Steve Abraham - One Year Time Trial.

[S10GTA]

Surprised there is no discussion on this yet. Could be a good year long thread too.

Steve Abraham is attempting to break Tommy Godwin's 75 year old record for miles cycled in a year.
Tommy managed 75,065 in 1939. Steve hopes to top 80,000.

Here is the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stevenabraham2015?fref=ts

and here is his Strava feed http://www.strava.com/athletes/1419435

He's off to a good start, 222 miles, making my 30 in the wind look pretty pathetic.

Here is the website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/

Chapeau

[Fourmotion]

I'm looking forward to seeing this play out, I think the guy has it in him fitness wise, but I just can't see it being a pleasant thing to when you have to miss out on everything else in life.

Best of luck to him, and I'd certainly be willing to donate to him as the challenge progresses.

[Gizmoish]

It's an almost unimaginable challenge. 222 miles yesterday, great, but if he's going to do 80k miles he needs to average that many, in all weathers, including any illness or injury.

[donfisher]

Gizmoish said:

It's an almost unimaginable challenge. 222 miles yesterday, great, but if he's going to do 80k miles he needs to average that many, in all weathers, including any illness or injury.

I was thinking that but presumably there'll be some sort of bell curve as the weather and daylight hours improve.

I don't know what the rules for the challenge are but I'd rather start something like that in the middle of the summer and do half in one year and half in the next to help build up a buffer at the start and then get better conditions at the end to make up any shortfall.

Either way, It's a seriously impressive thing to even contemplate.

[Sebo]

It's an epic challenge.

I got an email through on Christmas day from his support team asking for donations / offers of a place to sleep / eat wash etc (I presume they sent it to anyone that is a member of Audax UK) so slung him a couple of quid to keep him going.

I'll be watching with interest.

[sjg]

Will be impressive if he gets there.

Was reading about Tommy Godwin's record and more interestingly one of his record-holding predecessors - Walter Greaves

45383 miles in a year, on a 1930s 3-speed bike (which turned up late so he lost 5 days before he even started), and he only had one arm. He fell off many times, and lost two weeks in hospital after he developed an abscess. Was still doing 160 mile days while recovering.

Nails.

[anonymous-user]

Fair enough, I like the "because its there" aspect to this but I'd get very bored and rapidly run out of places to ride, to do it you would need to stay on the flatlands and that would be dull. He's aiming to push the record out from 75065 to 82835 too.... it will be interesting to see his altitude gain/distance over the next few weeks...

[JustinF]

The tracker for some reason isn't on the main website, it also tracks the other two guys trying this in the states.

http://trackleaders.com/oneyeartimetrial15i.php?na...

[S10GTA]

JustinF said:

The tracker for some reason isn't on the main website, it also tracks the other two guys trying this in the states.

http://trackleaders.com/oneyeartimetrial15i.php?na...

That's pretty cool.

How was Goodwins figure verified in pre GPS days?

[JustinF]

According to the news piece yesterday he got people to sign brevet cards at various stops.

[okgo]

Saw this and thought it would be interesting to see Godwins mileage curve over the year

[BoRED S2upid]

Is he going anywhere special or just around the UK? That's one hell of a challenge.

[RGambo]

Good luck to him, that's an almost unbelievable challenge.
220 miles a day, take average speed of say 15mph, that's 14 hours a day! Not something I'd be interested in attempting.
Bits of him will be sore to say the least!

[okgo]

If I were him I'd be making sure I made use the trains to make sure I made the most of the wind etc on any given day. I think Goodwin did just that to make sure he wasn't putting in effort he didn't need to.

For example today riding from W to E would be much more favourable than the opposite

[ecs]

BoRED S2upid said:

Is he going anywhere special or just around the UK? That's one hell of a challenge.

He was on the news the other day - in the interview he said he'd be staying around MK during the winter months, but once the days start to get longer he has some places to visit and sofas to crash on.

[donfisher]

He's hit my target for the year in less than three weeks!

[upsidedownmark]

Equally bonkers: he's not top of the mileage chart either...

[curtisl]

okgo said:

Saw this and thought it would be interesting to see Godwins mileage curve over the year

There is some good info on Tommy's record on Dave Barter's blog website.

http://phased.co.uk/tommy-godwin-faq/

Good luck to Steve on this monsterous challenge. He is making good progress so far but I bet he is wishing away the cold and wet quite a lot!

[TKF]

There is an American attempting it too. Some of the numbers from his rides are astonishing.

http://app.strava.com/activities/243448686

211 miles
831 feet
18.9mph
95bpm

[okgo]

The club runs speed in florida are probably 3mph+ on average than here. So a quick club run over there would look to average getting on for 25mph because its just SO flat and easy (though warm in the summer of course) vs somewhere like the UK. If I were going to do it, it would be somewhere like that.

I don't really pay any attention to HR, it doesn't really tell us much, his max could be 140 for all we know.