36,500km in 365 days - Cycling Against Living Miserably

I would be cautious rushing forward into something. I have no doubt you are fatigued and that it will catch up with you now you've stopped. Come up with a routine but keep it easy and pay your body back for the price, or it will collect on the debt down the road.

I do appreciate the nessecity for routine however, but you can meet that demand without it being through physical training. Maybe do some mobility, yoga, massage, meditation.

Those are good tips. ^

After a major effort 'what next?' can be a difficult question. It's very common for ultra racers to talk about feeling quite down after finishing a long event so don't be surprised / blame yourself if you feel a bit that way too. A big gap has opened up in your daily schedule and you will need to fill it with something, and sofa/TV won't be enough after a couple of days. In particular, talk to people - real life, on here, wherever. Don't expect to be able to adjust to not doing 100km a day all on your own! I remember going out on group rides after finishing an ultra, not because I wanted to ride, as I didn't, but because I craved company with friends!

The other thing to watch out for is that your body is still repairing itself, so keep eating for a few days. At least one guy has ended up in hospital after an ultra because he dialled the food back to 'normal' too early and his body started 'eating' itself.

Absolutely insane effort. Best read In a long time. Well done!!!

If you plan on an ultra race in the summer you would be in very good shape I imagine. Maybe use the down time to think of places, routes, adventures you would like to do next!

Or very fatigued...

I set my 10mi PB after a TCR, just sayin'...

@skinny and @frank9755 thanks for the great advice. I've spent a decent amount of time doing mobility tonight and I did a ride but it wasn't anything mental in terms of time. I'm going to prioritise strengthening my knees over the next few weeks and develop a strength/mobility routine as i let this slip over the year. I've got a massage booked in for a treat too. I'm trying to keep the calories up while I taper the volume. I'm interested to see how much food I need now as I will still eat more than the average person as I'll be exercising a lot but I shouldn't need to have 4/5000 calories a day.

@Squaredisk I'm planning a decent on/off road route around east anglia so this should keep me entertained when i have spare time (not a race or a named thing but a big day for training). Also in March i should be moving house which is exciting.

@hippy I'm going to do a 20min test or ramp test next week...

Just a stunning achievement.

So much of this resonates with me (my user name is a clue). Well done. Bloody well done.

I've donated, and if you're ever passing through Herts, Beds or Bucks, I'd love to join you for a few km.

On a less serious note, I'll bet you are properly quick after that much base riding!!

Inspiring! Donated!

Past the £10k raised mark - well done, Joel!

^ That is excellent news!

Props to you. This is madness. Incredible achievement!

Hitting 10k today was absolutely amazing, i can't quite believe it as i set out only to raise 2.5k but changed it the summer to 5k. Big thanks to all of you lot who have donated.

My original rest plan is scrapped and I'm just relaxing without any pressure to ride. I need to take the pressure off myself as I've been under so much over the last year. I'll commute again tomorrow, as i want to ride but I'm not feeling zwift as I'm pretty bored of that now.

I deleted Zwift after a month of fundraising. I'm not surprised you're bored of it after a year!

Full credit and admiration Joel x

I've structured this week as my "off-season" physically i feel strange but I'm enjoying the reflection period and working out what damage has been done to my body.

I'm jumping at all opportunities at the moment, there's some exciting things happening. But unfortunately i didn't get a place at GBduro... Maybe next year I'll have to cycle more to qualify for it

I'm thinking about trying wahoo systm but it doesn't work on Apple TV which is how i run zwift atm

@OldSlowJoe thank you

long term lurker here, never post, but this makes me come out of my hiding spot...

Norfolkbound, this is truly impressive and inspiring. Been reading this thread from day one. Fantastic work for a fantastic cause.

Will donate after next payday.

unfortunately i didn't get a place at GBduro.

!
That's shit. Maybe they're afraid of you...

It is a bit gutting because i wanted a long event but I would of had to sort out a lot to be able to race e.g bike with 40mm clearance. It also fell on my GFs birthday so she'll be happy

There's definitely more opportunities in the summer though, I'll just have to look at Franks list again and see what's feasible. Maybe a road one..

That is a shame. Hopefully you'll find something else to do.

This is the 1000k audax I mentioned: https://audax.uk/event-details?eventId=108

That is a shame about gbduro.

Best list of ultras is on the ridefar.info site
https://ridefar.info/races/list/#Road-Based_Bikepacking_Races

The established ones sell out early but there are still some interesting ones available, depends how far you want to travel and how long you've got.

Yeah it is a bit as the timings were good but oh well.

I was quite keen on the Three Peaks but that has sold out, there's the Transpyrenees (transiberica) and the Trans Pyrenees Race which both have entries available. I'm more keen on the TPR as it starts and ends in the same place, I have to enter this by the 31st so I can work out the logistics this weekend. I'm set on racing abroad now, the one downside of GBduro is that I did lejog last summer so I wasn't bothered at all about that achievement

Feeling guilty as I've got a place in 3 peaks which I most likely won't use, as I've now got into tcr. I don't think there's any way to transfer it, unfortunately.

But I'm sure either of those would be great too, and hillier than Norfolk!

I'm pretty sure the transiberica also has places and some of the control pictures that @CarlosBI has posted recently have been stunning.

Strava says you rode 90 km today. WTAF??

Would probably get withdrawal symptoms otherwise.