As part of my training for Roth, my first Ironman distance race next Sunday in Germany, I undertook the Financial Times (FT) London Sportive 100 miles on Sunday just past to gain a bit of confidence and practice nutrition.
Challenge Roth is not my 'A' race, Ironman Melbourne next March is, however being part of a relay team, I want to ensure that I could do the distance and do it well.
The overall day was great, it was hot, lots of climbing, some nice little flat sprints, a killer steep hill, and a couple of aid stations which were equipped brilliantly for all the riders.
The ride started at Herne Hill and ended at Herne Hill Velodrome where all riders were able to complete a lap of the velodrome which ended the ride.
The distances varied, providing all levels and abilities to tackle this ride:
The Short Route: 50km
The Medium Route: 100kmThe Long Route: 162km (100 miles)
This is the route that I did 100 miles
Below is the link to strava from the ride:
My overall time was 7 hours 23 mins, now this is okay considering the amount of climbing (2302m) and also my ability at this stage of my training. Average speed 22.3 kph, I hope to do much better in Roth as there is less climbing but we shall see.
My Cervelo S2 is equipped with a ISM Adamo Prologue saddle, after doing several long rides now, this is definitely the best saddle in the market for me. I highly recommend ISM.
Nutrition wise I learnt that I love coke in my drink bottle, the sugar gets into the blood stream quickly and gave me the kick I needed. I drank about 3 litres of drink, I ate several mini apple pies, jam tarts, 3 bananas, jelly babies, and jaffa cakes. I am constantly surprised as to what works for me on the bike, however I know I can't tape apple pies etc to my bike, so still need to work on nutrition overall.
Not going to ramble on too much more on this, all I can say is that I am feeling good about Roth next Sunday, keep an eye out on my pre race report which is coming up next.
Thanks for reading
Smooches