48 states in 48 days

AGNI

You may have seen this in the main news section of bike radar.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/48-states-in-48-days-record-attempt-21834

48 states in 48 days. 8100miles. Average 165-170 miles per day!!!!!!

As a beginner who is training for a simple 80 mile charity ride, this is mind blowing.

He has also got a facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44142168235&ref=ts

Very humbling as it looks like a massive feat.

Anyone else a beginner training for an event or remember their first long distance event?

Crapaud

Thanks for posting the link, AGNI. I missed it in the news section.

AGNI wrote:

...Very humbling as it looks like a massive feat. ...

I can remember when I thought that a 12.5 mile e/w commute was next to impossible. When I heard of the Tour du Canada I thought that that would be a massive feat. Everyone, when I told them that I'd be doing it, gave a sharp intake of breath; 4 600 miles in 11 weeks. Officially, 86 miles per day average. It wasn't the overall distance, it wasn't the daily distance, but the fact that it'd be 86 miles each day, day after day, that everyone reckoned would be the killer. Fact was it was easy after putting in the training to get up to the distance and after, I reckon, 2 weeks on the tour. I'm not sure at which point we came to regarded 85 miles as an easy day, but it was probably around the 4 week mark; we got the route sheet in the morning and shrugged. 8)

What Phil Nagle is doing, though, is a major challenge. He's not leaving himself a lot of wiggle room for cockups, nor any rest days. An average of 165-170 miles per day implies that there'll be a number of very long days.

The TdC is achievable by any healthy, reasonably fit person; 48 States in 48 Days is another kettle of fish.

funckchicken

it's a bloody tall order, particularly since he doesn't seem to have done any long distance back-to-back days in his training. if i was attempting something like this i would at least have done 7 consecutive days with 150miles per day in training, if only to check out how my body would react to that kind of stress.

hats off to him for giving it a bash though.

Crapaud

funckchicken wrote:

it's a bloody tall order, particularly since he doesn't seem to have done any long distance back-to-back days in his training. if i was attempting something like this i would at least have done 7 consecutive days with 150miles per day in training, if only to check out how my body would react to that kind of stress. ...

It's not just the distance, there'll be different terrains - days cycling constantly uphill or, in the prairies, cycling perfectly straight roads where the vanishing point never seem to get any closer, which is psycologically very, very tough - and temperature zones.

funckchicken wrote:

... hats off to him for giving it a bash though.

Yeah, I'll be following his blog with interest. I hope he makes it, he's doing it for a good cause.

ride_whenever

I remember hearing about a guy who did a marathon in every state in america in just over 1 marathon a day, i.e. he ran two marathons some days...

Lived off fried chicken and ice cream as well, these extreme athletes really are something else, according so most sports scientists they shouldn't be able to do it, physiologically their bodies should just fail, yet somehow (and no-one really knows yet) they just keep going...

Porgy

Complete cop out! Only 48 states? :evil:

AGNI

Crapaud wrote:

I can remember when I thought that a 12.5 mile e/w commute was next to impossible. When I heard of the Tour du Canada I thought that that would be a massive feat. Everyone, when I told them that I'd be doing it, gave a sharp intake of breath; 4 600 miles in 11 weeks. Officially, 86 miles per day average. It wasn't the overall distance, it wasn't the daily distance, but the fact that it'd be 86 miles each day, day after day, that everyone reckoned would be the killer. Fact was it was easy after putting in the training to get up to the distance and after, I reckon, 2 weeks on the tour. I'm not sure at which point we came to regarded 85 miles as an easy day, but it was probably around the 4 week mark; we got the route sheet in the morning and shrugged. 8)

What Phil Nagle is doing, though, is a major challenge. He's not leaving himself a lot of wiggle room for cockups, nor any rest days. An average of 165-170 miles per day implies that there'll be a number of very long days.

The TdC is achievable by any healthy, reasonably fit person; 48 States in 48 Days is another kettle of fish.

4,600miles???
How long were you riding in general and how long in training before doing 4,600 miles?
What kind of average speed were you doing on these marathon routes?

Crapaud

AGNI wrote:

4,600miles???
How long were you riding in general and how long in training before doing 4,600 miles?
What kind of average speed were you doing on these marathon routes?

I'd been cycling for 5 years. Just a 7 mile e/w commute (uphill in one direction, downhill the other).

I found the TdC when I got fed up just commuting - it was so easy that I'd become bored with it - on my own and was looking for other things to do on a bike. A year before I tested myself for distance and found that I could go quite a bit further than I'd expected to be able to. The training, if it can be called that, started in the January (the tour kicked off at the end of June) by tacking 30 miles onto my commute 3 times a week and steadily building up distance at the weekends; a short 60 miler on Sats and 80+ on Sundays.. Eventually I was visiting my family in Fife on a Sat might (86 miles) and returning (120 miles) on the Sun. So, around 5-6 months.

Average speeds were 11 mph, at the start, up to 17 mph during the tour. I never really trained for speed though, I was happy if I could do the daily distances in a reasonable amount of time.

AGNI

Crapaud wrote:

AGNI wrote:

4,600miles???
How long were you riding in general and how long in training before doing 4,600 miles?
What kind of average speed were you doing on these marathon routes?

I'd been cycling for 5 years. Just a 7 mile e/w commute (uphill in one direction, downhill the other).

I found the TdC when I got fed up just commuting - it was so easy that I'd become bored with it - on my own and was looking for other things to do on a bike. A year before I tested myself for distance and found that I could go quite a bit further than I'd expected to be able to. The training, if it can be called that, started in the January (the tour kicked off at the end of June) by tacking 30 miles onto my commute 3 times a week and steadily building up distance at the weekends; a short 60 miler on Sats and 80+ on Sundays.. Eventually I was visiting my family in Fife on a Sat might (86 miles) and returning (120 miles) on the Sun. So, around 5-6 months.

Average speeds were 11 mph, at the start, up to 17 mph during the tour. I never really trained for speed though, I was happy if I could do the daily distances in a reasonable amount of time.

Excellent. Thats encouraging.

Tell me that you were about 40, 5ft 10" and 16 stone and I will be even more encouraged ;-)

Well done on the TdC. Very impressive

Crapaud

AGNI wrote:

... Tell me that you were about 40, 5ft 10" and 16 stone and I will be even more encouraged ;-)...

39, 5' 5" and 11.5 down to 10.5 (lost another 10lbs on the tour despite 6000 calories/day). Most riders on the tour were in their 50s, the oldest were 63 and 67, the youngest 16. Remarkable things are achievable by ordinary people when they put a little effort in.

For more encouragement see how far these guys have come in a short time in this thread - and one of them's a girl. :shock:

zoglug

At the moment i am currently training for the very modest Manchester to Blackpool charity ride, which for me will be a massive feat in itself.

8 months ago i topped the scales at 19 stone and decided to do something about it. I began cycling, but with nothing to actually aim for, i didnt go out as regularly as i liked. So in order to find some direction i signed up to do the bike ride. My first ride was aweful! I was huffing and puffing after only 3 miles,

Now, im a healthier 16.5 stone. I commute to work everyday (15 mile round trip) and twice a week ill extend my ride with some extra miles, up to about a further 10 miles and do a longer ride at weekend. Friday just gone i actually managed 45 miles in the saddle in a little over 3 hours, though it was predominantly flat.

Im really looking forward to my first event in July, and am hoping to complete it in a respectable time, under 5 hours would be fantastic! But am also looking to the future. Im contemplating the Manchester 100 miler in September (though its 2 days after my birthday!) and there are a few challenging events in the North West id like to do next year.

Compared to what this guy is attempting, what im doing is a drop in the ocean, though i do remember the documentary about the fella that cycled the world in 180 days!

AGNI

Crapaud wrote:

For more encouragement see how far these guys have come in a short time in this thread - and one of them's a girl. :shock:

Thanks for that link. Very inspiring. The cycling guide was very good. I have forwarded it on to a few of the other guys doing the route.

From reading through that thread, I dont think I am too far behind the curve in the training for this 80 miler. I am upto 40 miles with an average of 14.5mph but I do have a couple of stops in there to stretch and take on drink and a snack. I havenow got 6 weeks left to get myself upto 60 miles minumum.

Wish I could say that the weight is dropping off me but as soon as I lose a few pounds, they seem to jump back on again. Then again, I can probably put that down to a few evenings and BBQ's we have had recently.

The route we are doing is from telford to barmouth which is pretty hilly and goes over Bwich y Goes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwlch_y_Groes) just pass Dinas Mawddwy which is a bit of a hill to say the least. To get up and over that without pushing would be fantastic but maybe a goal too far. I do aim to tackle it though, even if it means stopping a few times on the way up for breath.

Edited for typo's