Dudelsack 

Over on the Bacchetta site someone referenced a French documentary of PBP 2011:
https://vimeo.com/34120002

It's about 45 minutes long, French with English subtitles (although if you understand "Merde, soulement je voudrais dormir!" you'll understand most of the comments).

As a "four year plan" I've thought about trying this at its next running (2015), but after the footage of seeing people fall asleep standing up, I have my doubts.

The use of Debussy's "Nuages" was both clever and haunting, serving as a backdrop of one ghostly image of a night rider after another.

I posted this here instead of over at the ultra cycling forum because most people on this forum are pretty normal.

stapfam

PBP is one of those events that "Some" aspire to do. It takes a lot of fitness- a lot of training- and a mind set that will do nothing except train towards this one event for years. It makes sense if you have a bit of Youth behind you aswell.

Not as severe but I did a one day event up till 2006. Nowhere near as tough as PBP but for a one day event it was tough. From a respectable fitness level I gave myself 6 months of hard training to prepare. I did manage the ride but I struggled. I then trained for a full year to do the event again- I struggled but did it in a time of 12 hours instead of 14. Then did it for the next two years and still trained all year round for it and still struggled.

So 4 years of solid training and you might be able to do it. AND I MEAN SOLID TRAINING.

Of course that is at the age we are now. 20 years ago when I first did The SDW in one day- I went out for a couple of extra rides and Carbo-loaded for a week. It was just a long ride for me at that time- but I saw younger riders than me get to the finish- sit down for the meal at the end and not move till they were carried out to their car--Still snoring.

Rowan

I find this quite insulting.

Dudelsack 

It wasn't meant to be. If anything the comment was made with awe of your seemingly superhuman abilities. I hope you'll take the comment lightly. Life is too short to be insulted by such trifles.

Looigi

All my youth is behind me.

DGlenday

Thanks for the link to the video.

That's my plan as well. Perhaps I shouldn't watch the video!

lhbernhardt

I didn't find PBP difficult at all, but then I've had about 35 years of bike racing in my legs, and the years leading up to PBP I was logging around 20,000 km per year (12,000 miles) on the bike, but except for the track riding, there was no real "training" involved; I just rode the bike for fun or to commute to work. I don't like riding at night (time drags on, you can't see anything, and why are you riding thru the French countryside without being able to see anything anyway?). If you can maintain a 30 kmh (20 mph) cruising speed on the flats, you should be able to finish it mostly in daylight. I left with the 84-hour group at 5 am and planned to ride until it got dark (around 9 pm) but this got shifted to about 11 pm the first night and 10 pm the second (I finished on the third day around 9:40pm, with a time of just under 65 hours). And, uh, I was on a fixed-gear bike, so you should be able to do better with gears!

If you start with the 90-hour group, you ride a bit in the late afternoon and evening, but then you're still fresh enough to ride all night (you have to, or you'll miss the time limits). To do the 90-hour schedule properly, you're looking at a first day of over 24 hours. Yeah, you see a lot of guys falling asleep everywhere, but I had no problems with wanting to fall asleep. Had more problems with ulnar nerves on my hands.

L.

Dudelsack 

If I try it, I'd have much less to work with than you do. My accumulated life-time mileage is I'm guessing 7000, which for many here is a slow year.

My mini-goals would be this, in no particular order:

-lose 20 pounds.
-commute 2-3 times a week.
-get used to riding in winter. This might be the toughest single goal. Why are all the populaires and "shorter" brevits so early in the year?

If I can do that, everything else is at least in theory doable.

downtube42

The ones on the front going for a low time and the ones on the back barely avoiding the time cutoff are the people who really suffer sleep deprivation.

Yes, that captured it well; at least my experience.

I think we just behave differently here.

Depends on your starting fitness, and on your desire. I went from the typical middle-aged American recreational cyclist who'd never heard of a brevet, to finishing PBP, in less than two years. Essentially two seasons of SR, plus a handful of centuries, was my training.

I can't go that far! I'd call it extremely difficult. I might even call it a life changing experience.

lhbernhardt

Finally got around to watching this, it's quite good. I just wanted to point out that the final number, the operatic piece, is from the famous "Mad Scene" in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, where Lucia goes nuts and kills her arranged husband after they've gone to bed!

L.

big john

BF member Shprung did it in 2011 on a fixed gear and was not pressed for time. He is about 45, I think, and does well with lack of sleep. The other people I know who have finished it have said the sleep deprivation thing was the hardest part, not the cycling fitness.