250 miles a day - for a month

[Jere]

Originally Posted by Nomadmax

Sounds like a great way to wind up with a pacemaker before the age of 55. To each their own.

Hi
That’s exactly the age I rode across country for the second time.
We were banging out thousand mile weeks. I don’t know how you feet and hands could take more than that for a normal person.

[Geemalar]

I feel a personal sense of accomplishment when I knock out 250 miles in a week…………

250 miles a day………for xxx number of days……..no thank you. I’m in the overtraining is worse than undertraining camp……….

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by charliedid

You're drunk

If anyone thought I was remotely serious, they are drunk. It was a joke.

Anyway, I think it's natural that people want to compare what people like Lael, Morton, etc do to their own personal experience on the bike.

These guys are not normal people. They didnt get to where they are in their careers by just training hard and trying their best. They are working with a different set of physio hardware than most of us.

Of course none of us could ride close to 250miles/day for a month.

[ridethecliche]

Some people are built different. The fact that we're even talking about this means that he's just about as fantastic an ambassador for the sport as anyone could hope for!

[Spoker]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Lon Haldeman set himself the goal of riding across the US in under 10 days. In 1981 he rode from New York City, New York, to Santa Monica, California, in 12 days and 8 hours. Having failed in his goal, he rested for 6 hours, and then decided to try again, and rode back to New York, this time taking 10 days and 23 hours - a round trip distance of about 6000 miles over 24 days, average about 250 miles per day.

The following year he tried again, this time meeting his goal by riding across the USA in 9 days and 20 hours (or roughly 300 miles per day).

And without tri bars I assume?

[DeBike]

Well, Amanda Coker set the record for fastest to 100,000 miles in 423 days, 236.4 miles per day.

[benb]

Originally Posted by JMT3

I too ride for fun and health and that does not sound like fun or healthy. I seriously question if the extreme is even good for your health in the long term. A big chunk of my life is off the bike. A family, other interests and a volunteer job one day a week. When I see people going things like that I ask myself “Don’t they like themselves”?

I have a friend that started a triple decathon two days ago in Italy. While everyone on my team gives him praise for attempting it I think he’s nuts and one day his obsession wuth the extreme will end his life. Look at Dave Scott and Scott Tinley. Heart issues.

Yah I don't think it's healthy either but it's all tradeoffs. He has made the decision (long ago) to devote himself to cycling and that cycling is his best option for a career at this point.

It was a rerun but Freakonomics just had a fantastic episode about "Why you're not an Elite Athlete" and they cover lots of this stuff.

There are opportunity costs to everything, they talk a lot about the sacrifices athletes make and the opportunity costs to hit certain performance levels in different sports. Lots of great commentary from Pro athletes on the show.

We kind of already know the costs of elite cycling:

- Really low BMI and possible health issues
- Possible bone loss
- Might (this probably hasn't been confirmed?) increase your risk of Afib or something else
- There is the issue with the femoral artery impingment that some elites get (probably still pretty low risk)
- Cycling has risks around crashes, cars and the more you cycle the more you put yourself at risk (maybe the worst risk as a cyclist?)
- Too much leads to imbalanced fitness and weakness in other areas of life
- Cycling isn't great on the opportunity cost of a different career, all sports only work if you hit the absolute elite payday and cycling isn't great on the economic side, it has a pretty steep climb to get to the top of the pro ranks but much lower pay even at the highest levels than most of the other similarly difficult sports.

But for all these things all the elite cyclists have decided it's worth it.

My family has put a massive limiter on how much I can cycle, if I'd never gotten married I'm sure my miles/hours would be a lot higher, but I'd like to think it's made me value more things in life and have a more varied perspective. And I still have a ton of fun when I am out there riding.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

If anyone thought I was remotely serious, they are drunk. It was a joke.

Anyway, I think it's natural that people want to compare what people like Lael, Morton, etc do to their own personal experience on the bike.

These guys are not normal people. They didnt get to where they are in their careers by just training hard and trying their best. They are working with a different set of physio hardware than most of us.

Of course none of us could ride close to 250miles/day for a month.

Sure but most of us read or watch these things and wonder...what if I did give it a shot?

[fellowpicker]

Check out The Iron Cowboy documentary. I watched a video about this the other day on Peacock. Add the logistics for a whole new degree of difficulty. Not quite sure where I am on this kind of endeavor.

https://www.redbull.com/us-en/iron-c...states-50-days

[p nut]

I almost signed up for ski patrol many years ago, before I was married. Since I really enjoyed skiing, why not?. Then, I thought about the 4am roll call, having to deal with troublemakers, entitled kids and “adults,” and essentially taking up the entire weekend for the season… it would’ve taken the joy right out of skiing.

If I even attempted something like this, I’d probably end up selling off all of my bikes and never riding again.

[gone]

I know someone that's a 3 time RAAM finisher who's still riding 60-100+ miles at least 5 days/week, year round, in the upper Midwest.

To paraphrase an old joke (said about speeds at which people drive): "did you ever notice that people who ride more than you are crazy and people that ride less than you are wimps"?

Some people just like riding their bike - a lot!

Edited to add: I've done 11 consecutive 100+ mile days and found that after a few days you get into a rhythm. Admittedly not nearly the same as 250 miles/day but I suspect it's similar.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Spoker

And without tri bars I assume?

Don't you mean "ultra-marathon bars"? What became "triathlon aero bars" actually evolved out of the elbow rest handlebars first used in ultra-marathon races. Ultra-marathon racers discovered that these elbow rest handlebars not only provided a more comfortable position, but the narrow elbow rests improved aerodynamics. However, these handlebars were first used in RAAM in 1986, 4 years after Haldeman's sub-10 day record.

[gone]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Don't you mean "ultra-marathon bars"? What became "triathlon aero bars" actually evolved out of the elbow rest handlebars first used in ultra-marathon races. Ultra-marathon racers discovered that these elbow rest handlebars not only provided a more comfortable position, but the narrow elbow rests improved aerodynamics. However, these handlebars were first used in RAAM in 1986, 4 years after Haldeman's sub-10 day record.

I recently heard those referred to as "comfort bars", as opposed to aero or tri

[OtayBW]

I could do it in my sleep.....



....in my dreams.

[deluz]

When I was in my 20's a friend and I rode from San Diego to SF.
We didn't think much about preparation. We were both riding a Masi with skinny tires, maybe 20mm with pretty heavy packs only on the rear.
Since we were riding from south to north we mostly rode against the wind, something we did not even think about. I had taken a week off of work so we averaged about 100 miles riding 10 hours a day. Just north of SLO my rear tire got shredded so I took off my packs and rode to Morro Bay and back to get a new tire. By the end we were both hobbled with one of my knees in pain.
Even just 10 years ago I could ride 100 miles in a day. Now at 67 with six stents I am at 20 miles every other day. When you are young your body is capable of punishment, but there is price to pay when you chronically over do it.