Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
PS Not included in the above is the 10k that he recorded after midnight this morning. Which won't make a huge amount of difference to anything.
235 miles a day for a year (Amanda Coker Challenge)
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Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
@tallliman Yes, Steve's daily distances are bit ragged. I think a lot of it at the moment is reacting to bad weather or other circumstances, then making up lost time.
On the plus side this is his first 200+mpd week for a while. Also, his condition:
View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/955372491576365056
On the plus side this is his first 200+mpd week for a while. Also, his condition:
View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/955372491576365056
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Here's Steve's full write up for yesterday. Worth a read.
Started snowing as I left home. By Bicester, I was riding into a Winter Wonderland and the roads looked like they may become very hazardous and slow so I diverted on to bigger roads, then picked up the very nasty, But well gritted A34 and got myself to Oxford where I could get onto other major roads or take shelter if it got very bad. Rear mech got caked in snow and my gears started jumping. I didn't want to stop in the freezing cold but if I kept running through the gears now and then it kept everything working. Not so bad in Oxford but I took the A420 to be safe and headed back to my usual route to Cirencester. I was getting cold, so upped the pace a bit to warm up. I made a decision to stop at Cirencester for food but if I got too cold or hungry, I'd stop sooner. Made it to Cirencester. Fingers and arms were compromised because of the cold (my hands got painfully cold before I upped the pace a bit, then they were just cold) but I wasn't in a bad way and would have probably kept going if I wasn't hungry. The food and rest seemed to revive me as I was going a lot better and snow had turned to rain.
That may sound like I had a tough and miserable day, but I enjoyed it more than any day for a long time. I'm feeling and going a lot better now than I have in several months.
Started snowing as I left home. By Bicester, I was riding into a Winter Wonderland and the roads looked like they may become very hazardous and slow so I diverted on to bigger roads, then picked up the very nasty, But well gritted A34 and got myself to Oxford where I could get onto other major roads or take shelter if it got very bad. Rear mech got caked in snow and my gears started jumping. I didn't want to stop in the freezing cold but if I kept running through the gears now and then it kept everything working. Not so bad in Oxford but I took the A420 to be safe and headed back to my usual route to Cirencester. I was getting cold, so upped the pace a bit to warm up. I made a decision to stop at Cirencester for food but if I got too cold or hungry, I'd stop sooner. Made it to Cirencester. Fingers and arms were compromised because of the cold (my hands got painfully cold before I upped the pace a bit, then they were just cold) but I wasn't in a bad way and would have probably kept going if I wasn't hungry. The food and rest seemed to revive me as I was going a lot better and snow had turned to rain.
That may sound like I had a tough and miserable day, but I enjoyed it more than any day for a long time. I'm feeling and going a lot better now than I have in several months.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Wow. Given the importance of good sleep to recovery the fact he's living with apnoea is testament to the astonishing character of what he's doing.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I don't know what apnoea is. Well, I do know that it's to do with cessation of breathing during sleep (or at least sleep apnoea is). But I've no idea how it manifests itself or what problems it raises.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
On the assumption that it's sleep apnoea - because if you stop breathing while you're awake it's usually pretty noticeable and easy to sort out, here's the NHS guide.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obstructive-sleep-apnoea/
Memo to self: get a health check.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
No ride posted for yesterday and no tracker action for today - apart from the last few miles of yesterday's ride which saw Steve get home at about 2am.
Hopefully, this is due to no more than gadget problems.
Unless Steve is resting up to go all out for the month record.
Thirty days of 220+ miles would put him back on Tommy target.
Hopefully, this is due to no more than gadget problems.
Unless Steve is resting up to go all out for the month record.
Thirty days of 220+ miles would put him back on Tommy target.
Steve Abraham shared Trek Bicycle Store's post.
11 mins ·
Trek Bicycle Store in Milton Keynes has set me up very well, ready for my last month and a bit of my Annual Mileage Record attempt. For the last month, starting on 2nd February, I will start another attempt at my current month (30 day) distance record of 7104 miles. Thanks to Trek my bikes are better equipped and in better condition than when I broke the month record as part of my training for the year record, back in September 2016.
Going for the month record at the end of winter probably doesn't seem like the best plan when, in theory, I could have put in attempt in summer, so why do it in winter?
My year record never went to plan. I started very well, riding 95 hours a week and I was feeling stronger. Even my power data backed this up.
I couldnt figure out why it was that in the 2nd month, inspite of feeling stronger and the power data still backing up how I felt, my mileage was dropping. By the 3rd month I reduced my hours of riding to about 85 a week thinking that I would recover and my speed would continue to increase and because of my slight increase of speed, my mileage wouldn't drop too much.
This never went to plan and I gradualy grew more tired without really noticing until by about September, I was bringing up food about every hour. At worst I was being sick every 2 miles for about an hour or two until I slept by the roadside.
I couldn't understand why I was finding it so hard to ride for 85 hours a week when I was riding 95 hours a week much more comfortably at the beginning of the year. I was sure that I was getting enough sleep. I made a point of never using an alarm clock to wake up each morning for several reasons. But why was I finding it so hard. I also loosely followed Mark Beaumont on his round the world record attempt (well done Mark) and had this nagging question, how can he ride for 100 hours a week for almost 80 days when I am finding it so hard to only do 85?
I thought about what I had going on and from what I have read and listened to about sleep, everything seemed to point at me being deprived of sleep. I have read up a little bit on sleep because of my Audaxing and working rotating shifts, so have a reasonable understanding of how it works. But how? I was sure I was getting enough sleep, but was I? The only answer that made sense was that I have a condition called, "Sleep Apnoea."
I tried an experiment. I bought some anti snoring spray from a chemist and tried that one night. I felt a whole lot better than usual when I woke up the next morning. I tried this for several days and felt much better! On reading the notes on the anti snore spray it said that it was not for treating sleep apnoea, so I looked on line and bought myself a tongue stabilizer which had very good customer ratings. This made a huge difference!
You can read up about sleep apnoea on the NHS website, among other places for better information, but what it basically is, is that you stop breathing while you are asleep, which wakes you up. You wont be aware that this is going on because before you are fully awake, you will go back to sleep very quickly without realizing that you woke up in the first place. The best clues that you may have this condition are that you snore (as I do, or at least did now that I am treating my condition) and that you wake up during the night, perhaps to go to the toilet.
This simply means that when I was sleeping, I was getting a very poor quality and ineffective sleep.
However, although I had made a most probable diagnosis, I still wasnt going to magically spring back to how I was back in March. Loss of sleep has an accumulative effect. You simply don;t recover from months of lost sleep literally overnight. Much less so when you have to try and cycle over 200 miles a day! It was going to take months to recover and it pretty much has!
I don't know how badly affected I am by sleep apnoea. The only real way of knowing is by going to a sleep clinic and getting wired up for analysis while you seep, but I didn't have time for that. Just popping my tongue in a tongue stabilizer before I fell asleep and seeing if it worked was much more time efficient and time is miles!
I actually seemed to be catching up on sleep by getting roughly the same number of hours sleep each night when riding for 85 hours a week.
Within a few weeks I was feeling much better. I wasn't being sick and I could cut down on the huge amounts of caffeine I was taking to help me get through a day.
Within a few months I was feeling much better, though still not great, I knew that things would improve.
Then I was hit by a car. Another huge setback and my injures were making me feel sleepy. A different kind of tiredness. More like of you've done a hard training session. Damage to the body triggers off repair hormones which make you feel very sleepy, so I was slower and unable to ride as many hours. And just as I was beginning to feel almost recovered from that, I went down on ice very heavily.
Its about a month on from when I went down on ice. Its been about a week since I have been able to walk comfortably and mount my bike by lifting my leg over my saddle instead of resting it on the top tube and sliding it over.
It is still slowing me down but I am feeling much better. I tried pushing my pace closer to what I was doing back in March-April yesterday, but ended up getting very sleepy. this is because of my injuries being not fully recovered. Mentally, I feel better than I have done since about the early days of my attempt. I rode 100 hours last week, though my mileage wasn't that good because I was slowed down, not just from my injuries but also from persistent strong winds. I hope to do another 100 hours this week, hopefully at a slightly faster pace, but as I found yesterday, I am still unable to ride at pace without getting sleepy so will just take it easy and keep going as long as I can. This week hasn't got off to a great start with me having to do paperwork and other things that only I can do, regarding legal stuff. But my injuries are healing and I am feeling more and more awake. My speed is slowly getting back to pace.
I don't know if I can succeed or not. It depends on how quickly I can recover from my injuries. Last week was my first week of over 200mpd since about 6 weeks. I haven't just had injuries holding me back. The GPSs have been running themselves into the ground and I've had to manage my riding and take time out to sort those out. The tracker packed up, which cost several more hours. I've taken yet more time out today to sort out stuff that needs doing.
But now everything is pretty much done now and I can finally just get on with the cycling and not have to do too much else.
Garmin, in their infinite wisdom, have sent me their latest top notch 1030 GPS (available at Trek Bike Store
;-)). I've been using it for about a week and its looking very good. I reckon I can get over 30 hours use on battery save mode where I was getting 15-16 from a Garmin 520, though a few weeks ago I was lucky to get 10 hours because the battery has been recharged so many times.
So if I can recover from my injuries enough and in time; weather aside maybe; things are looking promising for me beating my (now men's) Monthly Mileage Record. I shouldn't be affected by my sleep apnoea as I would have been in 2016. I am probably fitter than I was then and am certainly lighter. The new Garmin 1030 has most likely removed any GPS issues with its long battery life. And thanks to Trek Bike Store I am better equipped for my month record attempt than I was in 2016.
Trek Bicycle Store is with Steven Abraham.
19 January at 18:19 ·
65,100 miles ridden, 4061 hours spent in the saddle, an unimaginable amount of calories consumed and still over a month to go! On his quest to set the Highest Annual Mileage Record, Steve Abraham has trusted all three of his bikes to us at the Trek Certified Service Centre. And amazingly we have only had to replace a handful of cassettes and pads. Our technicians put the same level of care and attention into Steve's bikes as we do with all of our customers. We wish Steve luck on the remainder of his epic challenge. Give him a follow on Facebook: @stevenabraham2015, or track him live through his blog: oneyeartimetrial.org.uk. .
11 mins ·
Trek Bicycle Store in Milton Keynes has set me up very well, ready for my last month and a bit of my Annual Mileage Record attempt. For the last month, starting on 2nd February, I will start another attempt at my current month (30 day) distance record of 7104 miles. Thanks to Trek my bikes are better equipped and in better condition than when I broke the month record as part of my training for the year record, back in September 2016.
Going for the month record at the end of winter probably doesn't seem like the best plan when, in theory, I could have put in attempt in summer, so why do it in winter?
My year record never went to plan. I started very well, riding 95 hours a week and I was feeling stronger. Even my power data backed this up.
I couldnt figure out why it was that in the 2nd month, inspite of feeling stronger and the power data still backing up how I felt, my mileage was dropping. By the 3rd month I reduced my hours of riding to about 85 a week thinking that I would recover and my speed would continue to increase and because of my slight increase of speed, my mileage wouldn't drop too much.
This never went to plan and I gradualy grew more tired without really noticing until by about September, I was bringing up food about every hour. At worst I was being sick every 2 miles for about an hour or two until I slept by the roadside.
I couldn't understand why I was finding it so hard to ride for 85 hours a week when I was riding 95 hours a week much more comfortably at the beginning of the year. I was sure that I was getting enough sleep. I made a point of never using an alarm clock to wake up each morning for several reasons. But why was I finding it so hard. I also loosely followed Mark Beaumont on his round the world record attempt (well done Mark) and had this nagging question, how can he ride for 100 hours a week for almost 80 days when I am finding it so hard to only do 85?
I thought about what I had going on and from what I have read and listened to about sleep, everything seemed to point at me being deprived of sleep. I have read up a little bit on sleep because of my Audaxing and working rotating shifts, so have a reasonable understanding of how it works. But how? I was sure I was getting enough sleep, but was I? The only answer that made sense was that I have a condition called, "Sleep Apnoea."
I tried an experiment. I bought some anti snoring spray from a chemist and tried that one night. I felt a whole lot better than usual when I woke up the next morning. I tried this for several days and felt much better! On reading the notes on the anti snore spray it said that it was not for treating sleep apnoea, so I looked on line and bought myself a tongue stabilizer which had very good customer ratings. This made a huge difference!
You can read up about sleep apnoea on the NHS website, among other places for better information, but what it basically is, is that you stop breathing while you are asleep, which wakes you up. You wont be aware that this is going on because before you are fully awake, you will go back to sleep very quickly without realizing that you woke up in the first place. The best clues that you may have this condition are that you snore (as I do, or at least did now that I am treating my condition) and that you wake up during the night, perhaps to go to the toilet.
This simply means that when I was sleeping, I was getting a very poor quality and ineffective sleep.
However, although I had made a most probable diagnosis, I still wasnt going to magically spring back to how I was back in March. Loss of sleep has an accumulative effect. You simply don;t recover from months of lost sleep literally overnight. Much less so when you have to try and cycle over 200 miles a day! It was going to take months to recover and it pretty much has!
I don't know how badly affected I am by sleep apnoea. The only real way of knowing is by going to a sleep clinic and getting wired up for analysis while you seep, but I didn't have time for that. Just popping my tongue in a tongue stabilizer before I fell asleep and seeing if it worked was much more time efficient and time is miles!
I actually seemed to be catching up on sleep by getting roughly the same number of hours sleep each night when riding for 85 hours a week.
Within a few weeks I was feeling much better. I wasn't being sick and I could cut down on the huge amounts of caffeine I was taking to help me get through a day.
Within a few months I was feeling much better, though still not great, I knew that things would improve.
Then I was hit by a car. Another huge setback and my injures were making me feel sleepy. A different kind of tiredness. More like of you've done a hard training session. Damage to the body triggers off repair hormones which make you feel very sleepy, so I was slower and unable to ride as many hours. And just as I was beginning to feel almost recovered from that, I went down on ice very heavily.
Its about a month on from when I went down on ice. Its been about a week since I have been able to walk comfortably and mount my bike by lifting my leg over my saddle instead of resting it on the top tube and sliding it over.
It is still slowing me down but I am feeling much better. I tried pushing my pace closer to what I was doing back in March-April yesterday, but ended up getting very sleepy. this is because of my injuries being not fully recovered. Mentally, I feel better than I have done since about the early days of my attempt. I rode 100 hours last week, though my mileage wasn't that good because I was slowed down, not just from my injuries but also from persistent strong winds. I hope to do another 100 hours this week, hopefully at a slightly faster pace, but as I found yesterday, I am still unable to ride at pace without getting sleepy so will just take it easy and keep going as long as I can. This week hasn't got off to a great start with me having to do paperwork and other things that only I can do, regarding legal stuff. But my injuries are healing and I am feeling more and more awake. My speed is slowly getting back to pace.
I don't know if I can succeed or not. It depends on how quickly I can recover from my injuries. Last week was my first week of over 200mpd since about 6 weeks. I haven't just had injuries holding me back. The GPSs have been running themselves into the ground and I've had to manage my riding and take time out to sort those out. The tracker packed up, which cost several more hours. I've taken yet more time out today to sort out stuff that needs doing.
But now everything is pretty much done now and I can finally just get on with the cycling and not have to do too much else.
Garmin, in their infinite wisdom, have sent me their latest top notch 1030 GPS (available at Trek Bike Store
So if I can recover from my injuries enough and in time; weather aside maybe; things are looking promising for me beating my (now men's) Monthly Mileage Record. I shouldn't be affected by my sleep apnoea as I would have been in 2016. I am probably fitter than I was then and am certainly lighter. The new Garmin 1030 has most likely removed any GPS issues with its long battery life. And thanks to Trek Bike Store I am better equipped for my month record attempt than I was in 2016.
Trek Bicycle Store is with Steven Abraham.
19 January at 18:19 ·
65,100 miles ridden, 4061 hours spent in the saddle, an unimaginable amount of calories consumed and still over a month to go! On his quest to set the Highest Annual Mileage Record, Steve Abraham has trusted all three of his bikes to us at the Trek Certified Service Centre. And amazingly we have only had to replace a handful of cassettes and pads. Our technicians put the same level of care and attention into Steve's bikes as we do with all of our customers. We wish Steve luck on the remainder of his epic challenge. Give him a follow on Facebook: @stevenabraham2015, or track him live through his blog: oneyeartimetrial.org.uk. .
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Steve's stats as at 28 Jan 18
Days: 331, 90.7% of year, 34 days remaining
Dist: 108,489 km / 67,412 mi / 2.71 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 424,863 m / 1,393,906 ft / 48.0 Everests
Avg daily dist: 327.8 km / 203.7 mi (Last 7 days: 304.6 km / 189.3 mi per day)
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,284 m / 4,211 ft (Last 7 days: 1597 m / 5241 ft per day)
Moving speed (Strava): 25.4 km/h / 15.8 mi/h (Last 7 days: 22.5 km/h / 14.0 mi/h)
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2 (Last 7 days: 17.0)
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,633 km / 74,337 mi (327.8 km / 203.7 miles per day)
Projected total at 7 day rate : 118,847 km / 73,848 mi (325.6 km / 202.3 miles per day)
Required rates for various records
René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles. Completed Dec 26.
Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles. Completed Jan 02.
Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles. Completed Jan 07.
Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles. Completed Jan 16.
225.1 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles.
254.8 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles.
563.6 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles.
Last 7 days
2018-01-21 08:16 211.1 miles Started snowing as I left home. By Bicester, I was riding into a Winter Wonderland and the roads looked like they may become very hazardous and slow....(continued in "Description"
2018-01-22 00:00 167.9 miles Late start so tried to ride closer to pace but my injuries are still slowing me down and I ended up getting very sleepy, so stopped at Maccy Ds at Royston for a doze before heading home.
2018-01-23 00:00 25.9 miles Late finish after my Mc Sleep
2018-01-23 18:20 60.6 miles Spent the day sorting everything out so a late start feeling tired.
2018-01-24 00:02 80.1 miles Sleepy tour of bus shelters. Felt more awake in the last hour or so.
2018-01-24 13:02 115.7 miles Afternoon Ride
2018-01-25 06:37 212.2 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-26 05:45 223.5 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-27 06:47 211.7 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-28 00:01 26.9 miles Night Ride
2018-01-28 08:11 200.4 miles Morning Ride
Days: 331, 90.7% of year, 34 days remaining
Dist: 108,489 km / 67,412 mi / 2.71 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 424,863 m / 1,393,906 ft / 48.0 Everests
Avg daily dist: 327.8 km / 203.7 mi (Last 7 days: 304.6 km / 189.3 mi per day)
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,284 m / 4,211 ft (Last 7 days: 1597 m / 5241 ft per day)
Moving speed (Strava): 25.4 km/h / 15.8 mi/h (Last 7 days: 22.5 km/h / 14.0 mi/h)
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2 (Last 7 days: 17.0)
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,633 km / 74,337 mi (327.8 km / 203.7 miles per day)
Projected total at 7 day rate : 118,847 km / 73,848 mi (325.6 km / 202.3 miles per day)
Required rates for various records
René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles. Completed Dec 26.
Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles. Completed Jan 02.
Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles. Completed Jan 07.
Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles. Completed Jan 16.
225.1 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles.
254.8 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles.
563.6 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles.
Last 7 days
2018-01-21 08:16 211.1 miles Started snowing as I left home. By Bicester, I was riding into a Winter Wonderland and the roads looked like they may become very hazardous and slow....(continued in "Description"
2018-01-22 00:00 167.9 miles Late start so tried to ride closer to pace but my injuries are still slowing me down and I ended up getting very sleepy, so stopped at Maccy Ds at Royston for a doze before heading home.
2018-01-23 00:00 25.9 miles Late finish after my Mc Sleep
2018-01-23 18:20 60.6 miles Spent the day sorting everything out so a late start feeling tired.
2018-01-24 00:02 80.1 miles Sleepy tour of bus shelters. Felt more awake in the last hour or so.
2018-01-24 13:02 115.7 miles Afternoon Ride
2018-01-25 06:37 212.2 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-26 05:45 223.5 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-27 06:47 211.7 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-28 00:01 26.9 miles Night Ride
2018-01-28 08:11 200.4 miles Morning Ride
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
No messing about with whimsical ride names any more. I think we can safely say the final push has begun!
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
Interesting looking at the scatter chart of rides, that he hasn't once ridden over 235 miles for about the last 100 days.
The big rides have just totally dried up.
Lets hope he can push like crazy for the last few weeks.
The big rides have just totally dried up.
Lets hope he can push like crazy for the last few weeks.
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
It does look as though the final push really did begin on January 24th, just before 7am. Eight days later - 192 hours plus a few minutes - Steve began the last 30 days and the attempt at the month record.
In those 8 days he averaged 211.6 miles. According to Strava his average moving time was 14 hours 44 minutes, giving an average speed of 14.36 mph.
Again based of Strava's view of events, his average time spent paused within activities was 1 hour 53 minutes, and average non-activity time was 7 hours 23 minutes.
Assuming speed is maintained, to meet the outstanding target of 227.8 mpd (to match Godwin), he needs to find another 1 hour 8 minutes per day.
It's sobering to recall other recent campaigns of this type, which were effectively over many months before the end. We certainly can't complain about that this time. May the odds be ever in his favour.
In those 8 days he averaged 211.6 miles. According to Strava his average moving time was 14 hours 44 minutes, giving an average speed of 14.36 mph.
Again based of Strava's view of events, his average time spent paused within activities was 1 hour 53 minutes, and average non-activity time was 7 hours 23 minutes.
Assuming speed is maintained, to meet the outstanding target of 227.8 mpd (to match Godwin), he needs to find another 1 hour 8 minutes per day.
It's sobering to recall other recent campaigns of this type, which were effectively over many months before the end. We certainly can't complain about that this time. May the odds be ever in his favour.
