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Mooted Tokyo-Sendai Ride August 18-21

CoffinDodger

Speeding Up
Dec 4, 2008
212
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This is a little something Michael Rice has been promoting, details are a bit sketchy at the moment.

I'd quite like to go, but will need a training schedule. I think the furthest I've ever ridden in one day is 75km, so if it's 400km to Sendai (along the coast) I reckon nearer to 500km skipping around the exclusion zone?

Can you point me to a relevant training schedule. Ta.
 
Keep in mind that the exclusion zone may have grown a bit by then. :eek:uch:
 
To be honest I'm finding it hard a little hard to see how these rides are actually helping. All I see is that they put more strain on the local economy and take accommodation away from people going up to this location to actually help. It also seems a little macabre.

I think events outside of the country that raise money and awareness for the tragic events of March 11th are more likely to do good. No offence to anyone involved and I've known Mike for a long time and commend a lot of the great things he does but I've shared these thoughts with my own team that wanted to do a training camp up there.

If an event is to take place then I strongly suggest getting in contact with charities like the Redcross, Second Harvest and other charities to find out exactly what is need and where best to give it.

A tour de destruction just seems a little bad taste.
 
To be honest I'm finding it hard a little hard to see how these rides are actually helping. All I see is that they put more strain on the local economy and take accommodation away from people going up to this location to actually help. It also seems a little macabre.

I think events outside of the country that raise money and awareness for the tragic events of March 11th are more likely to do good. No offence to anyone involved and I've known Mike for a long time and commend a lot of the great things he does but I've shared these thoughts with my own team that wanted to do a training camp up there.

If an event is to take place then I strongly suggest getting in contact with charities like the Redcross, Second Harvest and other charities to find out exactly what is need and where best to give it.

A tour de destruction just seems a little bad taste.

Agree totally with this, a bunch of cyclists aren't going to do a lot to aid in the re establishment of infrastructure in the affected regions. Raise money by all means and kudos for doing so but do it out of the way, not in the way. Why not ride up the west coast of Honshu instead?
 
I have to agree with James and Simon. The best way to show solidarity is to provide financial means to rebuild the region and help those displaced. Our members on JREF for example collected a substantial amount of money in just a few days which we later donated to the Japanese Red Cross. Not to sound too cynical, but IMHO that's way more efficient than any prayers, shoulder-patting or candlelight vigils. Or cycling through the afflicted areas.
 
The point is, it's publicity to keep the tragedy in the news. If it bleeds, it leads, so other news edges out this, as is always the way, and will be for evermore. I've no intention of being a disaster tourist ta. Been there and bought the chocolate biscuit.

Anyway, can someone point me to a relevant training schedule, that in 10 weeks will transform a casual commuter into something capable of riding 180km a day, 3 days on the trot.

Ta
 
Maybe so but the poeple of Japan are fully aware of the events...... what needs to be done are events in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain ect ect...... let those poeple actually feel involved and be a part of helping.

The knee jerk reaction donations have come and gone... Redcross and other charities have made it clear that the majority of monies is donated internally now and what they need is cash from the outside coming in so that they can actually buy what is required.

Several companies like RAPHA set up "Ride for Tohoku" events that were launched way too early and these events need to be run again with a lot of advanced warning and preparation so people can raise money.

Seriously, if you are involved in this I strongly suggest that you guys take another look at the plans. Im actively involved with other events and releif efforts and some of the guys that are going up have said that accomodation is a serious issue..... even on thier rest days they need to actually leave the accomodation as other relief crews then use them to sleep and rest on a rotation system.

There otherways and annual events that are MORE than willing to make specail adjustments to where the monies go and Im currently supporting a guy who is doing the Paris to London with the CARE organisation.

http://2011.paristolondonbikeride.com/laurentdepus2011

Plenty of companies are very interested in doing something to support the people of Japan and anyone willing to get creative and so far this guy has raised nearlly 5 million yen for CARE.

NeilPryde have donated one of thier bikes to be auctioned off, G.S. Astuto have provided a awesome set of wheels, cockpit and other accessories and HIGH5 have given Laurent a support package for the 4 days riding and a huge bundle to give away to the person that wins the auction.

http://www.neilprydebikes.com/aud/news/neilpryde-sponsor-laurent-depus-at-paris-to-london-bike-ride/

All covered by the media and relevant companies to get maximum coverage of the event world wide including severalfamous French publication like Rue88.

If you want to know more or get involved in helping Laurent then drop me a PM with your email address and we can discuss ways in which you can get involved..... he leaves for Paris tomorrow.

But seriously this ride to Sendai just doesn't seem well thought out and not really aimed at maximising the coverage where its needed..... outside of Japan. Like I said awesome that you are prepared to do something to help I just think it can be done better and a little more tastefully.
 
Would also suggest going on as many TCC rides in the hills as possible.... a lot of these are on roads and terrain similar to where you will be heading and a distance close to what you will be doing each day.
 
Would also suggest going on as many TCC rides in the hills as possible.... a lot of these are on roads and terrain similar to where you will be heading and a distance close to what you will be doing each day.



Not to build up the distances? Someone who might commute 20-30km a day suddenly faced with 150km? Just wondering.
 
Its the "Do or Die" approach..... to be honest anyone can ride a century with the right saddle and setup its just the amount of time it takes you to do it.

but I've found with most people just getting into the sport seriously that have been doing "Some" riding a 100km ride is easy to achieve and more a mind game thing... the big 100.

Once you realise you can do 100km then just keep doing them as many as you can in a week ..... if you can cruise at 30km/h then its a 4 hour saddle time at most I know several people that basically rode the Tamagawa starting at Kawasaki upto Fusa, turned around and came back and pretty much do a 100km ride on flat terrain. Once they've completed that then the take to the hills for some fun.

As I said join some of the TCC rides... .the one on June 11th is a good one to do and will introduce you to some of the climbs you may expereince on the ride.

It will also help you learn one very important skill. Riding with in a group.
 
Not to build up the distances? Someone who might commute 20-30km a day suddenly faced with 150km? Just wondering.

It`s not the kinda training I`ve been doing so can`t give you personal advice, but basically don`t fall into the trap of extending every ride as you will just burn yourself out. See definitions of CTL, ATL, TSS, TSB etc. Build up the distances, but only maybe on 2 (poss 3) of your rides a week and on a linear basis. And make sure you rest. As the goal is just to survive the trip, then the focus has to be on endurance, so don`t worry about threshold power, just get used to spending hour after hour in the saddle.

Not to disagree with FarEast but doing that kinda riding 3 days back to back when you are not used to it, has the potential to cause over-use injuries that can take a loonnngg time to heal (not to joke, but think of a certain nuclear plant), regardless of saddle/set-up. So be careful and if it hurts, stop! I took a friend with me on Saturday and his knee started hurting after about 30K (positioning looked fine) but he doesn`t ride more than 8K for any one commute. I`d allowed for the possibility of that, so had only planned about 40K and just did some climbing after I had dropped him back.
 
Sikochi....I'm not saying he should just go out and do it and totally agree that going straight out and doing this Tour without any prior training is a bad idea.

What I'm saying is that he should basically start doing some century training rides at least once a week a few days to recover with some light spinning ( The commute rides should be fine for this) and then build on these. But really he should be doing at least 1 LSD (Long Sloooooow Distance) ride a week to build the endurance and then use the commutes for the cardio work.

Once you have maybe 4-5weeks of doing a 100km or so then I suggest taking a week completely off the bike... no commutes or anything then at the end of the week do 2 100 km rides one on the Saturday and one on the Sunday. Make a weekend of it and ride out to a location and back again. Then 3 days recovery and light riding.

Then on the following weekend maybe extend the 100km to 150km.

But the only real way to prepare for back to back long distance riding is to actually do long distance back to back riding. There is no escaping it and unless you are prepared to just jump in at the deep end it will take you ages to build up the stamina in a gradual way.

Basically its shock training and funnily enough you body responds and copes amazingly well to it. It works exactlly the same with cardio workouts.... you don't slowly up the heart rate when training you go full out to VP (Vomit point) have a rest then do it again and again and again. After a few weeks of doing this biweekly you'll find that your cardio seriously improves.
 
Totally agreed here with FE. My mother (yes) joined me on a European 3mo tour with barely 6weeks (ever) of cycling under her belt. Our first day out of Heathrow was more than 85mi. She was sore and stiff as hell the next day - we did it again, and again, and again. After about 2 weeks of this continual assault with only a day or so rest periods, she was up to snuff and able to hammer out 75 -100mi rides at a good pace. Key point is get some LSD in to build up ligature, cadence and overall muscle balance. Then just ride until you are dead. Eat as much as you can, get off your feet and sleep as long as you can, repeat. When you are dog tired, then take a day or 2 off and start again. Also- break up your rides into manageable chunks. Set some decent goals , like ride 10km and eat breakfast. Ride 35km more and eat a snack. 20km more and eat lunch. 35km back and eat a snack, 10km more and eat snack. Then chill out a couple hours and eat dinner. That's 100km spread over 6-8hrs time and will train your body for input as well as output. Just be consistent. Use the 'snack' intervals as your intermediate goals and you'll be surprised how far you can ride on very little conditioning. And later - how fast you can ride!
 
I am not that experienced, but I totally agree with the tip about consuming calories while riding. If I don't eat a banana / peanuts / chocolate / bread etc. and drink a couple liters of water every 50km or less, my body shuts down - but if I keep consuming fuel, I can go forever. I started cycling this January, and started off with a few 45km trips, then a few 80 km trips, then 100km, then 160km, and have gone as far as 226km in a day now and still felt good. Seeing how many km I can put on my cycle computer is a good motivating factor. Set some goals and achieve them and then set more challenging ones, including top speeds, average speed etc. and for heaven's sakes, don't let anyone pass you. If that sounds doable, you should be fine.
 
Falls under the ABC rules of cycling - Always Be Consuming
 
FarEast, I agree with your more detailed approach. It was just the jump from one ride to three back to back ones which was too great for me. I might also be tempted to ditch some of the commutes to allow more targetted training. I must admit, I don`t follow the `increase by no more than 10% a week` approach. Basically, know thyself.

Totally agreed here with FE. My mother (yes) joined me on a European 3mo tour with barely 6weeks (ever) of cycling under her belt. Our first day out of Heathrow was more than 85mi. She was sore and stiff as hell the next day - we did it again, and again, and again. After about 2 weeks of this continual assault with only a day or so rest periods, she was up to snuff and able to hammer out 75 -100mi rides at a good pace.

I agree but disagree with you. This approach works, but there are two types of people - those whose bodies (and minds, as training is not just a physical thing) adapt to the workload and those who don`t and just get weaker and weaker until they fall apart. Finding out that you are in the category that does not adapt is not worth taking the risk.

PS: Well done for your mother by the way, impressive stuff.
 
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