- NAME Vernon Roffe
- AGE 47
- LOCATION Thetford Norfolk UK
- YEARS CYCLING Returned to cycling 2 yrs ago.
What is your current weekly exercise program ?
Treadmill running 3 times wk, just finished a couch to 5k running plan over 8 weeks, now concentrating on covering 5k in a quicker time. Walk 5-10 miles week with dog.
Will you be continuing with these activities in addition to your 100 mile bike training program?
I want to continue with running and walking.
What are your fitness/training goals ? Why are you taking the “100 mile bike challenge” ?
Get fitter overall, loose the smoking, three things i want to achieve in 2010. In march me and a friend are going to do a 94 mile walk/jog for charity. Want to compete in 5 and 10k runs. Want to take part in a 100 mile bike ride challenge.
Which sports person inspires you the most and why?
Sir Chris Hoy, Brad Wiggins, Chrissie Wellington,
Related posts:
- Rica Mendes Starts 100 Mile Bike Challenge and begins Century Training
- Lee Sole Starts 100 Mile Bike Challenge and begins Century Training
- Michael Andersson Starts 100 Mile Bike Challenge and begins Century Training
- Sam Cotton Starts 100 Mile Bike Challenge and begins Century Training
- Grant Tod starts training for his century bike ride challenge
Hey vernon – welcome and thanks for taking up the challenge of riding your first 100 mile bike ride. I'm really looking forward to helping you to achieve this goal. I have sent you an email with details of your 1st training ride. I hope it goes well. When you have done it please post the results and the information as detailed in the email here. Then we can work together on a specific training program for you.
Hi Luke I got your email thanks, I will go out for the first session tomorrow and let you know how I get on.
Looking forward to working with you,
Regards
Vern
Hey Vern – really well done on your first session. That Garman data is fantastic. I have never used thier website before. It's really useful. Looking at your heart rate you have been working at a pretty intensive level. I would like you to take a days rest and then do the ride again. Exactly the same details but this time please consider the following points as you ride.
1. Keep your Heart Rate below 140. This wont always be possible BUT really try hard to achieve it. You will almost certainly need to ride slower.
2. Try and make the effort more even throughout the ride. You are tending to push hard for short periods then easing off. This is causing your HR to spike which causes a very intensive style of training and is not what you need at the moment.
3. You need to change gear MUCH more frequently. this is perhaps why your “effort” is spiking up.
4. Also ride generally in a lower gear. your cadence is quite low. So on this ride try and stay in a lower gear than you did last time and get the feeling of spinning the pedals more with a slightly higher average cadence.
5. Ride a different route than last time and definetly dont have a preconception about time or distance just go on feel as I described in the email.
6. The feeling of “effort” you are using at any one time in the ride shhould feel the same – regardless of whether you are riding up hill, downhill, or on the flat. You need to use your gears REALLY EFFECTIVLY to achieve this and it takes practice. But is the key to succesful endurance riding
Enjoy and I look forward to hearing how it goes.
Hi Luke I'm out on the bike sat pm..
hey Vern – Hope it goes really well. enjoy your ride.
Hi Luke been out this morning no garmin data for you as I broke the strap yesterday when I fell off.
total time 1hr 58 mins dist 17.5 miles, no wind or very little at least, wet roads, used my gears a lot more as suggested.
Hey Vern – Sorry to hear you fell off. What happened? Are you OK? Thats a really good solid ride that you did. very different from last time in terms of time. Very well done. I have emailed you a schedule for next 3 sessions. Let me know when you plan to do them and then keep me posted on progress. Also I wrote a load of information regarding winter riding clothing on Grant Tods profile page that you may find helpful.
Hi Luke just to let you know, i'll be doing week 1 pt 1 later today.
Wicked hope it goes well. Enjoy !
Bad day wrapped up well but after 35 min turned back home my body was warm but my trainers got soaked and my feet were frozen.
This is the first time I have ever been on a bike in these conditions rain, sleet, hail, snow, wind.
Need to sort out some type of winter footware for the bike.
I normaly only ride when the sun shines and no risk of rain.
Hey – I really sympathise. It is no fun when your hands or feet get cold. You did the right thing to turn round and stop. No point in pushing on through those situations. best thing is to get home as quick as possible. Chalk it up to experience and learn for next time.
Winter training is straight forward provided you get the essentials of warmth right. Hands and feet get the coldest & dont warm up even if you are working really hard on the bike. So you have to be careful & prepared so they dont get cold in the first place.
Like all temperature situations the key thing to remember is “lots of seperate layers” and make sure the outside layer is waterproof and wind proof.
Hey Vern – welcome back and glad to you are back on the bike. Thats a good session you did.
Im sure you will be ready to ride a century in June. We need to structure a plan for you. You need to be doing more sessions each week. perhaps you can think through your commitments and outline how many sessions per week you can do and of how long ?
The more individual sessions the better, even if they are short in time duration. Also bear in mind they dont need to be traning specific, they can be part of commute to work or getting around.
My guess is that your basic stamina is OK but we need to build your speed.
Hey Vern – Thanks for sending through your training plan. I have some questions
1. How much long distance walking / running have you done before
2. What is longest walk in a day before
3. How often have you completed a 25 mile distance over the last6 months
4. Am I correct that it is 94 miles in 24 hours ??
5. What has been your longest individual (IN time terms NOT distance) of continuous exercise ) session each week over the last 8 weeks . Tis is not weekly total but 1 session. (Example wk 1 (last week) 8 hours, wk 2 8 hours
6. What is your running history
7. Have you had ANY PREVIOUS instances of knee, hip or ankle injuries/pain
8. Are you carrying anykind of load on the trip
9. Anythink else that you think is relevant ??
Hi Luke you obviously found the training plan interesting !!!
1. Never done long distance walking/running, walking yes.
2. 32 miles
3. 3 times
4. Yes
5. 6 hrs
6. Started in August couch to 5k
7. None
8. Yes 4lb
9. The trip is more walking than jogging in fact the jog part is last resort! should we need to catch up on time, we worked it out that avg 4mph over the 24 hr period we should just make it with a bit of grit, and determination, the route follows the peddars way national trail, which starts just down the road from us, and thankfully is relativly flat.
Hey Vern – Sorry it's taken so long to come back to you.
I have some concerns about the structure of your plan as you have detailed it. The plan you are using with gradually increaising distances for your weekly “longest session” is the usual one to follow BUT for an event of this magnitude you would normally do the training over a MUCH longer time period.
I'm sure that you can complete the event but would like to suggest you modify the training. The reason is that I think you will get injured on one of these long training walks which may scupper your whole plan.
I would suggest you build up to a MAXIMUM of 8-12 hours on your longest walk before the evnt. Dont do anything longer than this otherwise you may well get an injury. You dont have the base fitness / ligament strength to increase your mileage / exercise time every week by the amount you are propsing.
For you to be succesful in this event is not going to come down to fitness. You dont have enough time to guarantee success this way. it will come down to your mental strength and how much you want it. how hard you are prepared to push yourself.
So regarding training itself. The key thing you need to build is “WALKING SPEED” so I suggest you do less running in your training and do more “speed walking sessions” practice covering the ground quicker while still maintaing a walk.
Also success will depend largely upon your ability to keep walking and to NOT TAKE breaks. Imagine for a minute that you take a 15 minute break every 3 hours. If you do this you will spend 2 hours NOT walking This will cost you approximatly 9 miles in distance!
The best advice I can give is for you to get the following DVD called BICYCLE DREAMS which is a 2 hour documentary on RAAM (race across america). In it you will see the importance of staying on the bike. In your case keep walking.
Let me know your thoughts and lets chat more about this
Hi Luke thanks for the reply, Ok the walk challange started when I probably had a little too much home brew, and I had just finished the 5k program and looking for a new challange, and I thought about doing the peddars way in 24 hrs, I then posted it on twitter, and one on my work mates said he would do it with me, in aid of a cancer charity. At the time we both said that there would not be enough time to train to complete the challange, but we both wanted to give it our best shot British bulldog type thing.
We haven't planned on taking any breaks, there's no time for em.
After you expressed some interest in it, I sat and looked hard at what was on the plan, and have thought that I am maybe taking on a bit too much, 3 days training for 10k run, 1 day training for the walk, and maybe? 2 days for the 100 mile bike ride 1 days rest.
This is week 1 of the plan and already, today bike day, I had to pick up my daughter from the train station, which was a 3.5 hr round trip, bang goes free time allocated to bike training, and I am concous that you are giving your time for free, to help others achieve there own goals to which I for one am greatfull.
Woops going out of sync a bit there, your suggestion re building up to 8-12 hrs prior to the event, yes I will adjust accordingly, and think of time instead of distance, with an eye on walking speed. I'm also going to reduce my 10k training to 2 days wk then ramp it up to 4 days wk after the peddars way walk, to get that back in sync. In regards to bicycle dreams I'm sure i've seen that on tv chan 4 I think, about one of the few brits to enter the race, he didn't win but he was the quickest brit overall? great documentary.
Like any endurance event just as you say its the time spent doing it, putting the hours in.
Ill send you the revised plan over the w/end
Thanks.
Hello Mate
It's a better plan the one you sent through. Some thoughts…
1. If you are serious about the walk. You should forget about training for the run until after you have done the walk. The training is NOT compatible when you have such a short time available.
2. If you agree with point one then you need to spend the midweek sessions working on SPEED of walking. In 1-3 hour sessions.
3. Do not expect to be able to continue without stopping for 24 hours. It takes endurance cyclists alot of training and experience (mental strength through experience) to be able to do this. You should be thinking more along the lines of 3 hours then brek for 5 mins. It is better to prepare mentally for this and train accordingly than to expect to do the event without stopping.
4. You need to practice walking through the night. Have you done this before. You must practice. As example cycling through night is VERY, VERY TOUGH. It is lonely, cold as core temperature drops, mentally it is so tough you cannot imagine. YOU MUST PRACTICE THIS.
5. What time are you planning to start the event. i recommend that you start late afternoon / dusk. This means that you will be freshest and most able to deal with walking through the night. It also meaans that when you are most tired on the following afternoon it is warm and daytime.
6. Have you done any of the walk before? I recommend that you do your long training walks each week ON THE ACTUAL COURSE. Particularly the section that you are going to end up walking in the dark. Make sure you know this esction inside out. Also make sure you know the last quarter of the route inside out as you will be deathly tired so this will help avoid making a navigation mistake.
I guess youwere walking today. How did it go ??
HI Luke
Yes the walk is definatly on 13/3/2010 about 4.30pm kick off.
I dont like the idea of stopping running/training though, its taken me a lot of hard work to get where i am today, and the thought of leaving it out for 8 weeks, as far as i can see will and can only have a detrimental effect, when i start again in 8 weeks, that will leave me about 8 weeks to get running fit for my 10k, but i have done as you suggested, and i'll bear to your greater knowledge.
When I said we had not planned to take any breaks, I perhaps should have expanded on that a little, there was no structured plan to take any, more of a suck it and see, this is an unknown enterty for us after all, there would be breaks but they were not tied to time or distance. But yes we have now decided to take your advice, and can see that mentally, especially towards the end or from the second half/return.
All the long walks will as you suggested be done on the route, both day time and at night.
Went out early sun morning for a walk distance covered 8.21 miles 1:57:42 avg speed 4.2 mph found this a doddle to be honest still very fresh could have done a lot more, this w/end is 15 miles so I think that 3-3 1/2 hrs will be the comfort zone, no aches and pains in the morning.
today done the bike run 18.39 miles 2:23:11 with 10 min break roads wet light wind. Only problem I have encounted realy painfull hands where the thumbs rest on the bars, I forgot to mention this last time, it starts to kick in after about an hr or so, I have to constantly move my hands, to try to find relief, I do wear cycling gloves but they are cheap ones, and they dont have a lot of padding, could this be the problem or is it something else, I generally feel uncomfortable on the bike, is this because I have not done enough miles on it, and simply not used to it or do you think i should get a bike fit ?
Well thats my report for now I'll send copy 3rd revision of the plan.
Regards
Vern.
I understand your concers about the running. And to be honest the 1st week back running will be tough but after that your greater endurance that you have built up over the next few months will stand you in amazing shape.
Keep working on speed oin your individual walks. If you look at these figures (8.21 miles 1:57:42 avg speed 4.2 mph) I dont think this is quick enough. You are inevitably going to get slower. My guess is that you need to hit 5mph or maybe very slightly above.
how realistic is this ?? I dont know anything about waalking speeds. One way is to practice 1 hour sessions. So measure out a 5.25 mile walk. Then walk for 1 hour. You must at least PASS your 5.25 mile marker and you keepo walking till the 1 hour is up.
Then stop and rest for 10 minutes or so eat food relax and mentally regroup. This stage is important. dont skip it. Then repeat the exercise.
A good session would be 2-5 of these “mini spriints”
Adjust the distance accordingly. If you can do 6 miles in the hour then so much the better. You should study HOW WALKERS ARE walking quicker. How do they move, what are they doing etc etc
YOU need to find more speed. The way to do this is to find it first over shorter distances then you can gradually through mental and physical training take it up to the longer distances
Keep it up vern this is an exciting project. You can do it.
Hi Luke I'll add the mini sprints in the training sessions.
Thanks
Vern
The walk is now postponed till the end august.