BB200 - 2 Weeks to Go

[darbeze]

I should add that the route is mostly on road!… About 80%

[gairym]

Time, injuries and other rubbish have forced me to have a change of approach to the bb200.

Everyone else seems to be adopting the 'increase your fitness until you're capable of of riding the 200km in under 24 hours' approach.

I, on the other hand, have gone more Zen and am using the 'increase your expected ride time to match your current fitness level' approach.

Only time will tell which is best

[Bearbonesnorm]

Everyone else seems to be adopting the 'increase your fitness until you're capable of of riding the 200km in under 24 hours' approach.

I, on the other hand, have gone more Zen and am using the 'increase your expected ride time to match your current fitness level' approach.

Not a bad approach in my opinion ... sometimes it can be fairly easy to forget that the ultimate goal is finishing

[johnnystorm]

Everyone else seems to be adopting the 'increase your fitness until you're capable of of riding the 200km in under 24 hours' approach.

I, on the other hand, have gone more Zen and am using the 'increase your expected ride time to match your current fitness level' approach.

Not a bad approach in my opinion ... sometimes it can be fairly easy to forget that the ultimate goal is finishing

135/24= 5.6
Try and do 6mph moving average.
There's a game plan!

[Charliecres]

In my case, the ultimate goal is surviving.

[Chew]

135/24= 5.6
Try and do 6mph moving average.
There's a game plan!

The 6mph is the easy bit, its the 24 hours....

It all sounds very easy sat here behind my desk, but reality is a bit harder

As I've said before I'd be surprised if this year has any more sub 24 finishes as there were in 2012. The reversal of last years route made things easier. The difficult navigation over Carnau was done earlier and in the day light, and the difficult last 50k section was near the end pushing people to finish rather than stop. I imagine that a lot of people cracked the first 150k off in 15 hours meaning there was little incentive to stop at that point.

Theres a lot of first timers on this years list, so I'd be thinking of finishing first, worrying about the time second.

[Karl]

I'm focusing on just finishing. I will be really happy to do that. The time is not a concern for me.....it might be for everyone waiting for me but, hey ho.

As for training. I'm not managed any great distances yet but focused on making my rides have as much climbing as possible. For example did 40 miles around the peaks on Sunday but it had over 2000 metres of climbing and took me 5 hours. Miles off what I need to do but I felt good after it. I've also ridden to work pretty much everyday for the past 3 weeks, only 12 miles a day but it all still counts. Aiming to finally heat the 100 mile mark this weekend, starting on Friday night.

Am I heading in the right direction?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Am I heading in the right direction?

I'd say so. I rode a 120km section of the route last week (lovely it was, loads of pushing, carrying and thigh deep bogs ) which contained 3800m of climbing.

[slowupslowdown-under]

leave the white sidi disco slippers at home this year then stu??!!

winter boots it is then!

What day is the route released btw? the Wednesday of the event??

[Chew]

Am I heading in the right direction?

You'll find out in time

I've gone for a similar approach of trying to climb as many hills as I can (I'm not short of them around here). Flat miles are easy as long as you keep yourself watered and fed, climbing is where it gets you.

Also ride your bike loaded to get used to the extra weight and making sure everything works together.

The stat I look at is meters climbed per km. The BB200 (and Wales in general) is around 25/km.

[Chew]

I rode a 120km section of the route last week which contained 3800m of climbing.

(32m/km)

Hope the other 80km is flat.

Are we going to Pont Scethin

[barney]

Definitely on a "2-day" strategy here, I've got an idea of how far I want to go on day one before a "proper" nights sleep under my tarp.

Appreciate there might only be a few with this approach but my focus is on finishing and not "racing"

[Bearbonesnorm]

What day is the route released btw? the Wednesday of the event??

Aye, should be delivered to inboxes before 10.00am on Wed 8th.

[Ian]

I rode a 120km section of the route last week which contained 3800m of climbing.

Are we going to Pont Scethin

You would be if I was setting the route. But I'm not, so I don't know...

The Berwyns - we should go over those too.

[WillieKimble]

eek... that's suggesting approx 5000m climbing in the 200km... (give or take 1000m)
definite rethink of kit list for this now..time to consider bedding in proper for the night rather than nercessarily pushing through..

[Bearbonesnorm]

The Berwyns - we should go over those too.

Might have you save that for the BB300 ... adding the Berwyns would be possible but it would also make things very 'out and back' to keep the distance to 200k.

eek... that's suggesting approx 5000m climbing in the 200km

Pretty much the same as previous years depending which gps you believe.

[Dave Barter]

There's not a swear box on the route is there?

[mountainbaker]

no but we can apply one to your video afterwards!

[Nickj6]

Still to build my bike

[Wotsits]

My knees are aching at just the thought of this

[composite]

My own prep woes.

Last Wednesday the drive train started slipping. I knew it was on it's last legs so not surprised. Also knew that the bottom bracket needed replacing to and as I have a bike shop worth of spares I was able to get to it Thursday night. It was all going very well, cassette replaced, new BB in, chain rings swapped, first jockey wheel changed, then as I tightened the second jockey wheel the thread stripped out the part in the mech! Barely touched it as well, not even a little bit of gorilling.

So new rear mech needed. That arrived Saturday morning so I put that on, great. Then went to put the crank back in a realised that the big ring I had put on wouldn't fit under the front mech. The reason I have so many spares is I buy up stuff when I see it on sale. I hadn't noticed that the sale triple big ring was 44 not 42... It's a direct mount front mech so you can't just slide it up a few mm. I had a 36 knocking round so thought I would go 2x10 and replace the 32 with the 36 and drop the big ring.

The chain rings bolts are to long of course so had to order those. Picked those up today and have now put it all back together. Test ride tomoz evening to see how the new ratios feel.

What should have been a quiet couple of hours one evening turned into an epic.

To be honest though at this stage I'm glad I'm only complaining about bike stuff, legs feel great.

[mountainbaker]

Just go 1x10. So much easy.

[composite]

Just go 1x10. So much easy.

If it wasn't a bike I ride fully loaded I reckon I would have done by now.

[evilgoat]

I'll add my prep woes, and get my excuses in early.

So due to lack of quantity of riding I've gone for a technique of last minute cramming. With the idea of going hard every ride. Except last Monday and yesterday's ride I got a migraine within an hour of finishing.

Considering I haven't had regular migraines in twenty years I'm a bit pissed off at this development.

[mountainbaker]

Just go 1x10. So much easy.

If it wasn't a bike I ride fully loaded I reckon I would have done by now.

yeah, but 1x10 with 11-42 on the back is fine, and the bike is lighter