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

That's a good idea, once we've confirmed what the dates will be then I'll post the towns and see. We've booked through airbnb so will be able to cancel and hopefully re book in X amount of weeks.

Don't get me wrong, so would I, but if you need a backup option for a couple of spots where you can't find hotels any more you could carry small camp kit. Then you can stop when you need to as well, rather than being forced to push on to hotels that are too far away or stop early because you are making good progress. I also hate planning in advance so I like the option. But if this isn't you and you're good and planning stops that's fine.
I wonder if domestic travel will be down a bit with Covid or up because everyone's trying to escape their homes post-lockdown?

Peter?

If I can fit a bivvy in my bags then I'll take it, I'm quite used to carrying alot of weight when cycling now so it shouldn't be much of an issue. I do like the idea of being able to stop if needed as we've got a few days spare once we have finished for contingency and to have a rest too.

Well I cycled to both Sheringham and Southwold over the bank holiday weekend and it was crazy busy, I think domestic travel has definitely increased. So rearranging the trains might be the hardest part because of how little bike spots are available.... That's another issue

I'm quite used to carrying alot of weight when cycling

You and me both!
#hippyisfat

How’s this coming along? Any epic ride feats to make us all feel bad?

So I'm on day 139 and at 13,754km so it's going pretty well. I'm having a rest/light evening tonight as i felt rough cycling home and I want to be recovered for Sunday as I've got a 200mile ride. (That's fairly epic). Evening spins are my favourite, i love hitting out 80km+ after work. I spend a huge amount of time riding alone but i do enjoy it.

It's weird as I've got in such a good routine now, I can manage work well and i use the weekends to recover but also to do some extra kms, as i do have one lighter day in the week where i only commute. Life on the other hand is hard to manage at points with this challenge, I've had a funeral this week and I've got a memorial next Monday and i found it hard at the funeral to keep eating. I didn't feel right to bring food into the Cathedral so I only ate like a normal person on Tuesday and had about 4hours without food which was too long. I got incredibly tired because of this and I struggled to be there for my GF and her family (I feel pretty bad about this). So I'm going to take her out for food tomorrow night, we'll cycle there though 😂

I've done a few group rides now which have been good, the first one was about of a macho CG where they were very militant with rotating and times. Odd for me as i spend a lot of time riding so wanted to be at the front more because some of the other guys were struggling so I thought it would help. I got told off and told to go to the faster group, even though i was riding with my mates... I won't return to that one. The second one was amazing, very chilled and chatty. A few of us sat at the front and I spent the whole 60miles getting to know new people which was lovely.

We've put back LEJOG till the 31st of July too.

Some days i find the distance really daunting but most of the time it's manageable.

I know what you’re saying, the challenge itself and the training becomes almost normal for you but the rest of life gets harder. I find even fixing my bike is hard when I’m training- I don’t want to miss a session to fix the bike and I don’t want to do a session then sit in the garage for an hour!

the challenge itself and the training becomes almost normal for you but the rest of life gets harder

That's exactly it, there's not much thought that goes into riding now. It's more keeping everyone else happy, I limit myself to 1 social activity a day over the weekend. Any more than this I get too tired and I'm terrible company. I'm just glad I've got an understanding GF.

Also for this Sundays 200mile, I've got a 3am start..... which is less than appealing

UPDATE: So I'm currently 15km up and on day 145 of the challenge, I'm pretty happy with being back on the positive side of this and have managed to get myself in a good routine with riding.

I rode 200 miles on Sunday (although strava doesn't say this as I stupidly paused my wahoo for 30 odd minutes), it was a long day but I actually really enjoyed riding for that amount of time. I set out to enjoy the ride and to get my friend to complete the distance. It was also the first time I've worn a HR monitor for a while, I was more interested in calories burnt but I was very surprised with the result. I guess the fitness gained from this challenge has showed as my average HR for the day was 108 bpm which is mental as there was points when we were at the organised stops when my HR was higher when eating then when I was cycling.

Riding a bike for 13 hours is an amazing experience and I'm definitely going to do it again soon, I'm even thinking of doing a 500km ride in August. Would anyone be keen to join?

Great effort, these real big days should keep you ahead!

Wish I had pals that wanted to ride 200 miles with me. I did a 150 (to England n back) and a 200 loop last year on my own and it was great but hard to psyche myself up for another one or more by myself for 12 plus hours. Think a 24 hour ride is one I need to tick off this year.

Your heart changes when you ride lots. It gets mega efficient because the muscles get really toned from all the pumping. But also you will probably find it hard to get your heart rate up high if you really try, so you won't be able to get KOMs on sharp climbs.

If you were to just stop riding and do nothing it might not be good for your heart to go from massive amounts of load to zero - a more gentle wind down is meant to be better.

@Stoo61 That's the plan, I'm able to do an extra 5/10km each day which helped to catch up too but this also helps with having an evening off once a week. The 200 was part of an event called Round Norfolk Epic, I'm glad I did it as a sportive actually as the organised stops were great and it was nice to feel a part of something different. You should aim for the 24hour on June 21st :)

@frank9755 the efficiency really shocked me actually, as it shows the benefit from all the cycling. I do find it harder to get my HR high, I've actually struggled with that for a couple years now as my max is only 179 but it used to be 198. Too be honest I'm really enjoying this so will continue with a good amount of volume once I've finished the challenge (I'm not sure if my GF will like this though)....

I had my vaccine last Thursday and have been struggling with fatigue since then, I've had a fall day rest last Friday but still feel pretty tired. I took me a lot to go and have the jab as I knew there would be issues but was unsure what and I told myself it's for the greater good.... Has anyone else struggled with fatigue since their vaccine?

Not that long but I was definitely still 'not great' a few days (2-3 I think) afterwards. I guess the duration of symptoms is somewhat genetic and somewhat lifestyle impacted. If you're stressing about it, that won't help. Are you sleeping ok and eating well?

I had the whole sore arm thing and my next ride, a day later, was quite a bit harder than it usually is but I don't know if that was a vaccine symptom....more likely because my diet has been appalling recently.

I am eating well probably slightly more to try and keep the energy levels high, I had one bad night of sleep where I only slept for around 3/4hours but other than that It's been normal 7 hours. It might just be that I need a good sleep and a chilled day as the weekends have been busy lately with seeing family and friends. It's probably all in my head

Seven hours sleep seems low given the distances you are doing. Could you sleep longer or is it a case of having too much else to fit into the day?

Given the effort you're doing, the body probably has a limited amount of buffer for when your system needs to deal with something else, like processing the vaccine. Try and have a good rest / some more sleep.

My Mrs had her second jab last Thursday, and was still saying she felt a bit off yesterday. Nothing major, just tired a touch under the weather. She's only cycling about 3km a day though.

It's the later, I'd love to have more but it's a juggling act between riding the bike and preparing to ride the bike with life commitments. I don't set an alarm on Saturday so I can catch up with sleep, I've read studies that this doesn't work but I feel it works for me and it's nice to not get up at 5.50am

Ha! I didn't even realise which thread I was in. I thought this was some random poster in the vaccine thread! Of course you're going to take longer to get over the jab with your mileage load!

I prefer to keep waking hour consistent and adjust bedtime earlier to try and claw back rest, but if your method is working, who's to say it's bad. Any extra rest time you can allow yourself will help.

I had my vaccine on a Monday, had a dead arm for about 2 days, but carried on my commute and evening hockey and football as normal. Then just crashed on that Saturday, was to tired to do anything. Ended up sleeping about 11 hours and was a bit shaky on the Sunday.

It hits people in different ways, I obviously don't have your excersize load so not really relatable. But I didn't get ill, it just caught up with me and made me need a lot more sleep for a couple of days.

nice to not get up at 5.50am

Ha, that's a lay in for some ;-)

I had 3 days off the bike in May which I sure was Jab related

There was me thinking hippy is always right and I should pull my socks up :) I have a limit for bed time as I normally finish riding around 8.30 so have to eat, clean and do life stuff which means I'm in bed for 10.

I'm going to try and take tomorrow off work so I can get a proper sleep and will obviously ride my bike but the wind looks best tomorrow.

@HousecatHST not everyone is as tough as you with the 4am bike rides.....