Marmotte 2010

Cycle up hills as much as possible. If you can go somewhere in Continental Europe before the big day with proper mountains and cycle up them.

You might find this thread useful for challenging route suggestions.

thats my plan, every weekend. Get a few routes drawn up with more climbing in the mean time.

Edit: I think the elevation on mapmyride is off cause i done that once last year and it was over 2500m on the Garmin AFAIR, must check later to see.

Mosiki wrote: »

thats my plan, every weekend. Get a few routes drawn up with more climbing in the mean time.

Edit: I think the elevation on mapmyride is off cause i done that once last year and it was over 2500m on the Garmin AFAIR, must check later to see.

I'm sure the prospective marmoteers will be able work together to get some group spins going when the weather picks up. There's no shortage of mad men always up for an epic around here.

I think MMR used to use a more generous dataset/smoothing algorithm to generate elevation totals. Bikeroutetoaster gives more, and garmin is very generous indeed.

I think it's a bit moot though as I wouldn't really count the undulations (+20m then -20m) that account for an awful lot of any spin in Wicklow. What I'm really looking for is as much sustained climbing as possible. Over-and-backs of Slieve Mahn and Glenmalure would be a good way to accumulate time climbing, as would loops of Stocking Lane and Cruagh. Short climbs (and they're all short from an alpine perspective) do mean that you're never very far from a point where you'll get a chance to recover, or indeed be forced to recover as it's very hard to keep the heart rate up while descending... and recovery periods are very very well spaced on the Marmotte so hard spins on the flat will be part of the mix too... argh.

ROK ON wrote: »

Eggie.

I am hoping to take next Thur off work. Not sure if you are still on for midweek spins. If so we can give something like those routes a shot, with the provisio being that I must be back in D15 by 330pm at the very latest.
I know you are a fair bit stronger than me on the climbs, but you are still very welcome to tag along.

Not a marmotteer, but would I be able to tag along? Need to get some midweek spins and don't like going out on my lonesome

I'm back working. Be in Guernsey next week mon - fri. I would be up for some night spins if anybody fancied? Even if it was only repeats of stocking lane, just to get the legs built up.

That would also give me good reason to buy the Exposure Maxx Daddy and i'm running out of reasons as it stays brighter longer every day now.

7th Mar: Headed out to join the Orwell Sunday spin, tagged on to the medium group as there was a few boardsies there. Route was Dundrm - devils glen - laragh - sally gap - stocking lane - home.

120km, first time i seen sally gap in a few months and felt it too, suffered on the way home. The distance was fine, trying to keep pace with stronger/fitter riders at this point of the year was my downfall per usual. Slept like a log.

14th Mar: Route - city centre - dundrum - enniskerry - djouce - luggala - sally gap - devils elbow - dundrum - home. 80km. 4hrs.

Felt stronger than last week, hills weren't as painful as i expected but was pretty tired afterwards. Slight Improvement all the same climbing wise.

17th Mar: same route as 14th Mar, purposely did the same route to compare how it felt even though was close together. Felt stronger again on the climbs with lower heart rate than previously. Took 10 mins off previous time.

21st Mar: Route - city centre - dundrum - stocking lane - sally gap - laragh - wikclow gap - blessington - boherbreena - tallaght - home. 120km.

Decided to ride at a comfortable pace today on my own, not slow but not pushing it either, maintain an aerobic endurance heart rate of 155 - 165 bpm. Felt much stronger climbing than before, although this varied from 8 - 12 kph on various gradients, not setting the world on fire but i'm not worried about pace at the moment, distance and ascendng more important. 5hrs 50mins.

Didnt stop at laragh for food today which helped as I would normally feel full and lethargic when stepping back on the bike. Instead I took a sandwich, cut into 4 squares and wrapped separately, eating one every 20km on the way out (along with a bar every 40km), water and energy drink. This eating strategy suits me a lot better and think I'll maintain this in future.

Back to Guernsey tomorrow for 5 days with work. Good news is the hotel this time has a pool and gym so I can get a good weeks off-bike training done during the week which was lacking previously. Think i'll attempt Shay Elliott and Sleive Mann next week. Hopefully there wont be as many bikers speeding past as there was today on wicklow gap.

blorg wrote: »

Think I saw you at some point between the N81 and the Wicklow Gap, I was coming up the other side in an Orwell jacket, black Planet X.

Yeah, realised it was you at last minute passing, you looked like you putting the effort in. (as opposed to myself lazily coasting down the hill).

LeoD wrote: »

:eek: Maybe people should clarify what level they're at to avoid frightening the bejaysus out of the rest of us? I'm doing the Marmotte and will probably do around 6/7 x 100 mile rides between now and July. My level is currently getting shelled out of A3 races after 20km How long would that ride above take you? 7hrs? Outside of my 100 milers I reckon 5hrs will be the longest I'll do any day.

I really don't see why anyone planning on doing the Marmotte would be scared of a route like that in Wicklow. The route above might be knocking on the same length as the big M, but it's flat (comparatively)!!! You do like riding your bike don't you?

Who said anything about slow? Quality and quantity. :P

I dunno. Can't do any harm I suppose. Should build strength anyway, and ~10mins (or whatever) above threshold, repeated, never did anyone any harm*.

There's no way to properly simulate alpine (or pyrenean) climbs here so everything we do is non-specific to our task.

*may not be true.

Lumen wrote: »

Gradient is largely irrelevant. The things that matter IMO are: effort, cadence, fuelling and heat adaption.

The fuelling is very much overlooked I'd imagine... you need your body to adapt to using fat for fuel.

Lumen wrote: »

heat adaption.

Probably the hardest one to get used to while in Ireland ...

mloc123 wrote: »

I am only basing this on what I have read for Ironman training.. the body can only process about 2-300kals an hour, the rest needs to come from fat stores... which is what needs to be trained.

So it's ok to be fat? woooo!

mloc123 wrote: »

haha, even people at 5% have enough to fuel them for an event.. but it could be a good excuse

yes but i am doing 4 that week ....

LeoD wrote: »

:eek: Maybe people should clarify what level they're at to avoid frightening the bejaysus out of the rest of us? I'm doing the Marmotte and will probably do around 6/7 x 100 mile rides between now and July. My level is currently getting shelled out of A3 races after 20km How long would that ride above take you? 7hrs? Outside of my 100 milers I reckon 5hrs will be the longest I'll do any day.

You seem a pretty capable cyclist with loads of endurance cycling experience - how did you find the Marmotte last year? A tough day or just plain torture? Any top tip you could share?

The Marmotte was the hardest single day I have ever had on a bike. Nothing even comes close.

I came more from the endurance/long distance/like riding my bike up mountains side and started racing club league last year, open this year, so I am the opposite to you.

In the most general terms if you are an A3 racer (staying in the bunch?) you should be at the general fitness level to be fine with the Marmotte. But I would be careful to ensure that you have the endurance to keep plugging away for a long day in the saddle; unlike a typical race which is over in a few hours albeit at a higher intensity.

Ultimately you are going to need to be comfortable plugging away for much of a day at a reasonably hard effort.

At some point you will need to become familiar with doing this sort of effort for this length of time.

My worry if you are a full on racer not used to this sort of thing would be that if you don't do specific training for it you will attack and burn up on the Glandon. I was conscious of this myself and STILL put in too much effort on the first climb (and the flat bit after) and paid for it later.

If I can be any help let me know; I'd be interested in organising some training sessions for this, I am going over with Tom and Caroline and I am sure we will get organised. Ultimately it is a long day and you are going to have to do longer training sessions than you might be used to for racing.

In terms of intensity, as Tom said, no-one said slow. I don't think long and slow is necessarily bad BTW but come out for a 200 and we may be going fast enough One way or the other you will have to start getting those distances in and just getting used to being on the bike for basically a day.

keogh777 wrote: »

What kind of gears are people planning on using for the event. I was looking at a 34X28 but alot of people i know are saying your crazy doing it without a triple. But id rather walk than use a triple

i used a 34x25 and i was fine for it, screw the triple

No cycling this week unfortunately. Leaving the bike into cyclesuperstore for some needed work. New bottom bracket, chain and possibly a headset.

Front forks feel loose when rocking the bike while holding back brakes (not sure if this is normal, doubt it though), would explain the slight wobble when descending at speed.

Did hit a hole last week hard (twice), which i'm sure added to the misalignment. Have the bike a year now without any real servicing, so do no harm getting it primed for the summer. Better safe than sorry.

Basically you are either end of your gearing range for the whole thing; gappiness isn't really a problem. 11 would be useful for the descent off the Galibier, not really anywhere else.

Lumen wrote: »

11-12-13-15-18-21-25-26-27-28

I'd buy that.

I experimented with a sram 11-28 in Andalusia some on long climbs (we got to do a couple of +1000m ones there) and the gappyness was a problem for me. I'm reluctant to give up the 11 though...

Marmotte 2010 Route

I hope to be in better physical condition for my next assault on Glenmalure and Slievemann. I was a ball of muscle-spasm when I got home on Saturday, took an hour for my body to stop twitching. Good day though, thanks to yourself and Souter for the company. Need to work on my pacing