Everybody hurts

Dedicated recumbent rider, and long-distance veteran, Philip Whitehurst, left, offers some timely advice to those attempting London-EdinburghLondon this year. The Hertfordshire-based Audaxer has had to dig deep on many occasions, particularly on the UK’s most demanding longdistance ride – and he insists it’s ok to cry! Here is his guidance, based on experience, on how to plan for a punishing event…

I DON'T MIND ADMITTING I’ve sobbed my heart out on some long-distance rides. You have to be prepared for such moments – and let them out. It's nothing to be ashamed of. These events are tough.

So how do you prepare for LEL? Well, you need a strategy – but what do we mean by “strategy”? For me, it’s the goals you chose, and the actions you take to achieve those goals. You’ll often hear people state their goal, but not their actions, or vice versa. For it to be a strategy, you need both.

Before you set your goals and actions for LEL you need to understand your capabilities. If you have experience of long-distance events, you’ll have an idea. But you need to be realistic about your current capabilities. Are you as fast as a decade ago? How is your endurance after a couple of years of the pandemic?

And you need to recognise your weaknesses. You may not enjoy night riding; maybe you fall apart when you fall behind, or die a little when another rider overtakes you. How is your pacing, fuelling, ability to eat on the bike? Are you a faffer?

You may have quit similar events – examine what caused you to quit. Was it stomach issues, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, mechanicals? Did you get overwhelmed by the task? Was your heart no longer in it? You may think it negative to reflect on these things, but I’ve always found it valuable to assess my event, whether I finished or not.

Mood is important. Ask yourself how you feel and act when you’re feeling low; how does it develop? Do you recognise the early symptoms? And does it differ depending on whether you’re tired, injured or need to eat or drink?

And when you’re feeling high, do you ride too hard, or babble, or neglect to eat, skipping through controls and taking unnecessary risks? Do you have sympathy for those around you? Are you a joy to be around – or are you insufferable?

Quite simply, I believe confidence comes from within. Don't look for it from others – look inside yourself, and pull out what you can to keep going. If someone looks confident, don't question them, it may unravel for them. Equally, be careful of the words you offer to someone who's struggling, unless you know them, and how they will react.

I have doubts on all my events from 200km to LEL scale. My confidence builds the further I’m into an event. It does you good to have doubts. It makes you work hard to ensure things go well. Understand where your confidence and doubt comes from, and that others will be different.

It's important to understand if you are goal or process-orientated before coming up with a strategy. If you’re process-driven then the goal of reaching Barnard Castle before sleeping might leave you cold.

Equally if you are goal-driven, the process of ensuring you drink 500ml of water every hour might seem irrelevant. You need goals and actions that work with your mind set. Don't cut and paste somebody else's strategy.

I'm not a fast rider, and my overall goal is to finish within the time limit. If I finish with five minutes to spare, I've hit my goal.

But that's not enough for a strategy. I amend my goal into finishing with a few hours to spare, then I break that goal down into finishing each 24 hour period with a few hours to spare. One of my weaknesses is that I can't ride for much more than 24 hours without sleep. I then amend the last goal into having a few hours to spare, after I've slept every 24 hours. Once you have a high level goal you can work with, you need to know how to hit that goal.

Try not to faff at controls. I have a collapsible rucksack to carry my brevet card, shoes, water bottles and GPS and anything else I need in the control. My bike should be two-touch at the control, when I arrive, and when I leave.

I can be really bad at getting dehydrated in the heat. Another action is to wear arm coolers and buff if warm and soak them in water. I'll take salt tablets if hot or getting cramps. Eating food on my recumbent is not my forte – so I add maltodextrin to my bottles to supplement food at controls.

I also prefer not to know how far I've got to ride. I don’t have speed or distance showing on GPS during the event. I check how far I’m ahead of the time limits when I check in at controls. To avoid faff I don’t tend to ride with others. I’ll ride with others as I find them on the road, and only stop with someone if it’s a safety issue or we agree at the time.

Knowing when to rest is also important. I can't ride more than 24 hours without a doze but I don't know when the urge will strike. To deal with the dozies I’ll take enough of a rest to restore alertness and

get to next control for a better sleep. A Bluetooth speaker plays overnight to help keep the dozies at bay.

On LEL you’ll hear the phrase “race out, tour back“, and you may think: “With my average speeds, that never going to happen”. In my view it doesn't mean hammer yourself into the ground on the way north – it means minimise your stopped time going north, and then have more relaxed stops on the way south, once you've built up a decent buffer ahead of your time limit. Stopped times matters hugely when we use the term “race out“. By reducing stopped time at the controls you can get ahead of the time limit.

Effort, and therefore food consumption, does not increase linearly with speed. Effort increases exponentially as your speed increases. You also use less fat and more carbohydrates the faster you go. By riding slower, and keeping stops short, you reduce the amount you need to eat, to cover the same distance.

Riding slower means you need to eat less, which helps if you’re going to keep your average stop at a control shorter than others. And eating less means you are less likely to suffer digestion issues.

It's a combination of my goals and my actions. Most of my actions are processorientated. That's because I know that I'm good at actioning process to meet a high level goal. When I pay attention to my actions, my events go well. Some people work better with having lots of mini goals, and little process. Do what works for you.

There is no single strategy for success – though you have to be hungry for that success. When you’re suffering, remember that hunger, and remember your actions to get back from that suffering.

And also remember – keep it simple. Your strategy doesn't need a complicated spreadsheet and master timings. You just need to ride at a comfortable level for you, and keep your control stops efficient. The rest will take care of itself. Good luck putting your strategies together.