Lands End to John O'Groats - 1020 miles in 14 Days - Training Advice

In July 2022 I’ll be cycling the length of the UK for charity. It’ll be 14 days of back to back riding with an average daily mileage of ~80miles.
I’m hoping to get some advice from the TR family about which plan I should put myself on to start and perhaps which to move onto as I progress.

My FTP is around 250 and I can quite happily cycle 60miles but haven’t done many back to back long rides.

I’m aware that the main thing I’ll need to do it just get bum in saddle time outside, there’s nothing that can trump that but with it being winter the turbo is my main aide right now.

Any words of advice, tips or plan recommendations?
Thank you all!

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Don’t over think it, its amazing how your body adapts. Just remember to eat, drink and rest.

My wife did LeJog a few years ago. For training try and ride for several days in a row, doesn’t have to be hard riding, a few hours at endurance pace will be enough. Just riding at weekends means you only get used to riding for two days in a row.

Eighty miles isn’t that far if you break it down - breakfast, ride a couple of hours, café stop, ride a couple of hours, lunch, ride a couple of hours, café stop, ride to evening stop.

My wife followed the CTC route which does two longish days then a short day which is a reasonable way to do it.

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Pacing - force yourself to ride much, much easier than you think you need to. If you’re used to riding one off 60 milers you’ll find you naturally want to start off much harder than you should for back to back 80s.

Are you supported? If you are - even if you only ride 10mph that’s only 8hrs riding a day and 16hrs of not riding, so you really don’t need to worry about going fast to get it done. If self supported then it may be a bit more tricky with making certain checkpoints and so on but the point still stands, with anything like this it’s just about keeping going, keeping eating and drinking.

You should try and do some long rides though to check kit, fit, position and nutrition. If you say you’re on the turbo a lot at the moment that’s actually a great way of highlighting any fit issues that you may have since the position is so fixed.

80 miles in a full day isnt that tough, especially given your FTP, assuming youpace it sensibly. You’ll have plenty of time to stop regularly for coffee stops and lunch etc and for me thats one of the main things - work on keeping the feeding going consistently so you dont build a big deficit during any one day.

The other thing to think about is probably the practical side like good gearing for those hilly days in the SW and a few other places, so you can spend those days in the steep hills without struggling.

Thank you for your replies!

In terms of which TR plan I should go for, can you give me some tips on choosing?
Would I be best just doing long sweetspot efforts?

Cheers

If it was me, I would just put something in using Plan Builder, put it in as a stage race and probably the event type as Gran Fondo (=sportive in the UK).

Enter the dates for the event in Plan Builder and when you want to start training and let it handle the rest. I assume it would likely give you the Century specialty blocks which should be just fine. You can always have a look at what it suggests without having to add it to your calendar etc.

I would choose a Low Volume plan and top up with endurance/Z2 or just TrainNow as well. Using LV plans means you can fit in outside riding etc around them quite easily.

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A good friend did LeJog this year in 12 days.

His takeaways that he shared with me were:

  • the first part through Cornwall and Devon was MUCH tougher than he had expected
  • he was at about 3.5 w/lg FTP and managed it ok - but felt well and truly shelled by the last two days to go
  • he built up his mileage and time in the saddle gently but progressively over the months building up to the event but acknowledged if doing it again he would have aimed to hit a higher volume (at an easier intensity) earlier to build up and strengthen his tolerance
  • if doing again he would have allowed a couple of extra days before the event to absorb his training / rest / carb load etc so he felt stronger and fresher at the start
  • he ate LOADS along the way and at the end of each day but felt even then he probably could have done more to optimise his nutrition to offset the impact of consecutive tough days
  • he would recommend seeking to work into his prep (if doing it again) a few blocks of four or five consecutive hard days just to get a good sense of how his body responded to the efforts and stress

Hope this helps :+1:t2:

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I did JOGLE a few years ago in 9 days with an FTP similar to yours at the time.

I wouldn’t bother with speciality phase but would do sweet spot base and sustained power build.

On bike comfort after many back to back days will be your main enemy. Make sure you’ve refined your position and saddle and have done some conditioning.

Try to reduce the amount of faffing around during stops as this will significantly shorten your day.

Best of luck