did well to maintain an average overall speed of 8.8kph Shaf. You must have been moving at nearly 15kmh.

What are you doing at gates to take three minutes - taking them off their hinges and then re-hanging them?

Assuming the gate "works" then:

Change down gears as you approach
See how the gate is oriented and which way it opens
Postman's dismount
Head for the latch but don't get your bike too close that you can't open the gate
Open gate. You should get a feel for what the gate wants to do. If it wants to swing open then keep hold of it as you move through
Close gate
Postman's remount
Carry on

Obviously some gates aren't in good working order and you have to improvise but even those shouldn't take long. Just things like the postman's mount/dismount could save 20-30 seconds a gate.

Again it's just a matter of being efficient

Yes, sorry Bob. I forgot to say that most of em were in a state of disrepair. I think 3 or 4 opened easily. The others were a right chore

My local gates around here I've managed about 30 to 60 seconds getting paat em by working around the type of gate. Might have to work on my postmans dismount...

Shaf, try a road only ride to see how much time you stop for. It does seem like your stoppage time off road is excessive.....

I used to do a lot of mountain bike orienteering- Dark and White organised some great Peak events. The top riders would be stopped for less than 10 minutes in a 3 hour event. That included getting started, all gates and clipping their card. Stopped time is dead time........ at 8.8kph every 6 minutes you are stopped is 1km you haven't ridden..... so for every hour you are stopped it is 10km you could have done that you haven't. It really adds up, and is certainly the difference between a black badge and a green or blue badge.

Keep going with the training - you will notice a difference even with just base fitness. Then soon when your body is used to frequent riding, start hill efforts and a few higher intensity sessions. Riding with people helps with motivation also - especially people faster than you. It doesn't all have to be punishment- you must keep enjoying yourself otherwise there's no point.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed Jul 13, 2022 7:14 am With around a quarter of your time stopped, you did well to maintain an average overall speed of 8.8kph Shaf. You must have been moving at nearly 15kmh.

Are you having a maths brain fart this morning Stu? 28 miles is 45km divide that by 3.25 to get 13.7km/h

45km divide that by 3.25 to get 13.7km/h

yeah, that's nearly 15

45km divide that by 3.25 to get 13.7km/h

yeah, that's nearly 15

For ref Stu yes... as soon as I realised I might be coming close to the 9kph limit needed I tried to get a move on. Mainly to try and catch back enough time to get my stove out and make ablution without going over. I reckon I'd have done it too and been just within limit.

Regards the stove, I'm definitely in a mind to carry it as food on the go is alwasy a difficult one for me. Maybe with a couple of dehyrated meals to fall back on. Let's see how I get on with all this training lark but keeping yo that figure is definitely helping.

Once I'm done with a bit of a rest week this week (but without missing training) I'll try that Bronte loop again as it seems to have plenty of sh%t in it to make it reasonably similar to a BB200 route. Thanks also to whomsoever reminded of the 8.8 secret number...

All of this training larks is making me realise i'm probably not doing enough riding, but I think my gate game is fairly strong (having to lob the bike over kissing gates and stiles on 'cheeky' trails). Then I remember i'm not going for a black badge so my magic number is a bit lower, phew!

Anyway - good work so far shaf

faustus wrote: ↑Wed Jul 13, 2022 11:48 am All of this training larks is making me realise i'm probably not doing enough riding, but I think my gate game is fairly strong (having to lob the bike over kissing gates and stiles on 'cheeky' trails). Then I remember i'm not going for a black badge so my magic number is a bit lower, phew!

Anyway - good work so far shaf

Thanks Faustus. I'm really glad I made the thread too as it's helping pin any discrepancies. Main thing that I realised is (like Sensei Slarge said) 'ride more'... '5 times per week'.

Just been for a quick (as in time) steady (as in pace) ride - 21km, 400m of ascent and five gates. Just 23 seconds stopping time! Admittedly two of the gates don't have latches so it's just a case of swinging them open but they are spring loaded to keep them shut.

Just looked at the last three BB200s that I've done and I've had roughly 2hrs stopped time on all of them. Taking that as a target means you need to do 200km in 22hrs or 9.1km/h *moving* time not overall average time. I tend to work on 10km/h (easy maths!) and gives me some leeway.

Do you use a heart rate monitor? If so then I suggest signing up to intervals.icu as a way of making sure that your training is productive and you don't over-train. It'll also help you schedule your training during those last few days prior to the event. I'm not exactly au fait with all the science but I find it easy enough to understand the headline numbers as they are graphed in a simple way.

Do you use a heart rate monitor? If so then I suggest signing up to intervals.icu as a way of making sure that your training is productive and you don't over-train. It'll also help you schedule your training during those last few days prior to the event. I'm not exactly au fait with all the science but I find it easy enough to understand the headline numbers as they are graphed in a simple way.

Good idea Colin and something I'm always keen on. Yes, I'm using a Polar h10 (apparently the best and compared to my previous Garmins it's not given me any problems so far - no need to ensure the electrodes are mosit or anything as it just works). Just took a look at the intervals.icu you mentioned. Looks really complex on the home page so would probably add to my 'wasting time, analysing' thing. I ususally just look at the Strava graph which does ok for me but I really should get used to data analysis a little better.

Bob, that's good 'control' figures for me you just shared, ta. I'll try and aim for under a minute average on gates and will (keep) work(ing) on mt postmans dismount...

For ref (and where I am now/left off) thats my stats for previous years. So definitely been seeing slight improvements and most definitely should be able to scrape through with some weight management; framebag added and harness lost; stopping/mental management!


2019 - first ever 200km mtb event completion. On the Alpshit bike and probably without a backpack.


2020 - Covid edition and aborted just before Storm Alex at which point I was at the highest point of my actual route. Took stove and couple of meals and had the Alpshit bike. No backpack I'm pretty certain.


2021 - thought I was going into kidney failure/sepsis after noting my water smelling of talc. Took a detour and back to the same spot to get some supplies (Cloone I think or wherever town was at mile 90ish). Meant a massive extra climb on road of about 18 percent. Only had a 4 hour sleep and by far my easiest attempt. The talc was the smell of chamoise cream I'd put on my hands to relieve pressure then forgotten. Only 30 mins late back

Well my on my recent sojourn round the yorkshire dales I had a stopped time of around 12 hours out of 30 hours total time, plus sleep time. Most of those stopped hours were spent in the pub (eating more than drinking)

Re gates here is my tactic - approach at max speed and brake as hard as possible to lose minimum time. Get caught in bike when dismounting and stumble into gate smashing shin into pedal. Try to lift hook only to discover the gate needs to be lifted to allow hook to be disengaged. Lay bike down, lift gate, un-latch, proceed through. Return to get bike, proceed through again, try to close gate whilst holding bike with one hand, realise you cant so throw bike to ground, close gate, scream in frustration, pick up bike, smash shin on pedal remounting. Proceed and repeat 50yds later....

Proceed and repeat 50yds later

You don't have to ride the Mary Townley..........

Re gates here is my tactic - approach at max speed and brake as hard as possible to lose minimum time. Get caught in bike when dismounting and stumble into gate smashing shin into pedal. Try to lift hook only to discover the gate needs to be lifted to allow hook to be disengaged. Lay bike down, lift gate, un-latch, proceed through. Return to get bike, proceed through again, try to close gate whilst holding bike with one hand, realise you cant so throw bike to ground, close gate, scream in frustration, pick up bike, smash shin on pedal remounting. Proceed and repeat 50yds later....

Herein lies the problem. I got frustrated at doing that so finally gave up and now I try to think it through a bit better. Still remember when Karl found it funny about how I even dismount to open gates and lay/stand bike away. I love good gates but unfortunately I seldom find em.

When I rode the YD300 last winter, me and my mate had to behave like circus gymnasts to get through some of the gates down by the reservoir without soaking our boots. My favourite was a shimmy along the gate, unlatch it, swing out to dry land, dismount and then edge my way along a ledge on a dry stone wall, passing bikes between us....
Took about 20 minutes