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

How’s it going now? Did you manage to keep going?

Side opinion. I'd spend that powermeter money on a bikefit from an expert.

@Tallboy It's going ok, my right knee has recovered for my left knee to impload. I've managed 11km this morning before it flaired up again so had a warm bath and then a cold bath. I'm battling om but it's frustrating when you're riding for 20minutes and aan injury flairs it up.

@skinny I've contacted a few local bike fitters and all i got back was they're super busy and they'll get back to me when they have availability. No suggestions of when, i did tell them about the challenge in hope i might get bumped up the queue.

Being on day 99, i think my body has changed so much and issues/injuries are inevitable. Going from concussion to itb issues in my right knee and now patella tendon issues in my left, feels a lot like hitting my head against a wall. My GF helps with pnf stretches in order to lengthen the muscles.

I'm glad i chose doing 36,500km in 365days over 100km a day, as this means I can rest with injuries and then slowly catch up. The frustrating thing is that mentally all I want to do is ride my bike but my joints aren't enjoying that.

If it helps Phil Burt who used to work for team GB does remote bike fits using video and a zoom call. Whether that might help I don’t know? When I asked he had availability almost immediately
https://www.philburtinnovation.co.uk/

I'll give him a shout as the local ones have been terrible at getting back to me. I mean even trying to book in one for when they are free is testing. I work in construction so I'm used to quick answers so can't understand why people don't respond when it's their business.

Anyway, we (my GF) has worked out part of the knee issue. It's because I don't use my hamstrings at all, they're very weak. So I'm currently working on this and it seems to help. Sounds mental for most of you, but I'm hugely quad dominant in my pedal stroke so 102 days of this challenge has shown the muscle growth but the loss in hamstring strength.

Hah I’m the same, I think I tore my hamstring so many times it gave up trying. I didn’t use Phil in the end as my physio sorted my issue but he’s a proper bike fit nerd and been doing it 20 years maybe unlike some guys

Hello,

So I'm starting to feel myself again, knees are getting stronger with the rehab etc. I did ride at 38kph for 20miles last night so yes feeling stronger. I'm currently at day 109 and down 275km which isn't a lot considering the injuries etc that I've been through over these days. A few people said to me to wait till the summer and you'll get the miles in, I now know what they meant. It's been alright for a few days now and it's a huge amount nice to ride and bank the distance. My plan is to be caught up on the distance by June 13th as I've got a 200mile ride - round norfolk epic.

I've also booked and planned LEJOG for the 3rd of July, I'm doing it over 8days and I'm pretty much following the Deloitte RAB route. It's tried and tested so how bad can it be..... We've booked a sleeper train home which I'm very excited about. Went fancy as it's got an en suite :) The plan is that we finish on the Saturday night and have a few days to chill and explore Scotland before heading back on Tuesday night.

This thread is inspirational (even the bits where hippy was talking about having filthy hands).

Subbed and chapeau to you!

Just popping a le-jog in there for good measure.

Yeah, this is great stuff, just given you a follow on strava, I'm about a 1000 miles behind you for the year. so I've got some catching up to do. lol.

Thanks, I'm trying my best and yes my GF said of you're doing the distance anyway then why not do LEJOG. Norfolk lanes are nice but it will be nice to tick that ride off the list.

@HousecatHST I've seen your strava, that's incredibly good going. I couldn't do the 4.45am rides though, chapeau

Good job and good to hear getting back into swing.

With the knee issues, it definitely made me consider why and what I was doing but from what I've found out it will make me a stronger cyclist.

In a couple of weeks time I'll be able to do the majority of my mid week rides outside which is nice and exciting. I'm so done with zwift and the turbo now.... I'm waiting on my sister to move back into the house so she can look after the dogs. She ran away to Cambodia for 2 years and left me with her pets.... but i'm not bitter at all.

I'm really not that fussed at the moment about catching up quickly, i'd rather do it slowly so I don't risk an injury again. I'm going to start lengthening my weekend rides so I'm prepared for LEJOG and by the end of August I would like to be a few days a head of the challenge. With the change of weather then, I'm concerned about getting ill so will be nice to have an option of rest/low mileage days.

I'm really not that fussed at the moment about catching up quickly, i'd rather do it slowly so I don't risk an injury again.

Smart 👍

Liking this thread! I see a lot of similarities with myself, always been into bikes, mostly MTB but for about 7 years I was miserable and getting worse. Came to a head in 2019 and tbh the pandemic helped me a lot as I started smashing road miles, eating better to lose some excess weight and now I'm very much saved (although not complacent). I'm out of the hole, I know who I am, what I want and its all very lovely!

Good going pushing through and coping with the knee issues. I have my own after getting run over by a taxi (I was drunk, not on a bike, my fault but no less frustrating after 4 years).

Also had trouble with bit fitters recently, what is that? Im trying to give you loads of money for the service you willingly provide, acknowledge my existence.

Anyway, following along, keen to see how LEJOG goes, want to smash it out in similar time this year. Good luck, I'll chuck you a donation! :)

That's great to hear that you're in a good place, knowing who you are and what you want in life is so important. I really struggled with the idea of growing up and becoming an adult, when I was 20 (at uni) I had job at a top architects firm and I'd still be there today if I completed the studies. Everyone else at my uni was incredibly jealous but I was scared shitless, as my life looked planned out. Anyway sport definitely helps with all kinds of mental health, cycling is great :)

@Stoo61 I can send you the GPX route for LEJOG if you want

I'm not sure what's going on with bike fitters, it's a massive nuisance. I haven't got the home set up to do a voom meeting with one so would need to do it in house. It's great that they're busy as they would of had a hard time through lockdown if they didn't get set up online.

Thank you very much.

All the bookings for accommodation are now done for LEJOG, it seems crazy real now which is very exciting. My friend who I'm doing it with sorted all of that out, he's great. He's managed to get the hosts to wash our kit and give us lifts to the local pubs, there's also talk about baked goods on arrival. How even is that possible, I'm pretty overwhelmed with the generosity.

Mate, Im 33, no idea what I'm doing apart from all the bikes and that I WILL be bike touring next year, being stuck gives me the fear.

Thanks for the offer re the gpx but I have a route mapped out that im happy enough with. I had the mad idea of just winging it with accommodation as I wanted the flexibility to smash out bigger days if I was feeling strong but we'll see. I figured every small to medium town has a rubbish Travelodge. You using Air Bn'B?

...and just like that I've got a bike fitting tomorrow morning. Think someone cancelled so stroke of luck there.

I like the idea of winging it with the accommodation, I don't think I have the balls for that though. I've be caught out with that when travelling around Slovenia/Croatia and I was glad it was summer... Yeah we're using Air BnBs, seems to be a good way to go. I'm cautious of Covid restrictions worsening before then but we'll just have to see what happens.

I'm currently on day 116 and only 6 days away from being a third of the way through this challenge, I'm 242km down from the target which I'm really not stressing about. I'm trying to do a few kms extra each day and have one day in the week where I only commute. Without that evening off, I end up being burned out for the weekend where I have more time to do the distance.

I'm still loving the commute, even though the forecasts at the moment seems to be rain at all times but it doesn't at all... I also got my GF to do 100km with me on Sunday, I promised her a cafe stop so she happily joined. I'm terribly for not stopping on rides, I normally find a hedge for a wee but will eat etc when riding. With doing a lot of time on the turbo where you can't really stop or free wheel unless on a big descent, I don't feel the need to stop much when on the road but i guess it keeps others happy.

Anyway here's a photo from the lanes I commute on to work, not complaining with this

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I imagine you would be in good shape to do an ultra race (TCR, TABR, SRMR etc.) after this challenge. Have you considered it? Good going by the way!

I have thought about the TCR for a few years, it's also the only way I can bike pack across Europe as I've suggested cycling to places in Spain instead of flying and my GF looks at me like I've killed a kitten but she will be happy for me to do an event so let's see. I definitely won't rush back to racing 2kms in a boat so will do more some cycling races. I'm more competitive with myself than with others so will either ruin myself to win or I'm just content with finishing.

I'm more competitive with myself than with others so will either ruin myself to win or I'm just content with finishing.

Would be great to see you take on TCR after this.

If you're competitive with yourself you would perhaps get a decent buzz out of just squeezing out the best performance that you can, even if you don't win. You could have a personal target, like "complete the race within x days" or "finish in the top 15".

Either way, LEJOG will probably give you some insights.

He has a bigger goal though and that's the yearly target. There's no point treating LEJOG like a TCR if the main goal is the yearly target.

Eyes on the prize.

As hippy says below, this year is all about the distance. I'm using LEJOG as a good opportunity to get some decent kms in when the weather is hopefully nice as I didn't fancy doing a home 'training camp' where i just do laps of the Norfolk lanes for 2 weeks. If i treat LEJOG like a practice race i'll come back ruined and unable to ride the next day, everything I do at the moment is in order to get ride again.

But yeah one of those races would be cool, I'm just trying to complete this at the moment.

Also to respond to the previous lovely photo, I can confirm it was the polar opposite on the way home: thunderstorm and torrential rain.. Got soaked and will now will be on the turbo this week until the weather improves. I love the English weather....