# 235 miles a day for a year (Amanda Coker Challenge)



## Mugshot (27 Feb 2017)

In 1939 Tommy Godwin cycled a frankly mind boggling 75,065 miles, an average of 205 miles a day.
In January 2015 two cyclists, Steve Abraham from the UK and Kurt Searvogel from the USA set out to break the record. However on the 29/3/15 Steve sustained a broken ankle after being ridden into by a moped.
In reality the challenge was over for Steve that day, but he refused to give up at that time and after some rehabilitation he started again, it wasn't until 21/01/16 that he made an announcement that he was retiring from the challenge.
Others started but soon fell by the wayside, leaving Kurt largely unchallenged except by the monumental task itself.
On 09/01/16 Kurt finished his 365th day having ridden a frankly ludicrous 76,076 miles in a year beating Tommy by 1011 miles and pushing the average up to just over 208 miles a day, for a year.
And then came Coker. 4 months after Kurt broke the record Amanda Coker started her attempt. 288 days in, 77 to go, she is riding just shy of 231 miles a day average, astonishing. Currently she is 6434 miles ahead of the world record pace and looks certain to smash the total that Kurt achieved.
For Steve Abraham though it's unfinished business. On 04/03/17 he is starting again, having broken the month record in September 2016 riding 7104 miles in 30 days, just short of an average of 237 miles a day, he feels ready to take on the year record again. This time though he's likely to need an average of around 235 miles a day to take the record.

Here's the link if you want to follow him on Strava
Here's the link to his live tracker
Here's the link to his Facebook
The link to his 1YTT website is at the top of this post.

We wish you all the best Steve, here's to no punctures, no mopeds, a wind at your back and perfect conditions for the next 12 months.

GO STEVE!!!!!!

Edit: Forgot to say, if you'd like to have browse through the thread for Kurt and Steve's attempt, HERE'S the link to the orginal CC thread. 

Edit edit: Should things change with Amanda I'll adjust the thread title and OP to suit.


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## cubey (27 Feb 2017)

Seriously impressive.


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## Milkfloat (27 Feb 2017)

I wish him the best of luck - but being a half empty glass kind of day I don't see how he can succeed in this country if he rides the same way as he has done before a.k.a the Tommy technique.


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## Mugshot (27 Feb 2017)

cubey said:


> Seriously impressive.


Seriously impressive indeed.
So can he do it?
Personally I think not. 
I think the approaches used by Kurt and by Amanda are far more likely to get results. Both are riding/rode unencumbered, Kurt with a support vehicle and Amanda with pit stops. Kurt of course travelled to take advantage of tail winds and better weather, Amanda is riding a pan flat loop.
I also think it's not the best time of year to start, I would have thought the end of October to get the worst out of the way at the start leaving you some of the best weather to chase down a target at the end of the challenge. He'd also know exactly what he's up against of course and not have given Amanda the extra impetus to really turn the screw.


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## Racing roadkill (27 Feb 2017)

Ride recumbent, flat loops, in a country with a nice climate, it's do-able.


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## Mugshot (27 Feb 2017)

Racing roadkill said:


> Ride recumbent, flat loops, in a country with a nice climate, it's do-able.


We know that, it's what Amanda is doing, well she's swapping bikes of course. 
What are your thoughts on Steves chances?


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## Dogtrousers (27 Feb 2017)

Best of luck Steve. Strava's been a bit of a boring place since KT finished. 

Thanks @Mugshot for the links.


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## Beebo (27 Feb 2017)

If he rides in an adhoc way like last time, then i doubt he can do it. He had too many big rides follwed by smaller rest days. 

It has to be a metronomic approach with dedicated support, but even then i doubt the UK weather and road network lends itself to this.

But life would be boring if people like Steve didnt take on this crazy adventures. so go steve.


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## Scoosh (27 Feb 2017)

*MOD NOTE:*
Copied from the previous (205 miles in a day ...) thread, with thanks to Pale Rider. 


Pale Rider said:


> There's a schedule on the oneyeartimetrial website.
> 
> It's a bit more up and down than Amanda, but it looks like Steve has an average of 232 miles a day in mind.
> 
> ...


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## Pale Rider (27 Feb 2017)

Looking at the outline on the home page of Steve's website, it appears he's starting with an overnight ride.

He will then get into a routine of long day rides.

Starting at just after midnight means he doesn't waste a minute at the start of his year.

But it seems odd to me to put yourself into sleep deprivation straight away.

http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/


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## Dogtrousers (27 Feb 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Looking at the outline on the home page of Steve's website, it appears he's starting with an overnight ride.
> 
> He will then get into a routine of long day rides.
> 
> ...


That's how he started his month record too. 

Maybe he's stocking up on sleep at the moment by hibernating (or doesn't it work like that?)


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## srw (27 Feb 2017)

I don't think Steve knows what sleep deprivation is. Although it will be difficult, if there's one person who is able to take back the record for Blighty it's Steve Abraham. Who has ridden further in a year than everyone in history other than Godwin, Coker and Searvogel.


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## Banjo (27 Feb 2017)

I doubt he would sleep much anyway on the eve of such a mammoth challenge.
Im sure Steve knows exactly what he is doing after his previous epic achievments.


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## ianrauk (27 Feb 2017)

[QUOTE 4701277, member: 9609"]Has he sorted his diet out? if I remember correctly some blame was being put on his low energy levels before he gave up on his 20 sausages a day diet.

Is there a 'go fund me' page for him. (i can't see facebook so only know what I read here)

I would love to see him do it and will be following with great interest.[/QUOTE]


yes, he has been following a special diet. He talks about it over at the other place.
I don't think more funding is needed as he has enough money left over from the last challenge to keep him going.


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## ianrauk (27 Feb 2017)

From his website

First 200km 
to the Cotswolds and back to Milton Keynes, aiming to depart Milton Keynes for the second section at 8am

Second 300km 
section to Kings Lynn and back, aiming to arrive back in Milton Keynes before 9pm

Sunday 5th March. 400km route 
to Kings Lynn and back, starting whenever I wake up, hopefully before 8am and aiming to finish before midnight


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## ianrauk (27 Feb 2017)

[QUOTE 4701277, member: 9609"]Has he sorted his diet out? [/QUOTE]

From the man himself. He's following a metabolic diet.


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## Dayvo (28 Feb 2017)

ianrauk said:


> From the man himself. He's following a metabolic diet.



He doesn't need to eat as he already has metal bollox.


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## tallliman (28 Feb 2017)

Speaking to Steve after Christmas, I believe he feels that the first day of long miles is kind of a bonus and gives some benefit in the bank before he does the long consistent days


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## ianrauk (1 Mar 2017)

Interview with Steve on *OLD SCHOOL MTB*


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## ianrauk (2 Mar 2017)

New video from Steve explaining his diet


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## Mugshot (3 Mar 2017)

*Steve Abraham‎ to Ride with Steve-1 Year Time Trial departure 00:01 Sat 4th March*
18 mins ·
It looks like just me and Matt for my first day, so I probably will just ride straight through Milton Keynes and not stop at Mc Donalds next to Trek after the first 200km.
You'll be able to follow me (us) on my live tracker though
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp…

Bit too far for me to get there otherwise I'd have been there like a shot 
Anybody planning on joining up with him?


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## Dogtrousers (3 Mar 2017)

Steve would be way too fast for me to ride with. I do have half a mind to organise things so he overtakes me sometime.


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## Aravis (3 Mar 2017)

He was talking about finding a productive loop in the Cotswold Water Park, just down the road from me, so I'm hoping to get a flyby or two at some point.

His planned route tonight brings him to Fairford, a couple of miles west of Lechlade, where there is a particularly vindictive set of traffic lights which he'll be passing twice a few minutes apart. So if I go there for about 3am I could get some historic first day photographs and maybe a few seconds of touchline interview. I have a feeling I probably won't, and will then regret it.


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## Mugshot (3 Mar 2017)

Steve Abraham
Page Liked · 47 mins near Milton Keynes ·

Steve sets off on his annual cycling mileage world record attempt at midnight, tonight. He's currently completing an interview with BBC Look East, which will air tonight at 18:30. We wish him well. Good luck Steve! — feeling optimistic with EgoManiac Idai


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## Scoosh (3 Mar 2017)

*GO STEVE !   *


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## Mugshot (3 Mar 2017)

*Steve Abraham*
1 min · 
Kajsa has control of Steve's Facebook page so it's selfie time! Steve and his mum, both ready for the start of the record attempt.


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## Mugshot (4 Mar 2017)

*Steve Abraham added 9 new photos.*
7 hrs ·
Steve setting off on his 1 Year Time Trial accompanied by Matt on his first day. Good Luck Steve. I'd say "Break A Leg", but you've already done that


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## velovoice (4 Mar 2017)

Mugshot said:


> For Steve Abraham though it's unfinished business. On *04/04/17* he is starting again.


Shouldn't that be 04/03/17?


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## Mugshot (4 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> Shouldn't that be 04/03/17?


You'd think so wouldn't you, maybe he's going to run concurrent challenges, just in case.










I've edited it just in case he isn't


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## Scoosh (4 Mar 2017)

Kajsa looks more scared at the prospect then does Steve ... 
Is she in charge of his FB stuff for the duration or was that just a pre-start one-off ?


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## velovoice (4 Mar 2017)

Scoosh said:


> Kajsa looks more scared at the prospect then does Steve ...
> Is she in charge of his FB stuff for the duration or was that just a pre-start one-off ?


We can only hope! She is extremely talented at the social media stuff, imagine her in charge of Steve's!


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## Mugshot (4 Mar 2017)

Skip to 18:30 ish


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## Mugshot (4 Mar 2017)

Watch Steve's send off via Kajsa's Twitter. https://twitter.com/yearinthesadd…/status/837814765078495232


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## tallliman (4 Mar 2017)

Scoosh said:


> Kajsa looks more scared at the prospect then does Steve ...
> Is she in charge of his FB stuff for the duration or was that just a pre-start one-off ?



I think Steve says she is in the interview earlier in this thread. I know from speaking to him that he liked Kajsa's approach in terms of spreading the message so I wonder if we'll get some diaries..


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## velovoice (4 Mar 2017)

tallliman said:


> I think Steve says she is in the interview earlier in this thread.


If that's the link to the BBC East interview in post #33, it seems it's no longer available to view.


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## velovoice (4 Mar 2017)

Mugshot said:


> *Steve Abraham‎ to Ride with Steve-1 Year Time Trial departure 00:01 Sat 4th March*
> You'll be able to follow me (us) on my live tracker though
> http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp…


Anyone else finding that Spot tracker really difficult to follow? Or is it just me?


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## Mugshot (4 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> Anyone else finding that Spot tracker really difficult to follow? Or is it just me?


Nah, you're not alone, I could have sworn it had a mileage so far today on it previously, I can't seem to find it yet.


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## Pale Rider (4 Mar 2017)

The spot tracker is a dead loss for us armchair fans.

No mileage that I can see, and I think it resets itself after 50 footprint tags, making it impossible to put a day's journey into context.

I'm sure Steve posted somewhere it is approved by the UMCA, which is of course a good reason for using it.


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## tallliman (4 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> If that's the link to the BBC East interview in post #33, it seems it's no longer available to view.



This is the one I was thinking of: http://oldschoolmtb.co.uk/steve-abraham-2017-one-year-time-trial-interview/


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## velovoice (4 Mar 2017)

tallliman said:


> This is the one I was thinking of: http://oldschoolmtb.co.uk/steve-abraham-2017-one-year-time-trial-interview/


That mentions Kajsa as one of several people who will be "helping out" but doesn't say how.


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## Sea of vapours (4 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> No mileage that I can see, and I think it resets itself after 50 footprint tags, making it impossible to put a day's journey into context.



You can move back through the day with the back/forward arrows beneath the panel on the left, so that it shows clusters, or perhaps pages, of tracked points, but it is, to say the least, very cumbersome, and whilst that shows the extent of where he's been in a day, it's quite markedly far away from ideal.


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## mattobrien (5 Mar 2017)

I wish Steve the very best of luck and was gutted after the moped incident last time round. 

Looking at the ride(s) from yesterday, the total distance was over 300 miles, so good there, but the average speed was too low IMHO, around 16. 

Both Kurt and Amanda averaged significantly higher than this, meaning they had more time off the bike to recover before the next effort. I can't see this being a serious record challenge at 16mph, unless the average is nearer 20 I can't see there will be enough time in each day to succeed. 

I hope I am wrong and Steve achieves what he has set out to do.


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## Aravis (5 Mar 2017)

Can I put a more positive spin on Steve's prospects? It seems likely that replicating his average during the month record would be just enough to get the year record. If he can do that for one month he can carry on at that pace, at least for a while. If he reaches the end of the 8 "good" months (March to October) and still be up with the pace, you have to think that during the winter he would find a way.

Certainly the next two months, with Amanda giving it everything and Steve setting about establishing a sound footing for realistic challenge, look like being the most exciting in ultra cycling history.


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## Pale Rider (5 Mar 2017)

Sea of vapours said:


> You can move back through the day with the back/forward arrows beneath the panel on the left, so that it shows clusters, or perhaps pages, of tracked points, but it is, to say the least, very cumbersome, and whilst that shows the extent of where he's been in a day, it's quite markedly far away from ideal.



A message from Steve on Strava mentions one of the team is working on a more supporter friendly tracker.


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## Pale Rider (5 Mar 2017)

I've just checked in the other place, and it appears @jo from the other place and Ivan are both working on visualisations.

Ivan's last time was excellent, being very simple and easy to understand.

Jo's graphs were more detailed.

So it looks like we will get a usable tracker one way or another.


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## Beebo (5 Mar 2017)

mattobrien said:


> I wish Steve the very best of luck and was gutted after the moped incident last time round.
> 
> Looking at the ride(s) from yesterday, the total distance was over 300 miles, so good there, but the average speed was too low IMHO, around 16.
> 
> ...


16 mph gives almost 15 hours in the saddle.
18mph gives just over 13 hours in the saddle, I would think that is about the max if you want to eat, sleep and rest.
Either way the numbers are simply staggering.
I wonder how much time is lost to junctions, traffic lights, roundabouts etc. They would all make a huge difference over a 15 hour period.


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## Mugshot (6 Mar 2017)

First part of Saturdays ride;







Second part of Saturdays ride, which has been flagged for some reason;






And a rest day on Sunday;


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## Mugshot (6 Mar 2017)

By my reckoning that gives him 548.9 miles which is an average of 275 miles a day. Two days in and he's well up on world record pace, now if he can just hang on for 363 more days..........


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## tallliman (6 Mar 2017)

An impressive start but I wonder how much Ms Coker will push on as she nears the end of her attempt. I guess unless she puts in 270 mpd average, it's unlikely to change things too much.


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## Aravis (6 Mar 2017)

By my calculation, if Amanda's maintains last week's average (251.5 miles per day) she'd reach 235 mpd a few days before the end. An average of 275 mpd from here on in (surely beyond the upper bound of possibility) would still see her just short of 240 mpd at the end. So if Steve is thinking "240 miles" for the moment he shouldn't get any nasty surprises.

It's amazing how easy it is to talk about these numbers!


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## mattobrien (6 Mar 2017)

An amazing 229 miles from Steve yesterday, but at too slow a pace. Total time of 14hrs 45mins, with 14hr 01min moving time and an average speed of 16.3mph. That only leaves 9h 15 mins off the bike (in the 24 hr period) to eat, sleep and recover for the next days mammoth effort.

Unless Steve is able to add a couple of mph on to his average I can see him falling into sleep / recovery time deficit pretty quickly, after which it will either be low(er) mileage recovery days or a slower pace, both of which mean getting behind the required rate, which with a long, long way t go cannot be an option.

Yesterday Amanda Coker clocked up an impressive 252 miles with 12h 14mins moving time and 13hr 03mins total time. She gets 11 hours off the bike, so time to eat and sleep. Her avg. speed was 20.6mph.

I wish him the best of luck and desperately want him to pick up the pace.


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## Shortandcrisp (6 Mar 2017)

mattobrien said:


> An amazing 229 miles from Steve yesterday, but at too slow a pace. Total time of 14hrs 45mins, with 14hr 01min moving time and an average speed of 16.3mph. That only leaves 9h 15 mins off the bike (in the 24 hr period) to eat, sleep and recover for the next days mammoth effort.
> 
> Unless Steve is able to add a couple of mph on to his average I can see him falling into sleep / recovery time deficit pretty quickly, after which it will either be low(er) mileage recovery days or a slower pace, both of which mean getting behind the required rate, which with a long, long way t go cannot be an option.
> 
> ...



I know she's getting assistance with this but even so, 252miles@20.6mph is fecking amazing!


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## mattobrien (6 Mar 2017)

Shortandcrisp said:


> I know she's getting assistance with this but even so, 252miles@20.6mph is fecking amazing!


Looking at her ride yesterday, Amanda averaged a HR of 115bpm with speak of 180bpm. Steve averaged 93bpm and a max of 113bpm for his ride yesterday. Maybe Steve will need to push little harder / get the HR up a little bit more to be competitive on the pace and miles.


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## srw (6 Mar 2017)

mattobrien said:


> Looking at her ride yesterday, Amanda averaged a HR of 115bpm with speak of 180bpm. Steve averaged 93bpm and a max of 113bpm for his ride yesterday. Maybe Steve will need to push little harder / get the HR up a little bit more to be competitive on the pace and miles.


My memory is rusty, but I have a feeling his 2014 attempt was at the same heart rate but an mph or so slower. His successful month record was, I think, at roughly the speed he's going now. I'd not bet against him.


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## Mugshot (7 Mar 2017)

Day 3, 219 miles.


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## velovoice (7 Mar 2017)

mattobrien said:


> Looking at her ride yesterday, Amanda averaged a HR of 115bpm with speak of 180bpm. Steve averaged 93bpm and a max of 113bpm for his ride yesterday. Maybe Steve will need to push little harder / get the HR up a little bit more to be competitive on the pace and miles.


Steve is rather famous for his low heart rate. It's what gives him the edge in recovery between rides.


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## mattobrien (7 Mar 2017)

A great effort at 219 miles but if Amanda is going to average 235/ day for a full year, then yesterday came in 16 miles below the required rate. 

I appreciate that there are a few miles in the bank from a monster day one, but they're not going to last long and if we have too many more 220 mile days Steve will fall behind the required rate. 

It seems ridiculous saying 220 miles isn't enough, but we're in monster number territory. 

Go Steve!


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## Pale Rider (8 Mar 2017)

In tracking news, Ivan from the other place has fired up what we might call his 'third party' tracker.

He's offering two different views.

I'm not sure how it records mileage, but there is a list of Steve's rides under the 'riders' tab.

http://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve/map?center=52.03275,-0.66467&zoom=12

http://frrt.org/tg/?center=52.02313,-0.54142&zoom=11


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## Aravis (8 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> I'm not sure how it records mileage, but *there is a list of Steve's rides under the 'riders' tab.*


I hadn't spotted this! Thanks for pointing it out.

If all he's doing for the current ride is calculating as the crow flies distance between each recorded location, that would be good enough, wouldn't it?


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## Pale Rider (8 Mar 2017)

Aravis said:


> I hadn't spotted this! Thanks for pointing it out.
> 
> If all he's doing for the current ride is calculating as the crow flies distance between each recorded location, that would be good enough, wouldn't it?



Yes, I believe Ivan's tracker records fewer points than the official one, so shortcuts some of the ride.

The overall impact is negligible - a handful of miles at most - but Ivan's daily total and the official one may vary a bit.


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## Mugshot (8 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4712674, member: 9609"]In what way ?[/QUOTE]
Drafting


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## Pale Rider (8 Mar 2017)

This time Steve is saying: 'riders offering a draft are also appreciated'.

http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/2-uncategorised/127-so-you-want-to-ride-with-steve

Quoting:
"Riders offering a ‘draft’ are also appreciated but this has never worked in the past. What happened was that fresh legged riders are too fast up hills and leave him behind, so not giving any advantage. On the other hand, they were often slower on descents, which caused him to slow down if he couldn't overtake. You're welcome to try offering a back wheel but don't be upset if it doesn't work. You'd be welcome to just keep him company for as many miles as you like!"


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## Mugshot (8 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4712674, member: 9609"]Great to see Steve has started again, for some reason I thoght it didn't begin until 4th April ? So when did he start?[/QUOTE]
4th March.
There is a slim possibility that you thought it was the 4th April because some numpty put that in the OP, even worse the coward went back and edited it when the mistake was pointed out, what a tosser.


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## ianrauk (8 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4712697, member: 9609"]other cyclists, motorbike, car, van truck ?

It doesn't make sense in some ways, the commitment by others would be enormous, even if it was a van someone would have to sit there driving 14 hours a day, everyday, if its other cyclist there would have to be many and highly organised.[/QUOTE]


Cyclists. Steve does associate with some very good cyclists that could pace him for a while.


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## Mugshot (8 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4712697, member: 9609"]if its other cyclist there would have to be many and highly organised.[/QUOTE]
To a degree yes, but the route/track that Amanda is using appears to be very popular with cyclists. Even with no prior arrangements it would very quickly become known what Amanda was attempting and very quickly the regular riders there that were capable of sustaining Amanda's pace would likely be more than willing to offer a wheel whilst they're on their daily 40 miler or whatever. Even if she only drafts for a few hours a day it would still help her enormously when it came to pacing and recovery.


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## Pale Rider (8 Mar 2017)

The latest tracker view from Ivan shows the day's distance.

Worth bearing in mind this tracker runs from midnight to midnight, so today's ride shows the last few miles Steve did back to Milton Keynes after midnight last night.

Steve has done about 130 miles, so needs another 100 for today - about six hours of riding which will mean another late finish.

http://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve


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## ianrauk (8 Mar 2017)

He's at about 195 miles for the day so far...


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## tallliman (9 Mar 2017)

...and finished on a round 200.


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## mattobrien (9 Mar 2017)

Too short, too slow. Dropping 35 miles vs. target is going to take some catching up. 

13hrs moving time gives time for recovery, but a quicker pace is needed to make up the miles.


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## toffee (9 Mar 2017)

mattobrien said:


> Too short, too slow. Dropping 35 miles vs. target is going to take some catching up.
> 
> 13hrs moving time gives time for recovery, but a quicker pace is needed to make up the miles.


+17 from the late finish the previous day and the track does not finish at his house so there is probably another 10 miles to add for that


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2017)

Steve's already done 240km, so I reckon he's either heading for a longer one, or a sensible - for him - pre-midnight finish.

https://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve


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## ColinJ (9 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Steve's already done 240km, so I reckon he's either heading for a longer one, or a sensible - for him - pre-midnight finish.
> 
> https://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve


Something isn't right there - 13.6 km/hr?


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Something isn't right there - 13.6 km/hr?



Tend to agree, the unofficial tracker by Ivan does a good job of giving route and distance, but the speed looks a bit off.

The graph shows 0kmh - give or take - through the night so I wonder if that's skewing the average.


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## ColinJ (9 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Tend to agree, the unofficial tracker by Ivan does a good job of giving route and distance, but the speed looks a bit off.
> 
> The graph shows 0kmh - give or take - through the night so I wonder if that's skewing the average.


Ah, if Steve's ride yesterday actually finished after midnight then perhaps the software thinks that today's ride actually started at 00:00 and calculates the speed from then?


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Ah, if Steve's ride yesterday actually finished after midnight then perhaps the software thinks that today's ride actually started at 00:00 and calculates the speed from then?



Ivan has set the tracker to end each ride at midnight, although he's said he might push that back an hour or two if Steve looks to be routinely finishing in the early hours.

Looking at the graph, it does appear to me the tracker is recording 0kmh between about 1am and 9am when Steve is off the bike.


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## Pale Rider (10 Mar 2017)

Looks like a good day for Steve.

Almost 235 miles, leaving the house at 9am returning just after 10pm, so that's an average of 18mph.

Repeat the above 360 times, and Coker's record will be his.

https://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve


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## cmiller (10 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Looks like a good day for Steve.
> 
> Almost 235 miles, leaving the house at 9am returning just after 10pm, so that's an average of 18mph.
> 
> ...



According to Strava, today Steve rode 221.1 miles in 14.28 hours at 15.47 mph avg.


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## Pale Rider (10 Mar 2017)

cmiller said:


> According to Strava, today Steve rode 221.1 miles in 14.28 hours at 15.47 mph avg.



Might have been a few miles included from the day before on the tracker I looked at.

Steve's target for this month is about 220 miles a day, so however you look at it he's making a decent start.

Your girl seems to be able to pull out miles for fun, so that may not be enough.

May the best man - or woman - win.


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## tallliman (14 Mar 2017)

230 odd average mile first week, not too shabby but helped by that long first day.


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## Aravis (15 Mar 2017)

I've been struggling to get an accurate picture of how Steve is progressing, with varying distances and the distortion caused by that extremely long first day. It's so much easier to with Amanda's approach.

Having finally established my own spreadsheet, I think that for the moment a really useful number to look at is average daily distance excluding the first day, which can be thought of as the sustainable daily average. At the moment this is 226.1 (my figure) which clearly won't win the prize, but it isn't far off and as long as the number is edging upwards, the campaign looks to be in good health. By the end of the summer I'd say he needs to be averaging 240, and by that time the influence of the first day will be negligible.

On the Amanda front, her rolling 30-day total is now all but 7400 miles, and still she hasn't formally started a month record attempt, as far as I know. You do have to wonder how many hours a day she can ride in the final month when she has absolutely nothing to lose.


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## Pale Rider (15 Mar 2017)

Aravis said:


> I've been struggling to get an accurate picture of how Steve is progressing, with varying distances and the distortion caused by that extremely long first day. It's so much easier to with Amanda's approach.
> 
> Having finally established my own spreadsheet, I think that for the moment a really useful number to look at is average daily distance excluding the first day, which can be thought of as the sustainable daily average. At the moment this is 226.1 (my figure) which clearly won't win the prize, but it isn't far off and as long as the number is edging upwards, the campaign looks to be in good health. By the end of the summer I'd say he needs to be averaging 240, and by that time the influence of the first day will be negligible.
> 
> On the Amanda front, her rolling 30-day total is now all but 7400 miles, and still she hasn't formally started a month record attempt, as far as I know. You do have to wonder how many hours a day she can ride in the final month when she has absolutely nothing to lose.



I did the same arithmetic as you and also came up with an average of 226 miles a day, leaving aside the long first day.

Steve had one of his better days yesterday, 340 miles riding from 9am to just before midnight which appears to be his preferred hours

The target Amanda sets remains the unknown quantity.

If she continues at her recent 250 miles a day until the end, it will give her about 235 miles a day overall.

But as you say, she may be able to put in an even more ridiculous daily miles for the last few weeks.


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## Mugshot (15 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> I did the same arithmetic as you and also came up with an average of 226 miles a day, leaving aside the long first day.
> 
> Steve had one of his better days yesterday, *340 miles* riding from 9am to just before midnight which appears to be his preferred hours
> 
> ...


240?


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## Pale Rider (15 Mar 2017)

Mugshot said:


> 240?



Aye, it's all these new-fangled kilometres causing confusion.

Metrification - I always said no good would come of it.


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## Mugshot (16 Mar 2017)

There's an extra 10 which was after midnight so 240 for Steve yesterday.


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## Mugshot (16 Mar 2017)

And to save you the trouble, here's the video;


View: https://youtu.be/iJmf_N6IExE


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## Mugshot (16 Mar 2017)

I was just having a look at the old thread, I'm not ashamed to say that I had absolutely, completely and utterly forgotten about IronOx.


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## tallliman (16 Mar 2017)

Nice little video from Steve. Seems like he's enjoying it and in good spirits.


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## Mugshot (16 Mar 2017)

tallliman said:


> Nice little video from Steve. Seems like he's enjoying it and in good spirits.


Yes and with Kajsa in his corner I wouldn't be surprised to see more of them


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## Dogtrousers (28 Mar 2017)

I've finally got around to firing up the clunky software I used for gathering Kajsa's data from Strava and adapted it to Steve's slightly different uploading style.

Would people be interested in regular (probably weekly) updates of stats based on Strava data? 
Are there any stats or graphs you'd be particularly interested in seeing?

Here's the current position.

Days: 24
Dist: 8710.3 km / 5412.3 mi
Avg daily dist: 362.9 km / 225.5 mi
Avg daily elevation: 1638 m / 5373 ft
Moving speed (Strava): 25.6 km/h / 15.9 mi/h
Hours per day riding: 17.0

Notes
This is based on Steve's Strava uploads since 4th March
The "moving speed" is derived from what Strava considers to be his "moving time". 
The hours per day is the total duration of his uploaded tracks. If he left the GPS running at the start or end of a ride, that's included.
I make no claims that is is all correct. Best efforts only.
*
Edit. Teething problems. I was concentrating so hard on getting the distance totals right I had made a rather basic error in counting the number of days. He has actually completed 24 not 23. Daily averages were therefore a bit elevated. I've corrected them above. Bear with me while I get things right.*


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## ianrauk (28 Mar 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> I've finally got around to firing up the clunky software I used for gathering Kajsa's data from Strava and adapted it to Steve's slightly different uploading style.
> 
> Would people be interested in regular (probably weekly) updates of stats based on Strava data?
> Are there any stats or graphs you'd be particularly interested in seeing?
> ...




A good stat would be if you can do a pace line for his projected yearly total, if there is one.


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## Norry1 (28 Mar 2017)

I'd be very interested in regular updates. The info above is a good start. A graph showing cumulative total vs required would be good.


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## Dogtrousers (28 Mar 2017)

OK, I'll look into those. Need to shake out the basic bugs first.


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## tallliman (28 Mar 2017)

Yep, following Steve on those mileages is difficult and I like stats. Possibly a bit out but I'd be interesting given his desire for consistency to look at the standard deviation in his mileages over time.


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## Dogtrousers (28 Mar 2017)

tallliman said:


> Yep, following Steve on those mileages is difficult and I like stats. Possibly a bit out but I'd be interesting given his desire for consistency to look at the standard deviation in his mileages over time.


How about this


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## Pale Rider (28 Mar 2017)

It is a shame those of us interested in following Steve have to rely on the efforts of Ivan, Doggers, and a couple of others.

Stark comparison to the professionally produced google spreadsheet on Amanda's progres by @cmiller who, I gather, is a member of her team.

Incidentally, I see she's now on 260-odd miles a day - and a recent day of 270 miles - as she chases Steve's month record.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...8ErqyFqBvnHk/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=2022488017


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## tallliman (28 Mar 2017)

@Dogtrousers, a histogram works for me.


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## velovoice (28 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> It is a shame those of us interested in following Steve *have to rely on *the efforts of Ivan, Doggers, and a couple of others.
> 
> Stark comparison to the professionally produced google spreadsheet on Amanda's progres by @cmiller who, I gather, is a member of her team.
> 
> ...


?? I am having no trouble following Steve's exploits without graphs and spreadsheets.


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## Dogtrousers (28 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> ?? I am having no trouble following Steve's exploits without graphs and spreadsheets.


Without graphs and spreadsheets??? I'm speechless!


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## Pale Rider (29 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> ?? I am having no trouble following Steve's exploits without graphs and spreadsheets.



Are you not interested in miles per day and average miles per day?

The official tracker is all but useless for that.

For an enterprise that claims to want to engage the public the official supply of information is woeful.

Which may go some way to explain the relative lack of interest in this attempt.


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## velovoice (29 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> _Are you not interested_ in miles per day and average miles per day?
> 
> The official tracker is all but useless for that.
> 
> ...


Where did I say that? Quite the reverse! What I said was, I don't need spreadsheets and graphs to feed and maintain that interest. Some people do.


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## tallliman (29 Mar 2017)

I think part of the fun for me (I am an engineer.....) is understanding trends and progression against the goal. Just a series of utterly crazy rides doesn't form that narrative for me.


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## Pale Rider (29 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> Where did I say that? Quite the reverse! What I said was, I don't need spreadsheets and graphs to feed and maintain that interest. Some people do.



Perhaps you have access to information I don't, but I'm struggling to get an up-to-date average miles per day, even using third party sources.

I think that figure - and a list of daily mileages - ought to be available on the attempt's website.

As @tallliman says, piecemeal ludicrously long day rides don't make up the story of a cyclist's attempt to cycle further in a year than anybody else.


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## velovoice (29 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Perhaps you have access to information I don't, but I'm struggling to get an up-to-date average miles per day, even using third party sources.
> 
> I think that figure - and a list of daily mileages - ought to be available on the attempt's website.
> 
> As @tallliman says, piecemeal ludicrously long day rides don't make up the story of a cyclist's attempt to cycle further in a year than anybody else.


Following him on Strava doesn't give you what you need?


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## srw (29 Mar 2017)

velovoice said:


> Following him on Strava doesn't give you what you need?


Not a year-long story, no. It gives you the last few individual rides.

And some of us don't do Strava.


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## Pale Rider (29 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4740707, member: 9609"]I take it this is Steve's record attempt you are referring to ? I can find what I need for Amanda but not for Steve - which is just odd ?

Looks like Amanda will take the year record this weekend - amazing stuff[/QUOTE]

I think Amanda is due to pass Godwin's total at the weekend, eclipsing Searvogel will take another week or two.

She will then obliterate Steve's month record, which she's on course to beat by 1,000 miles.

So in the space of a few weeks, Amanda will have spanked the backsides of Godwin, Searvogel, and Abraham.

Which one might describe as girl power.


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## User482 (29 Mar 2017)

A list of Steve's daily distances is available here: https://frrt.org/tg/riders


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## Pale Rider (29 Mar 2017)

User482 said:


> A list of Steve's daily distances is available here: https://frrt.org/tg/riders


 
That's the so-called Ivanoscope, which is about the best I've found and which I've linked to several times on here.

However, it doesn't include the first couple of rides because Ivan, the designer, didn't get it fired up in time.

So if you added all the distances you'd have a wrong total, and if you divided them you'd have a wrong average.

Given that at best Steve will be close to matching Amanda, availability of the correct figures is important for those of wanting to follow the arithmetic of the attempt.


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## User482 (29 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> That's the so-called Ivanoscope, which is about the best I've found and which I've linked to several times on here.
> 
> However, it doesn't include the first couple of rides because Ivan, the designer, didn't get it fired up in time.
> 
> ...


If it bothers you, you could compile a spreadsheet using the Strava data - all the rides are logged there.


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## Pale Rider (29 Mar 2017)

User482 said:


> If it bothers you, you could compile a spreadsheet using the Strava data - all the rides are logged there.



I'm not bothered, and my knowledge of spreadsheets is too limited.

But this does at least bring us back to the original point - lack of official information for fans to follow the attempt.


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## User482 (29 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> I'm not bothered, and my knowledge of spreadsheets is too limited.
> 
> But this does at least bring us back to the original point - lack of official information for fans to follow the attempt.


For someone who's not bothered you're doing a remarkable impression of someone who's bothered!

Anyway, data fiends will find their own way, and the rest of us can carry on with the existing sources.


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## Dogtrousers (29 Mar 2017)

Well, here are some stats and pics. I can post these regularly. But not daily, as the download is a bit of a faff.

I can add anything that's on Strava, like cadence and HR (even Kudos count), but I think boring old distance is the thing to show. There are lots of things that are possible - My favourite graphic that I produced during Kajsa's year was a graph showing a positive correlation between her daily distance and the number of times she mentioned the word "scone" in her ride descriptions.

Days: 25
Dist: 9,052 km / 5,625 mi
Avg daily dist: 362.1 km / 225.0 mi
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,617 m / 5,306 ft
Moving speed (Strava): 25.5 km/h / 15.9 mi/h
Hours per day riding: 15.1
Projected total at current daily rate: 132,162 km / 82,122 mi









Notes
This is based on simple analysis of Strava data.
Miles are allocated to the day in which the ride starts. Where a ride crosses midnight, the starting day is credited with the mileage. This is not really relevant for average totals, but for daily mileage distributions may skew things a bit.
The "moving average" speed is based on what Strava considers to be moving time.
The hours per day riding is based on the duration of the Strava rides. If Steve splits a day into two parts either side of lunch then lunch will not be included. If he submits one ride for the whole day, it will.
Elevation gain is as reported by Strava.
I am fallible. This may be all totally wrong.


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## srw (29 Mar 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Well, here are some stats and pics. I can post these regularly. But not daily, as the download is a bit of a faff.
> 
> I can add anything that's on Strava, like cadence and HR (even Kudos count), but I think boring old distance is the thing to show. There are lots of things that are possible - My favourite graphic that I produced during Kajsa's year was a graph showing a positive correlation between her daily distance and the number of times she mentioned the word "scone" in her ride descriptions.
> 
> ...


This is exactly the sort of stuff that would be great coming from the man himself and his team. Last time @jo from the other place did something similar, if rather whizzier, but I think he's said that he doesn't have the time this time around.


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## Dogtrousers (29 Mar 2017)

srw said:


> *This is exactly the sort of stuff that would be great coming from the man himself and his team.* Last time @jo from the other place did something similar, if rather whizzier, but I think he's said that he doesn't have the time this time around.


Maybe they don't have time, or have more important matters to attend to.
The data's there in Strava for anyone who wants to see.


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## srw (29 Mar 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Maybe they don't have time, or have more important matters to attend to.
> The data's there in Strava for anyone who wants to see.


Probably. But what we learned from Kajsa's year, and from the IPWR, is that putting information out in the real world in a digestible format attracts viewers. And viewers mean sponsorship.


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## Dogtrousers (29 Mar 2017)

srw said:


> Probably. But what we learned from Kajsa's year, and from the IPWR, is that putting information out in the real world in a digestible format attracts viewers. And viewers mean sponsorship.


I guess it comes down to resources and priorities. I'll leave Steve and his team to make their own decisions on that.

Is there opportunity for audience growth? Or is it already saturated? Would that guarantee further sponsorship? Would they be better off massaging data or washing Steve's socks (or whatever).


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## Aravis (29 Mar 2017)

Nice work @Dogtrousers, as always.

I presume the rolling average line is the average miles per day so far, so it will naturally become more stable as time goes on. At the moment it's falling, not unexpected as the extra miles from the first day are spread ever more thinly.

However, what I'm finding is that if the analysis starts on day two - sustainable output if you like - the daily average is also trending downwards. It's about 221 miles now. In my attempt at pretty pictures, this is the line I'm looking at most closely.


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## Dogtrousers (30 Mar 2017)

Aravis said:


> Nice work @Dogtrousers, as always.
> 
> I presume the rolling average line is the average miles per day so far, so it will naturally become more stable as time goes on. At the moment it's falling, not unexpected as the extra miles from the first day are spread ever more thinly.
> 
> However, what I'm finding is that if the analysis starts on day two - sustainable output if you like - the daily average is also trending downwards. It's about 221 miles now. In my attempt at pretty pictures, this is the line I'm looking at most closely.


Yes. "Rolling Average" was the wrong description for it. I was thinking about numbers not words. Overall average would be better.

As to overall trends, I'm always wary of excluding outliers. Not because it's necessarily wrong, but because it makes things more complicated and makes my head hurt. Here's another way of looking at it:. His 10-day rolling average looks to be stable at about 215-220 mpd.


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## tallliman (30 Mar 2017)

Didn't Steve publish his monthly averages for this attempt (can't seem to find them)? If so, where is 215-220mpd in relation to this?


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## Pale Rider (30 Mar 2017)

tallliman said:


> Didn't Steve publish his monthly averages for this attempt (can't seem to find them)? If so, where is 215-220mpd in relation to this?



Steve published a schedule on his website.

http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/the-preparation


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## Dogtrousers (30 Mar 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Steve published a schedule on his website.
> 
> http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/the-preparation


Thanks. I'll add that schedule as a line on my graph


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## tallliman (30 Mar 2017)

@Pale Rider and @Dogtrousers, thank you!


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## Ian H (30 Mar 2017)

I republished the donations page recently, but haven't publicised it yet. Steve won't have enough funds to last through the entire year, though he's amazingly frugal.


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## Dogtrousers (3 Apr 2017)

Steve's stats as at 02 Apr 17 
Days: 30 
Dist: 10,858 km / 6,747 mi 
Avg daily dist: 361.9 km / 224.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,588 m / 5,208 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.6 km/h / 15.9 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 132,106 km / 82,087 mi 





Notes. This is based on simple analysis of Strava data. Miles are allocated to the day in which the ride starts. Where a ride crosses midnight, the starting day is credited with the mileage. This is not really relevant for average totals, but for daily mileage distributions may skew things a bit. The "moving average" speed is based on what Strava considers to be moving time. The hours per day riding is based on the duration of the Strava rides - if Steve splits a day into two parts either side of a break then the break will not be included. If he submits one ride for the whole day, it will. Elevation gain is as reported by Strava. The schedule is as published on Steve's website. The "Coker?" target is a guess. 
I am fallible. This may be all totally wrong.


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## Aravis (4 Apr 2017)

For me, the most striking number is the projected total - over 82,000 miles. It's all too easy to see Steve slowing falling behind Amanda's pace, for the moment anyway, and forget just how far ahead he is of everyone else who's ever got involved with this challenge.


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## tallliman (4 Apr 2017)

All ifs buts and maybes but I do wonder what Steve would've managed with this level of preparation and no crash first time around. He appears a lot stronger now and I feel the shorter days are part of a natural ebb and flow rather than anything worse.


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## Mugshot (5 Apr 2017)

Get some lights Steve!!


View: https://youtu.be/ETD3QiqgbCE


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## Mugshot (5 Apr 2017)

That's better;


View: https://youtu.be/XOAABNcrotQ


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## Dogtrousers (5 Apr 2017)

What was that breakfast again?


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## ianrauk (5 Apr 2017)

I see Steve had a big day yesterday.. 261 miles. Today so far just under 182.
Amazing stuff.


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## Mugshot (5 Apr 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> What was that breakfast again?


Not sure, have a feeling there may have been a wafer thin mint in there somewhere though.


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## Dogtrousers (5 Apr 2017)

By the way, Susan_Boe is maintaining a google spreadsheet, which may be updated a bit more frequently than my updates on here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...PVpuQd5SM8aDB-FmrJC3zldBk/edit#gid=1510827515


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## Dogtrousers (10 Apr 2017)

An update from Steve with a message to Amanda

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sHlhiuwwiVI

A real gent.


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## Dogtrousers (11 Apr 2017)

And here's a bit of analysis from the man himself (already a couple of days old, sorry)


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## Mugshot (12 Apr 2017)

View: https://youtu.be/2q_VFQH6fPQ


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## Dogtrousers (12 Apr 2017)

Steve's stats as at 11 Apr 17 
Days: 39 
Dist: 14,064 km / 8,739 mi 
Avg daily dist: 360.6 km / 224.1 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,577 m / 5,175 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 15.9 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 131,622 km / 81,786 mi


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## Dogtrousers (18 Apr 2017)

From Facebook

_Steve's on-board camera has given up the ghost so we're looking for anyone who has a spare one laying around that he could use. There is a danger that it may not be returned, just so you know (Steve has a history of destroying tech). Please PM if you have anything suitable - one-button action cam would be ideal. (Posted by KT)_​


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## Beebo (18 Apr 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> From Facebook
> 
> _Steve's on-board camera has given up the ghost so we're looking for anyone who has a spare one laying around that he could use. There is a danger that it may not be returned, just so you know (Steve has a history of destroying tech). Please PM if you have anything suitable - one-button action cam would be ideal. (Posted by KT)_​


This should be a perfect opportunity for someone like GoPro to get involved with Steve, but they probably don't even know about the challenge. As mentioned in the round the world in 80 days thread it is more important that ever to have a decent media presence.


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## Dogtrousers (24 Apr 2017)

Steve's stats as at 23 Apr 17
Days: 51 (14.0% of year)
Dist: 18,297 km / 11,369 mi
Avg daily dist: 358.8 km / 222.9 mi
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,577 m / 5,172 ft
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h
Hours per day riding: 15.0
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,946 km / 81,366 mi


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## Dogtrousers (24 Apr 2017)

On Twitter Steve says

_1555 miles-2nd best week-fewest hours ridden (<94hours)-25 miles below target for the week
@TrainingPeaks TSS=3239_​
Note that Steve is referring here to weeks from Mon-Sun. This means his first two days (4th and 5th March) were in a week of their own.

Looking at the power and HR data on Strava we can see that Steve appears to be increasing his effort/speed gradually. I'm assuming that the power figures come from Steve's power meter and aren't made up Strava cobblers. We know Steve uses a power meter.

Anyway here are the power, heart rate and speed trends. Obviously speed is all over the place because it's at the mercy of the winds, the route, and other factors.


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## srw (24 Apr 2017)

A good number of people Steve's age will have an average _resting_ heart rate around 85. He manages it while riding over 200 miles per day at speed most of us would be pleased with for 20 miles.


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## Dogtrousers (28 Apr 2017)

Looks like Steve had a tough day yesterday. "Only" 206 miles, 8 of which were after midnight, which is well down on his 222 average, and at 14.75mph moving, which is by some margin his slowest day. Power and HR data also significantly down. Ride entitled Coming undone (not incl the post midnight distance)


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## tallliman (28 Apr 2017)

Wonder if it was just poor headwinds or something or just a bad day with no other reason


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## Dogtrousers (29 Apr 2017)

Better day today. 362km @ 26.6 kmh
On tablet at the moment so no stats, or even imperial conversions Im afraid 
https://www.strava.com/activities/962025958

And theres an upbeat video too, but I can't do a link


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## Pale Rider (29 Apr 2017)

Good work on keeping us up to date, Doggers.

The arithmetic and subsequent projections is part of the fascination of the attempt, so here's some of mine.

With a couple of weeks to go, it's fairly safe to predict Amanda will finish on about 86,600 miles.

This will leave Steve about 5,000 miles light at current rate of progress.

Or put another way, he needs 240 miles a day from now on to match Amanda.

No doubt Steve could manage that mileage on a one-off basis, but it's hard to see how he can do it for more than 300 days consecutively.


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## Dogtrousers (29 Apr 2017)

I'll update the Coker line on my graph when she has finished.


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## Dogtrousers (2 May 2017)

A mixed week for Steve, with a couple of rides over 230 miles, but a couple under 200. Started the week with an average of 223.07 mpd, ended with 222.16 Then Monday was 219 miles which dipped the average under 222 for the first time.

Steve's stats as at 01 May 17 
Days: 59 (16.2% of year) 
Dist: 21,057 km / 13,084 mi 
Avg daily dist: 356.9 km / 221.8 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,596 m / 5,237 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.0 
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,269 km / 80,945 mi


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## Dogtrousers (2 May 2017)

Testing out @Shaun s new Twitter embedderer


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## Dogtrousers (8 May 2017)

An up and down week. If you consider full weeks, Sat-Fri (Steve started on a Sat) it was his lowest mileage week yet. But by dint of two big rides over the weekend (241 and 270 miles), the Mon-Sun week (aligned with Strava) was his second best yet. Here are the stats.

Steve's stats as at 07 May 17 
Days: 65 (17.8% of year) 
Dist: 23,255 km / 14,450 mi 
Avg daily dist: 357.8 km / 222.3 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,592 m / 5,223 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,588 km / 81,144 mi


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## Dogtrousers (8 May 2017)

Just to illustrate the point about last week turning round from lowest to second highest, here's a graph of Steve's rolling 7 day average daily mileage (ie for each day the average over the week ending that day)


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## mattobrien (9 May 2017)

An impressive effort, but it does seem like a lot of work to cycle the second furthest distance in a 12 month period. At this rate I can't see Steve getting close to Amanda's total and the required daily mileage just keeps increasing with each day below the growing total posted by Amanda.

I wish Steve all the best, but I can't see that the numbers are on his side anymore.


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## Dogtrousers (11 May 2017)

Here's a rather pointless graph. Mean and standard deviation distance by day.


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## srw (11 May 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Here's a rather pointless graph. Mean and standard deviation distance by day.
> View attachment 351828


Skewness and kurtosis?


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## Dogtrousers (11 May 2017)

srw said:


> Skewness and kurtosis?


I dunno if excel will give me those. Even less whether I can find a way of representing them on an excel chart. Still less whether the result would be meaningful in any way.


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## srw (11 May 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> I dunno if excel will give me those. Even less whether I can find a way of representing them on an excel chart. Still less whether the result would be meaningful in any way.


I have never yet found a use for skewness as a figure, rather than just a concept. I couldn't even define kurtosis.


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## Dogtrousers (11 May 2017)

srw said:


> I have never yet found a use for skewness as a figure, rather than just a concept. I couldn't even define kurtosis.


They're a bit beyond me I'm afraid, although they are in the junk box at the back of my brain marked "clever things I used to understand when I was younger".


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## Dogtrousers (15 May 2017)

Another week ... and the Coker line is confirmed at 86,573 or 237.18 miles per day ... or is it? As she's putting in super-big miles at the moment and is also continuing her biggest rolling year will be greater than that, but her declared year was the one that just finished, which will provide grist for a few angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin discussions. 

Steve has been starting a bit later and doing some riding after midnight. Ive ignored this morning's short (9k) post-midnight ride for the time being. This is just up as far as Sunday midnight.

Steve's stats as at 14 May 17 
Days: 72 (19.7% of year) 
Dist: 25,767 km / 16,011 mi 
Avg daily dist: 357.9 km / 222.4 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,597 m / 5,239 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,625 km / 81,166 mi


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## mattobrien (15 May 2017)

With Amanda finishing and setting a very high target to beat, I fear that Steve hasn't now got a hope of reaching it. With 293 days to go, he needs 70,562 miles, or 241 miles / day. From the above chart I can see that he has exceeded 240 miles on 9 occasions this year, so on 13% of his rides. He now needs to average this figure for every single day moving forwards, which I sadly think is beyond what we have been shown is capable.

An amazing achievement, but one that now looks destined to fall short of the new, higher total. It will be a lot of effort to have cycled the second furthest distance in a year, as opposed to getting the record.

I very much hope I am proven wrong and Steve does do it, but I won't be placing a bet on that now.


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## Mugshot (15 May 2017)

mattobrien said:


> I very much hope I am proven wrong and Steve does do it, but I won't be placing a bet on that now.


Well, considering in each of your 7 posts in this thread you've basically said that Steve is not going to suceed in his record attempt, I would have been more than a little surprised if you had.


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## Beebo (15 May 2017)

I also fall into the "I don't think he can do it" camp. I would love to be proved wrong. 
At current speeds he needs to find another hour of riding per day, every day, which will reduce his recovery times. He will need to ride 16 hours per day. Amanda "only" rides 13 hours per day as she is considerably quicker. 
So he needs to either speed up or ride for longer and he is already riding beyond midnight. 
And he still has to ride through our winter, with all the additional difficulty that that brings, so i agree that the challenge ahead seems even tougher than ever.


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## srw (15 May 2017)

Have a look, if you can find it, at Steve's progress in his AUK points record setting. He rode further and further as the year went on, ending up with something like a 400, two 300s and two 200s each week. All while working full-time in a manual job.

Or look at his plans for attempt 1, which foresaw large increases in mileage just as he got knocked off.

It'll be tough, but I wouldn't write him off just yet.


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## tallliman (15 May 2017)

He's got a chance but to my mind, he needs to rid himself of the shorter rides. I keep seeing the odd 200 mile day which will undo a lot!

I wonder whether the distribution of distance is normal to date? I fear that whilst the average is 220odd, he will struggle to push the longer distances.


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## Dogtrousers (15 May 2017)

tallliman said:


> I wonder whether the distribution of distance is normal to date? .


If only someone would post a frequency distribution of his daily mileages


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## tallliman (16 May 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> If only someone would post a frequency distribution of his daily mileages



I didn't see the probability check for a normal distribution......


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## Dogtrousers (18 May 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/865120962429235200


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## Dogtrousers (22 May 2017)

A slightly below average week in the rain with an average of 215 mpd, and some night riding which plays havoc with the daily totals, giving some very big and some small days.

Steve's stats as at 21 May 17 
Days: 79 (21.6% of year) 
Dist: 28,196 km / 17,520 mi 
Avg daily dist: 356.9 km / 221.8 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,553 m / 5,094 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,272 km / 80,947 mi


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## Dogtrousers (22 May 2017)

Todays pointless graphic tells us some amazing facts. 

If Steve puts in more power he tends to go faster
If Steve does less climbing he tends to go faster







This graph shows
the vertical axis, how steep a ride was, expressed in metres per 100km (because I flatly refuse to use feet for elevation)
the horizontal axis, moving average speed in mph (because most people are discussing Steve's speed in mph, so I will grudgingly use imperial units)

Each dot shows a day's riding.
Red dots are days with an average wattage of >= 140 watts
Pink dots with a black border have an average wattage >= 130W and < 140W
Blue dots have an average >= 120W and < 130W
Black crosses have an average of < 120W or no power data

So ... the red dots tend to be further to the right (more power=faster)
The blue dots tend to be to the left (less power=slower)
The pink ones are in the middle, and you can pretty much ignore the crosses as they tend to be bad data.
The higher up a dot is the more to the left it tends to be (more climbing = slower)
The lower down a dot is the more to the right it tends to be (less climbing = faster)

I think I may be on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough. Alert the Nobel committee.

(I pinched the idea for this from SoreTween in The Other Place, and added the power data)


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## tallliman (22 May 2017)

Highlights a trend certainly but I wouldn't make a decision based on that data!

Steve appears to be slipping below his target line which isn't good. Is the UK weather too variable for this?

In related news, Dave Barter's wonderful book on the record won't be updated: http://phased.co.uk/the-year-updated/


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## srw (22 May 2017)

There's less of a correlation between speed and climbing than I think I would have guessed, perhaps because of the effect of wind.

From the earlier graph it looks as if he's only 1 or 2 mpd short of his target. Which at this stage is nothing - less than 10 minutes per day. Add half an hour riding per day (and assume no bad luck) and he'd smash the Coker record.


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## Dogtrousers (22 May 2017)

srw said:


> There's less of a correlation between speed and climbing than I think I would have guessed, perhaps because of the effect of wind.


It's something Steve has said - that shelter is as important as flatness. He's quite close (by his standards) to the Fens but they are very exposed.


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## Dogtrousers (23 May 2017)

tallliman said:


> Highlights a trend certainly but I wouldn't make a decision based on that data!
> 
> Steve appears to be slipping below his target line which isn't good. Is the UK weather too variable for this?
> 
> In related news, Dave Barter's wonderful book on the record won't be updated: http://phased.co.uk/the-year-updated/


That means I can buy a hardcopy without it being superseded by a new edition! I can fully understand his reasoning. 

By the way, all I'm trying to do is highlight trends and paint pictures with dots (call me Seurat). I'm not expecting anyone to make any decisions. I'm not planning on doing chi squared tests or any of that statistical cobblers of which I once long ago had at best a meagre understanding.


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## tallliman (23 May 2017)

@Dogtrousers, apologies if I'm replying as if answering a question at work.....I'm too often looking at these sorts of graphs so it comes too easily!


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## Dogtrousers (5 Jun 2017)

Steve put in a big week 22-28 May at 230 mpd, his biggest yet (Mon-Sun weeks, which excludes the first two days). Last week was lower at 214 mpd.

A quarter of the year has been done.

Steve's stats as at 04 Jun 17 
Days: 93 (25.5% of year) 
Dist: 33,205 km / 20,633 mi 
Avg daily dist: 357.0 km / 221.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,523 m / 4,998 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.1 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.2 
Projected total at current daily rate: 130,322 km / 80,978 mi


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## Justinslow (10 Jun 2017)

Not sure if this is in the right place or not so feel free to move.
Just bought Steve "McDonalds"(food of champions) he just pulled into my local one as I arrived, least I could do for him!
How he does it I don't know, he looked absolutely shattered and still had to ride home. Apparently he favours McDonalds and Wetherspoons (but not on a Saturday night!)


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## Justinslow (11 Jun 2017)

User13710 said:


> Has he given up on the technical wholefoods diet then?


No idea, it was a quick "pit stop",
He had a "chicken select 5 piece meal" with a tea and a black coffee, and a chance to whack on some ibuprofen gel and use the toilets. 
I guess you do what you need to do and whatever's easiest on your given route.


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## Saluki (11 Jun 2017)

Can I just ask about Amanda's record. A couple of things that I don't understand.
Is it not a Guinness record as Kajsa wasn't allowed to draft and could only use one bike whereas Amanda can draft and uses a combination of a road bike and a recumbent - or at least that is what I read in a cycling magazine.

Not trying to pick a fight, I am just interested.


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## ColinJ (11 Jun 2017)

Didn't they (somewhat annoyingly!) change the rules when Kajsa was already well into her record attempt?


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## Saluki (11 Jun 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Didn't they (somewhat annoyingly!) change the rules when Kajsa was already well into her record attempt?


I did not know that. That doesn't seem very fair at all.


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## tallliman (11 Jun 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Didn't they (somewhat annoyingly!) change the rules when Kajsa was already well into her record attempt?



They did and then they changed them back after Kajsa challenged them on it.


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## Sea of vapours (11 Jun 2017)

What they effectively did was:
- choose to ratify Kurt Searvogel's record under UMCA rules, which allow drafting, recumbents, etc.;
- try to change their own rules part way through Kajsa's attempt as a result of having ratified Kurt's record, which Kajsa quite rightly pushed back on and they agreed to stick with them;
- ratified Kajsa's record under their own rules when she completed;
- then, pretty much unavoidably, ratified Amanda's record basd on UMCA rules when she surpassed Kurt's record;
- 'retired' Kajsa's record.

Pretty irritating basically. What they should have done was have less onerous rules in the first place, but given that, and given that they, not unreasonably, wanted to ratify the UMCA rules attempts then they should have *not retired *Kajsa's record; that bit of simplification seems to me to be uncalled for.


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## Saluki (11 Jun 2017)

Sea of vapours said:


> What they effectively did was:
> - choose to ratify Kurt Searvogel's record under UMCA rules, which allow drafting, recumbents, etc.;
> - try to change their own rules part way through Kajsa's attempt as a result of having ratified Kurt's record, which Kajsa quite rightly pushed back on and they agreed to stick with them;
> - ratified Kajsa's record under their own rules when she completed;
> ...


Thank you. That is much clearer for me.


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## tallliman (11 Jun 2017)

To my mind, Kajsa's record is different to Amanda's due to the drafting and one bike regulations.


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## Sea of vapours (11 Jun 2017)

tallliman said:


> To my mind, Kajsa's record is different to Amanda's due to the drafting and one bike regulations.



Quite, Guinness should have kept both, but they're an organisation focused more on sensationalism than on nuance. The very fact that they even considered changing the rules on Kajsa several months into her attempt makes it pretty clear that they're more interested in simplicity than fairness. They retrospectively changed the cycling round the World record rules too - pretty shabby in both cases.


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## Saluki (11 Jun 2017)

tallliman said:


> To my mind, Kajsa's record is different to Amanda's due to the drafting and one bike regulations.


My thoughts too.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Jun 2017)

A tough week for Steve. His lowest (Mon-Sun) week so far at "only" 200.7 miles per day. Which gives you a hint of how hard a challenge this is. It has knocked his overall cumulative rate to below 221 miles per day.

*Edit: *I note that Steve only logged 5 hours riding yesterday. It's possible there are still more miles pending upload for last week. I've not been following his tracker so I'm not sure.
*Second Edit: * Having looked at the tracker data, no it doesn't appear that there is more to come.


Steve's stats as at 11 Jun 17 
Days: 100 (27.4% of year) 
Dist: 35,470 km / 22,040 mi  
Avg daily dist: 354.7 km / 220.4 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,526 m / 5,008 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,465 km / 80,446 mi


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## Aravis (12 Jun 2017)

From the evidence available it looks as though Steve recorded less than 100 miles yesterday, and for no particularly important reason I'm quite sad about that. I don't believe anyone has gone through a year recording a century each day - certainly Godwin, Searvogel and Coker didn't - but I doubt it featured very high on Steve's list of objectives, if at all. Never mind!

On the other subject discussed above, I think Guinness's single critical error of judgment was getting involved with overseeing Kajsa's attempt in the first place. Once they'd done that, the saga was never going to end tidily. I'm sure they decided a long time ago that no-one was ever going to be allowed to repeat what Kajsa did under their jurisdiction, and it made sense to retire the record. Kajsa's achievements, in all their detail, are a matter of historical record and that is far more important than any words that might appear in a lightweight publication.

When you think about it, having embarked on a doomed ship, Kajsa has done exceptionally well out of all this. She got everything she ever wanted from Guinness, and she always knew she wasn't likely to set a mark that would stand for long. And she seems to have the beginnings of a successful second career. You can never know what would have happened, but it's hard to imagine that she would be doing this had she gone with UMCA.

Guinness have damaged their reputation; Kajsa is untarnished by any association.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Jun 2017)

Aravis said:


> From the evidence available it looks as though Steve recorded less than 100 miles yesterday, and for no particularly important reason I'm quite sad about that. I don't believe anyone has gone through a year recording a century each day - certainly Godwin, Searvogel and Coker didn't - but I doubt it featured very high on Steve's list of objectives, if at all. Never mind!


Just checked the tracker data at frrt.org and it would appear that you are right. A non-century day. This also means I'll have to adjust the axes of some of my graphs. How inconsiderate!

On the other subject of KT, and Guinness etc, you have summed up my thoughts on it almost exactly. So I won't add anything.


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## Aravis (12 Jun 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> On the other subject of KT, and Guinness etc, you have summed up my thoughts on it almost exactly. So I won't add anything.


Thank you. Your influence over the months in helping to shape my thinking has been considerable, so there should be no surprise.


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## tallliman (12 Jun 2017)

From reading the book on the year, I believe one of the early challengers did ride a century a day, will have to check.


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## Justinslow (12 Jun 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> A tough week for Steve. His lowest (Mon-Sun) week so far at "only" 200.7 miles per day. Which gives you a hint of how hard a challenge this is. It has knocked his overall cumulative rate to below 221 miles per day.
> 
> *Edit: *I note that Steve only logged 5 hours riding yesterday. It's possible there are still more miles pending upload for last week. I've not been following his tracker so I'm not sure.
> *Second Edit: * Having looked at the tracker data, no it doesn't appear that there is more to come.
> ...


Maybe my local McDonalds gave him a dicky tummy


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## ColinJ (12 Jun 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Maybe my local McDonalds gave him a dicky tummy


I think he is probably suffering from major wind problems, but probably not those caused by eating McD.s!


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## Justinslow (12 Jun 2017)

ColinJ said:


> I think he is probably suffering from major wind problems, but probably not those caused by eating McD.s!


Ha ha yeah probably, he did say it was great in the Fens with the wind behind you cruising at 25 mph, I guess you have to turn round some time. One of the reasons he comes through Suffolk round my way is because it was quite sheltered he said.
I have to say I felt like announcing to the restaurant clientele " do you know who this is, it's only Steve fecking Abraham" as no one gave him a second look! But he's such a quiet reserved humble guy (from my brief meeting) I don't think he would have approved! I feel privileged to have met him and had a brief chat to be honest.


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## Dogtrousers (14 Jun 2017)

Sunday was not just Steve's first sub 100 mile day. It was also his first sub 200 km day. So that's interrupted his uber-RRTY

He's bounced back with a 235 and a 238 mile days on Monday and Tuesday. So whatever the reason was, it wasn't serious.

It was also day 100 which may or may not mean anything. He's just released another youtube update, but I've not had time to view it yet.


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## Dogtrousers (14 Jun 2017)

I expect we've all wondered at one time or another "Is Steve a werewolf?" and wondered whether we should head to MK and shoot him with a silver bullet.

Well, in possibly my most stupid graph yet, I've plotted the variance from daily average against the fullness of the moon.






If Steve was a werewolf then we would see a high variance, either positive or negative (depending on whether werewolves are good at riding bikes)* in mileage corresponding to the full moon at the right hand side.

We don't see this so we can conclude:

Steve is not a werewolf, or maybe
Steve is a werewolf, but it doesn't affect his mileage.
Note that I've not factored in whether his rides were undertaken at night. It could be that only night rides near the full moon are affected, but I haven't explored that possibility.

On the basis of this I've made the decision not to go and shoot Steve with a silver bullet.

* I'd expect it to be negative, but you never know.

Edit: I've got positive and negative the wrong way round on the above graph. Not that it really matters.


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## srw (14 Jun 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> I've got positive and negative the wrong way round on the above graph. Not that it really matters.


Oh, but it does. I flip that graph and cluster some bars and see an overperformance during the new moon and an underperformance during the full moon.

Further investigations required, I think.


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## Dogtrousers (14 Jun 2017)

srw said:


> Oh, but it does. I flip that graph and cluster some bars and see an overperformance during the new moon and an underperformance during the full moon.
> 
> Further investigations required, I think.


Hmmm. Really it's an overperformance in the first quarter





Maybe Steve is a hitherto undocumented kind of werewolf?


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## tatr (16 Jun 2017)

The problem is that shooting him with a silver bullet proves nothing. 

My recommendation as a highly remunerated management consultant is to shoot him with a *normal* bullet.


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## srw (16 Jun 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Hmmm. Really it's an overperformance in the first quarter
> View attachment 357102
> 
> 
> Maybe Steve is a hitherto undocumented kind of werewolf?


He is at his weakest as the moon is waning, and at his strongest as it is growing. Some kind of werewolf derivative?


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## velovoice (16 Jun 2017)

srw said:


> He is at his weakest as the moon is waning, and at his strongest as it is growing. Some kind of werewolf derivative?


TMN to @Dogtrousers!


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## srw (16 Jun 2017)

velovoice said:


> TMN to @Dogtrousers!


You're not a geek, clearly!


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## velovoice (16 Jun 2017)

srw said:


> You're not a geek, clearly!


Many would disagree but one thing I surely can spot is duplicate references to werewolves.


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## srw (16 Jun 2017)

velovoice said:


> Many would disagree but one thing I surely can spot is duplicate references to werewolves.


ASJT! With apologies to @tatr, @swansonj and @Dogtrousers, there's an important word which if you recognise it will differentiate you from people who don't.


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## swansonj (17 Jun 2017)

Why shouldn't mathematicians drive to the pub? Because you can't drink and derive.


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## lazybloke (17 Jun 2017)

Constipated mathematicians work it out with a pencil


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## swansonj (17 Jun 2017)

Nice try but I think we're looking for specifically calculus jokes here. 

E to the x and a constant were walking along the street when they saw a differential operator coming. The constant ran away. "Why so scared?" asked e to the x. "Because I'm a constant and if he catches me, there'll be nothing left". "Well, I'm an exponential, he'll have no effect on me", said e to the x smugly. "Ha", said the operator, "what you don't know is that I'm a partial derivative - I'm d by dy".


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## Dogtrousers (19 Jun 2017)

A big week for Steve. His second highest (Strava Mon-Sun) week at 228.9 miles/day, and also his fastest at 16.9 mph. That's quite significant as his overall average so far is 16.04 mph. He's recovered some, but not all, of the drop in his overall daily mileage caused by his short day last Sunday.

Steve's stats as at 18 Jun 17 
Days: 107 (29.3% of year) 
Dist: 38,048 km / 23,642 mi 
Avg daily dist: 355.6 km / 221.0 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,519 m / 4,985 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,791 km / 80,648 mi


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## tallliman (19 Jun 2017)

Steve doesn't seem to be picking the rate up too much. Surely he has to sooner rather than later.


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## Aravis (21 Jun 2017)

Just one question @Dogtrousers: with an average daily mileage of 221 miles and an average speed of 16.0 mph, doesn't that make his hours per day riding 13.8? What does the 15.1 figure actually represent?

With a daily requirement of 244 miles from here onwards, and assuming a speed of 16 mph, he needs to be riding for an average of 15¼ hours a day. If his speed went up permanently to 16.9 mph the hours required would reduce to just under 14½.

It's amazing to see just how far he is ahead of the superhuman efforts he produced in 2015, and yet, I just get the impression he's giving up on the big target without a fight. It would be nice to see a sustained period where he consistently puts in the hours and miles needed, and see where it leads.

Bravo Steve!


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## Dogtrousers (21 Jun 2017)

Aravis said:


> Just one question @Dogtrousers: with an average daily mileage of 221 miles and an average speed of 16.0 mph, doesn't that make his hours per day riding 13.8? What does the 15.1 figure actually represent?
> 
> With a daily requirement of 244 miles from here onwards, and assuming a speed of 16 mph, he needs to be riding for an average of 15¼ hours a day. If his speed went up permanently to 16.9 mph the hours required would reduce to just under 14½.
> 
> ...


The speed figures are the "moving speed" given by Strava. That's after Strava has removed what it considers to be "stopped time". The total duration that I've used in the daily time distribution graph above is the time from start to end of recorded track. His stopped time is remarkably low.





This is the difference between Strava's "moving time" and the start and finish times of each track. 

As to whether he could/couldn't up the mileage sustainably I have no idea.


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## Supersuperleeds (23 Jun 2017)

Steve did a staggering 287 mile ride yesterday


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## tallliman (23 Jun 2017)

Possibly to make up for the short ride the day before.


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## Dogtrousers (27 Jun 2017)

An up and down week. Three 250 mile+ rides, with some shorter ones. Steves slightly eccentric diurnal rhythm (or lack of it) actually makes a bit of a nonsense of assigning rides to a particular day sometimes. He ended up with 220.6 miles per day for the week. So not a stellar week, but enough to keep the overall rate trending upwards, just.

*Steve's stats as at 25 Jun 17 *
Days: 114 (31.2% of year) 
Dist: 40,534 km / 25,187 mi 
Avg daily dist: 355.6 km / 220.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,516 m / 4,972 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.1 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.1 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,779 km / 80,641 mi


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## Dogtrousers (30 Jun 2017)

tallliman said:


> Yep, following Steve on those mileages is difficult and I like stats. Possibly a bit out but I'd be interesting given his desire for consistency to look at the standard deviation in his mileages over time.



I've noticed an increased tendency for Steve to put in very big mileages followed by smaller recovery days, and I remembered this post. So here's the standard deviation of his total daily mileage population over time.




So, he started out with a massive ride, and the population at the start was small so the standard deviation starts out big, and gradually stabilised. However, since about day 60 it has been growing, and made a big jump on his short day on day 100, and is still trending upwards.

And if you consider just the population of his last 20 rides, it's even more marked


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## Dogtrousers (30 Jun 2017)

Here's the standard deviation of the last 20 days (rolling)


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## Scoosh (30 Jun 2017)

"Like" the above posts (without a full understanding of what they mean but endeavouring to show my mathematical nous) but appreciating the effort and information !


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## Dogtrousers (30 Jun 2017)

I'm not entirely sure what they mean. Really just that Steve is not churning out the same distance every day, he does a variety of ride lengths, and they are getting more varied as time goes on.


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## swansonj (30 Jun 2017)

I "liked" the rolling 20 day one, because I was recently grappling with making Excel calculate rolling (10 year in my case) averages of the inverse variance weighting of certain quantities....


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## tallliman (30 Jun 2017)

Thanks for that, glad to know someone reads the comments!

I think it confirms my suspicions that his riding lengths are becoming a little more erratic over the year. When I spoke to him beforehand, he wanted consistency but it doesnt look like he's achieving it.


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## Scoosh (30 Jun 2017)

tallliman said:


> I think it confirms my suspicions that his riding lengths are becoming a little more erratic over the year. When I spoke to him beforehand, he wanted consistency but it doesnt look like he's achieving it.


I wonder if the 'more erratic' weather has played a part, rather than his fitness/health levels.   




and



with only occasional



- then it's


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## Dogtrousers (3 Jul 2017)

Another week ... more miles Nearly a third of the way through the year

Steve's stats as at 02 Jul 17 
Days: 121 (33.2% of year) 
Dist: 43,066 km / 26,760 mi 
Avg daily dist: 355.9 km / 221.2 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,498 m / 4,916 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,909 km / 80,722 mi


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## Dogtrousers (10 Jul 2017)

A 217 mpd week for Steve, which is relatively modest. It's only the 13th highest of his 18 "Strava" (Mon-Sun) weeks.

However it was notable for the fact that he passed his highest seven consecutive days, 29 Jun-5 Jul: 2,636.6 miles at 234 mpd.
Dropped off at the end of the week with "only" 154 miles on Sunday (only his third sub 160 mile day), the explanation being in the ride title: Struggling to stay awake and very slow so stopped for sleep. I'm assuming that there is no additional mileage to add for Sunday, as he finished at about 8pm.

Steve's stats as at 09 Jul 17 
Days: 128 (35.1% of year) 
Dist: 45,510 km / 28,279 mi 
Avg daily dist: 355.5 km / 220.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,478 m / 4,850 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,775 km / 80,639 mi


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## Milkfloat (10 Jul 2017)

@Dogtrousers Seeing as I am lazy  Could you also include the projected miles per day needed to beat Amanda by one mile?


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## Dogtrousers (10 Jul 2017)

Milkfloat said:


> @Dogtrousers Seeing as I am lazy  Could you also include the projected miles per day needed to beat Amanda by one mile?


Er ... let's see ( 86,573.2 - 28,278.7) / (365 - 128 ) = 245.9 miles per day. 

_Edit, that's to equal, not beat by one mile. That would be ( 86,573.2 + 1 - 28,278.7) / (365 - 128) = 245.97 The other one is actually 245.96 for one decimal place I should have rounded up to 246.0 above._

And just for @tallliman





I might do something with medians ...


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## tallliman (10 Jul 2017)

Thanks! Again shows that the consistency he wants isn't there.


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## Dogtrousers (17 Jul 2017)

Another week. Quite low by Steve's standards: 209mpd. That's the 18th of his 19 weeks so far.

Steve's stats as at 16 Jul 17 
Days: 135 (37.0% of year) 
Dist: 47,872 km / 29,746 mi 
Avg daily dist: 354.6 km / 220.3 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,460 m / 4,791 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 129,431 km / 80,424 mi


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## ianrauk (17 Jul 2017)

I think we can safely say that he's not even trying to go for or emulate Coker's new record, but looking like he can easily beat Godwins and Searvogels.


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## tallliman (17 Jul 2017)

I'd agree, he must need an extra 30miles or so a day now and appears to be struggling by the titles of his rides.


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## Milkfloat (17 Jul 2017)

ianrauk said:


> I think we can safely say that he's not even trying to go for or emulate Coker's new record, but looking like he can easily beat Godwins and Searvogels.



I don't want to 'like' this comment, but I totally agree with it. It must be very tough to keep going knowing that you are highly unlikely to break the record. I assume there is not someone out their ratifying an on road / no recumbent record?


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## Dogtrousers (17 Jul 2017)

The asking rate for AC's total is now up to 247.1 mpd
Meanwhile the asking rate for TG's total is 197.0 mpd and KS's total is 201.4
He'll probably set a HAMR age group record. Beating some guy called Stephen Abraham. He needs 147.2mpd to do that.
https://www.ultracycling.com/highest-annual-mileage-hamr/


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## Mugshot (17 Jul 2017)

Didn't he put a schedule up before he started, I'm sure it's around here somewhere. How's he doing aganst that?


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## Dogtrousers (17 Jul 2017)

Mugshot said:


> Didn't he put a schedule up before he started, I'm sure it's around here somewhere. How's he doing aganst that?


It's the red dotted line on my graph above.
He's 1,184 miles behind it.


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## Mugshot (17 Jul 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> It's the red dotted line on my graph above.
> He's 1,184 miles behind it.


DOH!! Sorry @Dogtrousers


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## tallliman (17 Jul 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> It's the red dotted line on my graph above.
> He's 1,184 miles behind it.



So he needs to be about 6mpd above his target but is slipping day on day.


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## Mugshot (18 Jul 2017)

View: https://youtu.be/cHg9VA5qIXU


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## Dogtrousers (19 Jul 2017)

Kajsa has just put out a request on twitter if anyone can supply Steve with a smart phone.


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## Dogtrousers (21 Jul 2017)

Steve's riding the Mersey Roads 24 hour TT tomorrow.

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-entrant-list/15599


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## Ian H (21 Jul 2017)

I have updated the donations list to show those for this year. He's going to be quite tight for funds to complete this attempt.


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## Dogtrousers (24 Jul 2017)

A week with an average of 204mpd in which Steve's overall rate dropped below 220mpd for the first time. Rounded off with a trip to the North West for the National 24 hr time trial. 


*Steve's stats as at 23 Jul 17 *
Days: 142 (38.9% of year) 
Dist: 50,170 km / 31,174 mi 
Avg daily dist: 353.3 km / 219.5 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,447 m / 4,748 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5  
Projected total at current daily rate: 128,958 km / 80,131 mi


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## Beebo (24 Jul 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> A week with an average of 204mpd in which Steve's overall rate dropped below 220mpd for the first time. Rounded off with a trip to the North West for the National 24 hr time trial.
> 
> 
> *Steve's stats as at 23 Jul 17 *
> ...



Its a shame as these weeks should be his most productive, he still has the whole of autumn and winter to ride through.
How on earth does he maintain motivation with the record now clearly out of reach.


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## Dogtrousers (24 Jul 2017)

Beebo said:


> Its a shame as these weeks should be his most productive, he still has the whole of autumn and winter to ride through.
> How on earth does he maintain motivation with the record now clearly out of reach.


Unfinished business with Mr Godwin?
Because he enjoys it?


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## Ian H (24 Jul 2017)

Steve's had a few health issues which should be behind him now.


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## Dogtrousers (31 Jul 2017)

It looks like Steve is on the mend as his speed is back up around 16 to 17mph, having been depressed down to about 15mph for a week or so before the 24h. 

He's just passed Kajsa's total.


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/891658893297889281


Steve's stats as at 30 Jul 17
Days: 149 (40.8% of year)
Dist: 52,591 km / 32,679 mi
Avg daily dist: 353.0 km / 219.3 mi
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,442 m / 4,730 ft
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h
Hours per day riding: 15.4
Projected total at current daily rate: 128,830 km / 80,052 mi


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## Dogtrousers (4 Aug 2017)

Steve had a rest day yesterday, to recover and keep out of the wind, sleep and catch up a bit on his social media:


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/893231722694946816



View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/893232195086815241


He also posted general thoughts on his year in the Other Place here. Here are edited highlights.


Steve Abraham said:


> I'm still going for Amanda's record, though it does look unlikely that I'll succeed.
> [...]
> I still have the men's record to go for. But if all else fails, I don't see the point in stopping. I may not get the record, but that doesn't mean I HAVE to stop. After all, I'd only find some other ride to do, so I might as well keep going just to finish the story.
> Still 7 months to go


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## tallliman (4 Aug 2017)

Quite interesting but I did wonder if he was just going for Kurt' s record a few weeks back. He just doesn't seem to be able to do the extra.


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## Dogtrousers (4 Aug 2017)

_"I don't see the point in stopping."_

I think that's brilliant. Kind of turns "why does he do it? ... what's the point? ... which record? ... " questions on their head.


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## Dogtrousers (7 Aug 2017)

Steve's lowest week yet, at 188 miles per day. Includes the rest day discussed above and, to compensate, his third biggest single day. His speed has picked up over the past couple of weeks, with two weeks in the high 16mph's, after a month or so during which it dropped down to 15 point something.

Caveat: I'm a bit worried that a zero mileage day may have messed up some of my figures, but I don't have time to check.

Steve's stats as at 06 Aug 17 
Days: 156 (42.7% of year) 
Dist: 54,709 km / 33,995 mi 
Avg daily dist: 350.7 km / 217.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,433 m / 4,700 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 128,006 km / 79,539 mi


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## Dogtrousers (9 Aug 2017)

Steve has just passed Marcel Planes' 1911 record of 34,366 miles.


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## Dogtrousers (11 Aug 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/895855495365369856


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## Dogtrousers (14 Aug 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 13 Aug 17 *
Days: 163 (44.7% of year) 
Dist: 57,017 km / 35,429 mi 
Avg daily dist: 349.8 km / 217.4 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,431 m / 4,696 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 127,676 km / 79,334 mi


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## Dogtrousers (21 Aug 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/897138904272392192


*Steve's stats as at 20 Aug 17 *
Days: 170 (46.6% of year) 
Dist: 59,184 km / 36,775 mi 
Avg daily dist: 348.1 km / 216.3 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,426 m / 4,678 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 127,072 km / 78,959 mi


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## Dogtrousers (28 Aug 2017)

Steve's been to Wales this week.


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/900252809282674688


*Steve's stats as at 27 Aug 17 *
Days: 177 (48.5% of year) 
Dist: 61,558 km / 38,250 mi 
Avg daily dist: 347.8 km / 216.1 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,430 m / 4,692 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 126,941 km / 78,878 mi


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## Dogtrousers (4 Sep 2017)

Hmmm. Looks like I may have posted last week's data a bit early. On Sunday he only has 42km posted, which was the end of Saturday's ride (finished after midnight). But according to freeroute he did 270km.

I'll post a correction when all the data's in. Still likely to be quite a short week though.

In the meantime I'll delete the post as I need to check further.


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## Dogtrousers (5 Sep 2017)

OK. Another attempt at Steve's stats as at the end of last week (Sunday). 

Half way through the year. This week was Steve's lowest week yet with an average of "only" 183 miles per day.

*Steve's stats as at 03 Sep 17 *
Days: 184 (50.4% of year) 
Dist: 63,617 km / 39,530 mi 
Avg daily dist: 345.7 km / 214.8 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,414 m / 4,640 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 126,198 km / 78,416 mi


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## Mugshot (5 Sep 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> OK. Another attempt at Steve's stats as at the end of last week (Sunday).
> 
> Half way through the year. This week was Steve's lowest week yet with an average of "only" 183 miles per day.
> 
> ...


<Sigh> It does look like a steady downward trend, across what should have been his best months too.


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## Dogtrousers (5 Sep 2017)

Mugshot said:


> <Sigh> It does look like a steady downward trend, across what should have been his best months too.


My figures are a tad lower than those quoted by someone else on the web so I did a thorough reconciliation check with Strava and I'm pretty sure I'm right.
From Twitter and so on his spirits seem to be pretty good. 
I was going to post graphs of speed and power output but the data is quite wonky and it's impossible to draw any conclusions really.


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## tallliman (5 Sep 2017)

Kajsa has posted a video with some thoughts having ridden with Steve late last month.


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## srw (5 Sep 2017)

tallliman said:


> Kajsa has posted a video with some thoughts having ridden with Steve late last month.


Here it is. It shows Steve looking _really_ good.


(No sound needed - it's subtitled)


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## Dogtrousers (8 Sep 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/905854747298627584


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## Dogtrousers (11 Sep 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 10 Sep 17 *
Days: 191 (52.3% of year) 
Dist: 65,748 km / 40,854 mi 
Avg daily dist: 344.2 km / 213.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,410 m / 4,625 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 125,644 km / 78,072 mi


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## tallliman (11 Sep 2017)

Looks like he's either saving some energy or he's gonna aim to just pass Kurt. That is unless he will launch a parallel bid starting in January.


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## Dogtrousers (13 Sep 2017)

Something different from Steve yesterday, possibly to do with the windy conditions.

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/907529179926855680


Steve rode up and down the A505 15 times yesterday as part of his 192 mile ride.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1181280682

(By the way there will be no weekly update next Monday)


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## Dogtrousers (20 Sep 2017)

Sorry to be a bit behind with this update. 

Steve missed a couple of days last week with stomach trouble. 


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/909336757078052865


*Steve's stats as at 19 Sep 17 *
Days: 200 (54.8% of year) 
Dist: 67,917 km / 42,201 mi 
Avg daily dist: 339.6 km / 211.0 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,382 m / 4,536 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 123,948 km / 77,018 mi 






Note that the red bar in the Strava Weeks graph is this week (incomplete week-to-date average)


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## ianrauk (20 Sep 2017)

I hope he can make up the missed miles. He's getting very close to the Searvogel line.


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## Mugshot (20 Sep 2017)

ianrauk said:


> I hope he can make up the missed miles. He's getting very close to the Searvogel line.


And coming into some of the hardest months too.


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## ianrauk (20 Sep 2017)

Mugshot said:


> And coming into some of the hardest months too.




I don't think that will bother Steve too much. He's been cycling in UK winter weather more miles and more years then he can probably remember. It may impact a little but I'm sure not to a huge detrimental effect. Unless of course the country get's hit by heavy snowfall but that doesn't usually happen until January and February.


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## Dogtrousers (20 Sep 2017)

ianrauk said:


> I hope he can make up the missed miles. He's getting very close to the Searvogel line.


Kurt's record is 208.4 mpd. Steve needs 205.3 for the remainder of the year (another 165 days) to match it.


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## Dogtrousers (25 Sep 2017)

Steve has picked things up again a bit, with a 209 mpd week. He's mostly staying local to MK and using his A505 circuit.
*
Steve's stats as at 24 Sep 17 *
Days: 205 (56.2% of year) 
Dist: 69,632 km / 43,267 mi 
Avg daily dist: 339.7 km / 211.1 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,370 m / 4,494 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 15.9 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 123,979 km / 77,037 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 336 km / 209 mi per day


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## Mugshot (25 Sep 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> He's mostly staying local to MK and using his A505 circuit.


Good. I thought from the off that if Steve was going to make a serious challenge he needed to change his approach to something more akin to Amandas, even flatter would be better if he could find one but 3.5k over 270miles is a far better than elevations like the 11k he did when he ventured into Wales.


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## Dogtrousers (25 Sep 2017)

Mugshot said:


> Good. I thought from the off that if Steve was going to make a serious challenge he needed to change his approach to something more akin to Amandas, even flatter would be better if he could find one but 3.5k over 270miles is a far better than elevations like the 11k he did when he ventured into Wales.


Steve has said that wind is more of a problem than hills. I imagine he's used his extensive knowledge of local conditions to devise the most sheltered route possible. 
I think that trip was his first foray into Wales in either this or his previous attempt. Maybe that was his holiday.


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## Mugshot (25 Sep 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Steve has said that wind is more of a problem than hills. I imagine he's used his extensive knowledge of local conditions to devise the most sheltered route possible.
> I think that trip was his first foray into Wales in either this or his previous attempt. Maybe that was his holiday.


Oh I agree, it was an extreme example of climbing he has done on a ride compared to what he could be doing. But a shortish loop makes sense to me from the climbing aspect as well as being closer to home for support or bailing.


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## Mugshot (28 Sep 2017)

*Steve Abraham*
2 hrs ·
Steve continues to show up for his rides every day (after his illness earlier this month cost him two full riding days). This photo was taken earlier this evening and suggests he's probably back to 'normal' now...


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## Dogtrousers (2 Oct 2017)

A 186mpd week for Steve. Alternating long and short days, on his local roads. During this week he passed Ossie Nicholson's 1933 total of 43,966 miles. 
This week he will have Walter Greaves' 1936 45,383 and Bernard Bennett's 1937 45,801 in his sights.

*Steve's stats as at 01 Oct 17 *
Days: 212 (58.1% of year) 
Dist: 71,731 km / 44,572 mi 
Avg daily dist: 338.4 km / 210.2 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,349 m / 4,427 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 123,499 km / 76,739 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 300 km / 186 mi per day


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## Dogtrousers (2 Oct 2017)

[QUOTE 4981005, member: 9609"]Has Steve stayed solely within the UK so far ? so even if he doesnt beat Amandas distance he will at least have the UK record.[/QUOTE]
Yes he has stayed within the UK (England and one brief foray into Wales).

However, there isn't a "UK record" in any official sense.


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## Zoom (2 Oct 2017)

There isn't a UK HAMR record but Kurt (who didn't apply to Guinness before the record attempt) was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records for his successful HAMR so presumably Steve could be as well for the UK? (it's years since I read it so not sure if they still have UK records listed)


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## Dogtrousers (3 Oct 2017)

The UMCA is the only game in town when it comes to mileage records at the moment. Guinness just echo what they say.

Kurt still holds the men's record, and Steve holds his own age group record.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Oct 2017)

A 197mpd week. All on local roads round MK/Leighton Buzzard

During this week Steve passed Walter Greaves' 1936 total of 45,383 miles, and Bernard Bennett's 1937 total of 45,801 miles.

Next up is René Menzies' 1937 total of 61,561 which Steve should reach some time in the second half of December.

*Steve's stats as at 08 Oct 17 *
Days: 219 (60.0% of year) 
Dist: 73,954 km / 45,953 mi 
Avg daily dist: 337.7 km / 209.8 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,337 m / 4,387 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.5 
Projected total at current daily rate: 123,257 km / 76,589 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 318 km / 197 mi per day


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## Dogtrousers (9 Oct 2017)

From Twitter. 


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/917413616323883010


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## ColinJ (9 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> A 197mpd week. All on local roads round MK/Leighton Buzzard
> 
> During this week Steve passed Walter Greaves' 1936 total of 45,383 miles, and Bernard Bennett's 1937 total of *73,710 miles*.


That should be 73,710 _*km *_- 45,801 miles.


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## Pale Rider (9 Oct 2017)

Well done to @Dogtrousers for singlehandedly keeping some wider interest in Steve's attempt going.

Even the sandal wearing beardies in the other place have largely given up posting about it.


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## ianrauk (9 Oct 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> Well done to @Dogtrousers for singlehandedly keeping some wider interest in Steve's attempt going.
> 
> Even the sandal wearing beardies in the other place have largely given up posting about it.


Lots of people are following his progress on Strava


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## tallliman (9 Oct 2017)

Unfortunately, the distances and durations make it difficult to see his progress. Also, it doesn't feel like he's going for Amanda's record so some of the interest must wane.


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## Aravis (9 Oct 2017)

I've certainly not stopped watching. Some time ago I found it was becoming impossible to compose a sensible message without sounding unduly negative, which would never have been my intention. So probably best to keep quiet.

From the very start my main hope was that he could surpass Kurt Searvogel, and I still hope he can.


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## ianrauk (9 Oct 2017)

Aravis said:


> From the very start my main hope was that he could surpass Kurt Searvogel, and I still hope he can.



Same for me.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Oct 2017)

I just hope there isn't another one starting next year. What with Steve '15, Kajsa '16 and Steve '17-'18, I'm getting knackered.


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## Dogtrousers (10 Oct 2017)

Here are a couple of slightly different graphs. They are rolling 7-day distance per day, and rolling 7 day speed (moving average as reported by Strava)

On day 193 Steve started riding just local roads. Days 196 and 197 he lost due to illness.
Also day 153 he did not ride.


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## Ian H (10 Oct 2017)

Thanks to Dogtrousers, by the way, for helping the team with analysis of the occasional duplicate or missing file issues.


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## tatr (11 Oct 2017)

If it wasn't for the updates here, I wouldn't have made a donation to Steve's attempt.

Hope he realises people are watching and interested in how he's getting on!


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## Dogtrousers (11 Oct 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/918015814300729344


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## srw (12 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/918015814300729344



Are we sure he's not mechanically doped? Those are extraordinary numbers.


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## tallliman (12 Oct 2017)

I remember riding with Steve n Kajsa last year going up the Lincolnshire ridge. My heart rate hit about 160, they both just topped 100 by the top! Think it's just their bodies adjusting to the level of exertion.


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## Dogtrousers (16 Oct 2017)

A 198mpd week. Steve still wearing a groove in the A505. 

*Steve's stats as at 15 Oct 17 *
Days: 226 (61.9% of year) 
Dist: 76,181 km / 47,337 mi 
Avg daily dist: 337.1 km / 209.5 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,324 m / 4,345 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 123,036 km / 76,451 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 318 km / 198 mi per day


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## ianrauk (16 Oct 2017)

He's going to need to step it up a bit. Seem's to be sailing very close to the Saervogel line.


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## tallliman (16 Oct 2017)

That's just what I was gonna say. I wonder if any of the other riders had variance of 310 - 130 miles.


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## Aravis (16 Oct 2017)

I hope this might be useful. A stat I've looked at recently is his average daily mileage over the preceding 30 days.

Blank days would obviously distort this considerably, and the result would fail to give an accurate impression of what he's currently achieving. If I've done this right, I've removed them completely. So if there were two blank days in the preceding 30, what I should be showing is the average of the other 28.





Since he currently needs 199.3 mpd to match Godwin (206.6 for Searvogel) he does indeed need to step it up a bit. And with just the rest of October plus the four dark months to come, it going to be a tall order.

But, as the end starts to come in sight, it must help to know the target, assuming it can be kept within range. I don't have the figures to hand, but I'd imagine that what he was able to achieve in the first couple of months of the 2015 attempt would offer some encouragement.

Lets hope for an exciting few months. Allez Steve!


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## Dogtrousers (19 Oct 2017)

Now let's look at something _*really*_ important. Kudos. How many kudos clicks per day is Steve getting? I've presented this as average kudos/day for each week that he's been riding.





We can see that his support is holding up. Naturally there was some diminution of support as people tired of seeing mega rides popping up on their dashboards every day. But eventually support settled at around 1,000-1,500 per day and is maintaining that level.


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## Mugshot (19 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Now let's look at something _*really*_ important. Kudos. How many kudos clicks per day is Steve getting? I've presented this as average kudos/day for each week that he's been riding.
> View attachment 379378
> 
> 
> We can see that his support is holding up. Naturally there was some diminution of support as people tired of seeing mega rides popping up on their dashboard every day. But eventually support settled at around 1,000-1,500 per day and is maintaining that level.


The really really important question is how does that compare to the kudos received in the last challenge? Is the level of support waning with each attempt?


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## Dogtrousers (19 Oct 2017)

Mugshot said:


> The really really important question is how does that compare to the kudos received in the last challenge? Is the level of support waning with each attempt?


<Hard stare>


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## Mugshot (19 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> <Hard stare>


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## Aravis (19 Oct 2017)

For some reason, I very rarely give Kudos to anyone. Even Kajsa only received this supreme honour on really significant milestone days.

So I could help to boost his Kudos ratings should this be needed. Should I wait until a moment when the whole campaign seems to be on the line? I'm thinking that perhaps that moment is here.


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## Mugshot (19 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> <Hard stare>


From my exhaustive efforts, including but not limited to looking at how many pages the last thread had, noticing the last thread had far more posters and extensive market research of one person (me) I have found that there is less interest in this current attempt. Last time out pretty much the first thing I did when I got up was check Strava, I had the live tracker going all day on the comp and was generally all round excited and engaged. This time I'm not, but I'm not sure why. It may be because Coker has effectively killed it off but then I did enjoy Kajsas year, maybe it was the amount she engaged on social media, which is what Alicia did with Kurts challenge. I dunno, sorry Steve, I really want you to do well, but it's just not grabbing me this time


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## GuyBoden (19 Oct 2017)

It's a fantastic ride, whatever the final result maybe.....................


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## ianrauk (19 Oct 2017)

GuyBoden said:


> It's a fantastic ride, whatever the final result maybe.....................



Indeed. And thank's to @Dogtrousers for keeping up with the stats.

This thread is at least keeping the interest going with Steve where as at the other place, the similar thread seems to have come to stand still.


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## Crackle (19 Oct 2017)

Well done Dogtrousers, I'm still reading too which I wouldn't be without your updates.


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## Dogtrousers (19 Oct 2017)

Mugshot said:


> extensive market research of one person (me) I have found that there is less interest in this current attempt.


My extensive market research shows the reverse. Last time Jo from the Other Place had the analytics all sewn up, so there was nothing for me to do. Also, since the first attempt ended I've had the pleasure of meeting and riding with Steve, so this one is much more engaging - for me. The fact that he's not going to pass the Coker total makes it all the more interesting as it's become more of a pure personal challenge. True grit and all that. But I do understand that as he's unlikely to ring the bell of the world record that may reduce interest for some.

Anyway, I wrote all the stuff for collating data from Strava during Kajsa's year - so it's not much trouble to keep it ticking over.


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## alpine fenlander (19 Oct 2017)

Thanks for the stats @Dogtrousers it's much appreciated and keeps it interesting.

I rode with Steve about 5-6 weeks ago for a couple of hours, before he had his health problems. At that point he said he hadn't given up on going for Amandas record, but he was just taking it one day at a time and if he doesn't get the record, in the worst case he's still enjoying his time riding his bike. 

He said he mostly only has his mum to help this time round so there isn't much time for social media as he basically has to eat, sort his bike and sleep ready for the next day and while his funds are running low he thinks he just about has enough to finish the attempt.

It was the first time I managed to ride with him (considering how often he does come to the Fens and I'm usually out at the same time, that's taken quite a while) and it was indeed very difficult to pace him. His riding is extraordinarily steady! Which means quite slow on the uphills and very fast on the downhills, and even though our hills are mostly bridges it was very hard to get the pace right. Looking at his Strava stats for the ride, he did get a few PBs on the stretch we rode together and his heart rate was nearly in the human range so he must have tried a bit to keep up :-)

He's a really nice guy and if he gets the record or not, it's an amazing achievement either way!


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## tallliman (19 Oct 2017)

I guess the other thing to consider is Kurt vs Steve was an additional attention grabber for some. Going round at the same time would've gained interest.

Kajsa engaged far more than any of them to date which gave a special feed into her attempt (it also helped that I could ride with her and Steve a fair bit).


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## Aravis (19 Oct 2017)

I'm glad to say I've also had the pleasure of riding with him, on an early Kajsa ride. We had a conversation about my 30-year-old Coca Cola branded water bottles (now retired) so it's possible he might remember. Charming and modest.

For that reason alone I'm bound to feel more engaged this time around.

I wonder if he missed a trick by not running this attempt over a calendar year. Having had look at Kurt Searvogel's Strava stats, it looks as though Tommy Godwin still owns that particular accolade, by about 800 miles.

I've expanded the graph I posted a few days ago. I hope this is hitting an appropriate note:




Since the two-day sickness break in September (which I believe coincided with his adpotion of the A505 circuit) he's averaged 197.6 mpd, which if maintained won't be quite enough to match Godwin. If he's still motivated to challenge Kurt Searvogel's total, and I hope he is, the extra needed from now on is about 10 miles per day, roughly equivalent to one lap of his circuit. That seems to be exactly what he did yesterday.


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## velovoice (19 Oct 2017)

Indeed. I wonder if the sustained interest is coming mainly from those of us who have personally met and/or ridden with him?


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## Dogtrousers (23 Oct 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 22 Oct 17 *
Days: 233 (63.8% of year) 
Dist: 78,367 km / 48,695 mi 
Avg daily dist: 336.3 km / 209.0 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,316 m / 4,318 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.4 
Projected total at current daily rate: 122,764 km / 76,282 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 312 km / 194 mi per day


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## ianrauk (23 Oct 2017)

@Dogtrousers 
IS Steve now below the KS line? Your graph is too small to make it out.


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## Dogtrousers (23 Oct 2017)

ianrauk said:


> @Dogtrousers
> IS Steve now below the KS line? Your graph is too small to make it out.


No. See the expanded view in the bottom left. He's still about 0.6 mpd ahead


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## ianrauk (23 Oct 2017)

a gnats whisker


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## andyoxon (24 Oct 2017)

I suppose Steve really needs a steady increase in miles now, before winter hits, particularly to stay ahead of the KS line.


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## Beebo (25 Oct 2017)

andyoxon said:


> I suppose Steve really needs a steady increase in miles now, before winter hits, particularly to stay ahead of the KS line.


I hope he can muster the energy to do this. 
But his progress line has been going south almost since he started.


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## Aravis (29 Oct 2017)

Beebo said:


> I hope he can muster the energy to do this.
> *But his progress line has been going south almost since he started*.


The average daily mileage line does indeed look like that. But if you look at the actual progress he's been making over the months you get a different picture, something like this:




That's heavily stylized, of course, highlighting only the most conspicuous trends. If the 195 mpd he's been steady at for a while now is sustainable to the end, then there must be grounds for optimism because as far as I can recall everyone who's completed a challenge of this sort has been able to produce a marked surge as the finish line has come into sight.


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## srw (29 Oct 2017)

Aravis said:


> as far as I can recall everyone who's completed a challenge of this sort has been able to produce a marked surge as the finish line has come into sight.


Including Steve when he did his Audax points record a few years ago.


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## Dogtrousers (30 Oct 2017)

Aravis said:


> The average daily mileage line does indeed look like that. But if you look at the actual progress he's been making over the months you get a different picture, something like this:
> 
> That's heavily stylized, of course, highlighting only the most conspicuous trends. If the 195 mpd he's been steady at for a while now is sustainable to the end, then there must be grounds for optimism because as far as I can recall everyone who's completed a challenge of this sort has been able to produce a marked surge as the finish line has come into sight.


One interpretation for the sequence of events is that Steve found the 220mpd rate with 15 hour daysOK to start with but from about day 130 it became increasingly hard to sustain. Just before day 200 he was putting in extremely long days, seemingly sleeping on the road, and this was followed by a loss in form and a health crisis (the two missed days 196 and 197) Maybe it caused it, maybe it was coincidental. From then to about day 220 he seemed to be regrouping and recovering, and since about day 220 he's reset with more like 14 hour days and a 195 mpd rate, which it appears he is gradually increasing.

That's one way of reading it anyway.


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## Dogtrousers (30 Oct 2017)

Steve's first 200+ mpd week for a month.
*
Steve's stats as at 29 Oct 17 *
Days: 240 (65.8% of year) 
Dist: 80,690 km / 50,138 mi 
Avg daily dist: 336.2 km / 208.9 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,309 m / 4,295 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 122,716 km / 76,252 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 332 km / 206 mi per day


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## ianrauk (30 Oct 2017)

Nice to see an upswing on the Kurt line chart. Small as it is.


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## uphillstruggler (30 Oct 2017)

what ever happens, this guy is a machine. riding through some of the weather we've had and with illnesses is an amazing feat.

I wish him all the best from a fellow Milton Keynes dweller.


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## Dogtrousers (30 Oct 2017)

It's worth noting that Steve has just passed 50,000 miles on day 240 (yesterday)

Someone on Strava said that Kurt passed 50,000 on day 241, and I've no reason to doubt them.


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## Dogtrousers (31 Oct 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/925270752164708352


He still managed 188 miles


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## Dogtrousers (3 Nov 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/926079370317443073


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## Dogtrousers (6 Nov 2017)

A 207mpd week. That's the first time since the mid July that he's put in two consecutive Godwin+ calendar weeks. 

He seems to be settling into a 14 hour per day schedule. 

*Steve's stats as at 05 Nov 17 *
Days: 247 (67.7% of year) 
Dist: 83,019 km / 51,586 mi 
Avg daily dist: 336.1 km / 208.8 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,299 m / 4,263 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.3 
Projected total at current daily rate: 122,680 km / 76,230 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 333 km / 207 mi per day


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## Dogtrousers (6 Nov 2017)

Here's what I meant about a 14 hour day. The following graph shows how long his daily Strava tracks last. 





You can see that he started out doing regular 15 hour days (actually a bit less), but he's settled down to 14 hour days lately.

The big bulges occur when Steve has uploaded 20+ hour tracks. That doesn't necessarily mean he was out for that long (although he may have been), he may have kipped on the road, or other reasons. There can be various reasons for the bulges, but when the line is relatively level it indicates a more regular go out/ride/go home pattern.


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## Dogtrousers (13 Nov 2017)

A 198mpd week, leaving Steve just 0.2 mpd ahead of Kurt.

*Steve's stats as at 12 Nov 17 * 
Days: 254 (69.6% of year) 
Dist: 85,249 km / 52,971 mi 
Avg daily dist: 335.6 km / 208.5 mi 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,292 m / 4,239 ft 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h 
Hours per day riding: 15.2 
Projected total at current daily rate: 122,503 km / 76,120 mi 
Rate over last 7 days: 318.5 km / 197.9 mi per day


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## ianrauk (13 Nov 2017)

Not good seeing that downward trend. What with tougher, colder, windier, wetter weather ahead it's not looking good for Steve to beat Searvogels total. I hope I'm wrong and he does manage to pull out some longer rides.


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## Dogtrousers (13 Nov 2017)

ianrauk said:


> Not good seeing that downward trend. What with tougher, colder, windier, wetter weather ahead it's not looking good for Steve to beat Searvogels total. I hope I'm wrong and he does manage to pull out some longer rides.


At the moment he's mainly consistent on about 200-210 mpd, on 14 hours riding, but also consistently drops in one or more shorter rides per week (if that makes sense). He started out on about 220mpd off about an hour more riding time. I can only assume he's reduced the time because it was proving hard to maintain the 15(ish) hour days over the long term, leading to a bit of a crisis mid-year.

As @Aravis said earlier many long attempts put on a surge towards the end. The problem is, that his final two months will be January and February when conditions may not be suitable.

Anyway, records aside, it's an amazing feat.


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## Aravis (13 Nov 2017)

I've updated my moving average graph. My figures show exactly the same total mileage as @Dogtrousers so I'm hopeful of being accurate:





This shows a much more cheery looking upward trend over recent weeks. One positive headline is that his two weekly moving average just made it above the Searvogel line yesterday, for the first time in well over two months.

It looks to me as though he's going to try and sit on Kurt's wheel for the rest of the attempt, and ease past at the end. Looking from the outside that certainly doesn't seem impossible, but the comparatively unproductive September and October (when I'm sure he hoped to be at his best) have made it a lot harder. You can't escape from the fact that he has to do 209 mpd through the four darkest and coldest months.


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## MacB (13 Nov 2017)

Worth remembering that Kurt was considerably faster and so less time on bike and more rest.


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## Aravis (13 Nov 2017)

I tried a back-of-an-envelope projection and just at the moment it's coming out quite neatly. If Steve can average 200 mpd until day 335 (February 1st), then he'd need to average 230 mpd over the remaining 30 days to hit 76076 almost on the nose.

He's been maintaining 200+ through most of October and the first part of November. February can be quite decent, and he'd have absolutely nothing to lose by that time.

It's a tall order, but he's hanging in there. Always assuming that the Searvogel figure is what he's really aiming at, of course.

The other day I glanced down at the mileometer on my car (which I seem to have had for ages) and briefly saw the number 76076. It's a long way.


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## tallliman (13 Nov 2017)

The main issue for Steve will be if late January/early February is especially icy or snowy. It's a risky strategy.


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## Dogtrousers (20 Nov 2017)

A 203 mpd week, and Steve has dropped behind Kurt for the first time.

*Steve's stats as at 19 Nov 17* 
Days: 261, 71.5% of year, 104 days remaining 
Dist: 87,536 km / 54,392 mi 
Avg daily dist: 335.4 km / 208.4 mi_ (Last 7 days: 326.8 km / 203.0 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,283 m / 4,210 ft_ (Last 7 days: 969 m / 3180 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.8 km/h / 16.0 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 26.0 km/h / 16.2 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 14.3)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 122,416 km / 76,066 mi (335.4 km / 208.4 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 121,520 km / 75,509 mi (332.9 km / 206.9 miles per day)_


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## Aravis (23 Nov 2017)

Wow - Steve's heading out towards Norfolk today. Having seen the forecast over the next couple of days, it's looking like a good move.


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## Dogtrousers (27 Nov 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 26 Nov 17* 
Days: 268, 73.4% of year, 97 days remaining 
Dist: 89,814 km / 55,808 mi 
Avg daily dist: 335.1 km / 208.2 mi_ (Last 7 days: 325.4 km / 202.2 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,281 m / 4,203 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1201 m / 3940 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 25.1 km/h / 15.6 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 14.6)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 122,321 km / 76,007 mi (335.1 km / 208.2 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 121,381 km / 75,422 mi (332.6 km / 206.6 miles per day)_


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## Dogtrousers (3 Dec 2017)

A video from Idai Makaya featuring Steve.

View: https://youtu.be/hhwt-OlyFYo


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## Dogtrousers (4 Dec 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 03 Dec 17*
Days: 275, 75.3% of year, 90 days remaining
Dist: 92,099 km / 57,227 mi
Avg daily dist: 334.9 km / 208.1 mi_ (Last 7 days: 326.4 km / 202.8 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,273 m / 4,176 ft_ (Last 7 days: 952 m / 3125 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 25.0 km/h / 15.6 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 14.3)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 122,240 km / 75,956 mi (334.9 km / 208.1 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 121,473 km / 75,480 mi (332.8 km / 206.8 miles per day)_


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## Dogtrousers (4 Dec 2017)

Steve mentioned on twitter that he's been in the wars, and in his somewhat inaudible comments on Idai's video he said things have been quite serious. I thought perhaps we could peek inside his mind using from his choice of songs to describe his rides.  

06 Nov: Light in the black
07 Nov: In my world
08 Nov: Shapes of things
09 Nov: Rotting in vain
10 Nov: Another brick in the wall
11 Nov: Planet Caravan
12 Nov: Lookin' out for No.1
14 Nov: Rehab (long day kill me slow)
13 Nov: Enjoy the struggle
15 Nov: The sleep
16 Nov: Clash with reality
17 Nov: Blood Red Skies
18 Nov: Bleeding me
19 Nov: Enter Sandman
20 Nov: Fighting (My way back)
21 Nov: Golden Slumbers
22 Nov: Born to lose
23 Nov: Moment of clarity
24 Nov: Darkness be my friend
24 Nov: The lion sleeps tonight
25 Nov: Fairies wear boots. (back to wearing overshoes)
26 Nov: Killed by Death
27 Nov: Hell aint a bad place to be
28 Nov: The razors edge
29 Nov: The struggle within
30 Nov: Until it sleeps
01 Dec: Train of consequences
03 Dec: Bring me back to life


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## Mugshot (4 Dec 2017)

*Steve Abraham*
2 hrs ·
For anyone who saw the video from Sunday (and anyone else really), here is pretty much what I was saying.
Sorry for no video updates since July. I have tried a few times and they haven't worked out. I don't have time to edit, so I have to get straight through without too many mistakes or forgetting important stuff.
I've had a very hard few months and have discovered that I most likely have a condition that is restricting what I can do, which is partly why there haven't been any updates for a long time. That and traffic noise, opportunities to film etc. I won't go into my condition yet. That assumes that I do have it. However, what I am doing to solve my condition seems to be working very well. I have pretty much been setting myself further back every day since I set off in March, so have a lot of damage to undo. What I am doing seems to be working very well and I reckon I am about as bad now as I was in August. I made my discovery about a month ago and have been surprised at how much better I am feeling and how quickly I am improving, but I also realise how bad I got.
So, once I get myself in a better condition; the end of this week would be the earliest at a guess; I will take an "easy" week and catch up on my video updates since the Mersey Roads 24hr in July using my netbook at home (so no traffic noise and you get to see my ugly mug. Maybe put it under the Christmas tree to stop the kids opening the presents early



:-)). There will be several updates for all the stuff I have gone through since my last update, some of which might have been very serious. I have probably been close to having to stop the attempt a few times. Once I have caught up with the story from July to the discovery of my condition I will do another update where I reveal all about my condition and try to explain how debilitating it is. It should also explain why I have been having such a hard time, especially in the last few months. 
But for now, I am definitely feeling a lot better (even though I don't feel especially "good") and improving every day.


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## Dogtrousers (4 Dec 2017)

Thanks for that @Mugshot

Elsewhere, the question of whether Steve will hit 500 centuries for the year has been raised. The Year Century Challenge has counted 462. I make it 468 in this HAMR attempt alone (plus quite a few in the year leading up), but overnight rides and stuff like that may account for the difference. Maybe I'll put some time into figuring it out.

Whatever he does, I hope he puts his long term health first.

These year long things really are a journey into the unknown. So few people attempt them that no one really knows the dangers that lurk ahead.


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## Aravis (4 Dec 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> Elsewhere, the question of whether Steve will hit 500 centuries for the year has been raised. The Year Century Challenge has counted 462. I make it 468 in this HAMR attempt alone (plus quite a few in the year leading up), but overnight rides and stuff like that may account for the difference. Maybe I'll put some time into figuring it out.



Totting up individual activities, with no attempt to combine activities which directly follow one another, I make it 170 at 200+ miles, plus another 105 at 100+, giving 445 centuries during the HAM'R attempt. I think that's what the Strava Yearly Century Challenge is doing. That particular challenge has gone to the dogs this year, with single activities spanning a couple of weeks being routinely uploaded (not by Steve) with no apparent attempt to look at how the miles were distributed. I believe Steve is required to start a new activity when he rides past midnight, which happens to be the same basis as the original 1911 challenge on which the Strava Yearly Century Challenge is supposedly based. Do I sound bitter?



Dogtrousers said:


> Whatever he does, I hope he puts his long term health first.
> 
> These year long things really are a journey into the unknown. So few people attempt them that no one really knows the dangers that lurk ahead.


It's a tough one, isn't it? I quite agree with your sentiments, but I also want him to be content with what he's done when it's all over.


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## Dogtrousers (4 Dec 2017)

Aravis said:


> Totting up individual activities, with no attempt to combine activities which directly follow one another, I make it 170 at 200+ miles, plus another 105 at 100+, giving 445 centuries during the HAM'R attempt. I think that's what the Strava Yearly Century Challenge is doing. That particular challenge has gone to the dogs this year, with single activities spanning a couple of weeks being routinely uploaded (not by Steve) with no apparent attempt to look at how the miles were distributed. I believe Steve is required to start a new activity when he rides past midnight, which happens to be the same basis as the original 1911 challenge on which the Strava Yearly Century Challenge is supposedly based. Do I sound bitter?


It's hard for the YCC to do anything other than take "Strava activity upload" as the individual unit of measure. Unless they want someone to write some stuff for them that stitches adjacent activities together, then unpicks activities that clearly contain multiple rides. And no, I'm not volunteering.

Incidentally (WOOP WOOP name dropping alert WOOP WOOP) I was chatting to Steve last year and he was saying that when you get to the big Audaxes (600+ I guess) the idea of ride length goes out of the window. Does a ride stop and then restart after a few hours kip in a bus shelter? I kind of doubt that he's all that bothered by century count. Meanwhile it remains pretty important to us mortals.


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## tallliman (4 Dec 2017)

Steve's illness certainly could explain some of the issues he's been having.....putting ones body under continual strain for 2-3 years has to take its toll eventually. Having said that, it appears that this could be something non-cycling related....perhaps stomach?


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## Aravis (4 Dec 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> It's hard for the YCC to do anything other than take "Strava activity upload" as the individual unit of measure. Unless they want someone to write some stuff for them that stitches adjacent activities together, then unpicks activities that clearly contain multiple rides. And no, I'm not volunteering.



You've reminded me of something. In this year's implementation, Strava's YCC is about collecting points which, depending on a rider's habits, may or may not relate to century count in the way most would understand it. And I keep trying to tell myself I'm not bitter. Those who've uploaded multi-day activities measuring in the 1000s of miles are likely to be overstating it; Steve, in reality, will have done considerably more centuries than the YCC stats imply - your figure suggests the same thing.

A good example occurred on day 1 of Steve's HAM'R. He uploaded two activities, 155 miles and 163 miles. Strava's YCC has credited him with two points.

I can't swear to it as I haven't looked in detail, but I assume that Steve's post-midnight fragments haven't been combined with one of the neighbouring activities for YCC purposes. If they were, that would up his count quite a bit.

So I don't think the YCC stats are giving a good estimate of Steve's century count this year. Your stats (and mine probably) will do that much better.

As you say, as if Steve cares!


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## Dogtrousers (11 Dec 2017)

*Steve's stats as at 10 Dec 17* 
Days: 282, 77.3% of year, 83 days remaining 
Dist: 94,325 km / 58,611 mi 
Avg daily dist: 334.5 km / 207.8 mi_ (Last 7 days: 318.1 km / 197.6 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,273 m / 4,176 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1272 m / 4174 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 25.0 km/h / 15.5 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 15.5)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 122,087 km / 75,862 mi (334.5 km / 207.8 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 120,724 km / 75,014 mi (330.8 km / 205.5 miles per day)_


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## jay clock (11 Dec 2017)

I have just found this thread having previously been aware of his attempt(s) and I must admit his own website doesn't make it in any way clear what he is attempting. http://www.oneyeartimetrial.org.uk . Even the FB page doesn't seem provide a summary. And it looks like he will get nowhere near the current record of 86k? I am not attempting to do down what he is trying to do, just to understand it.


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## Aravis (11 Dec 2017)

Thanks for the update @Dogtrousers - I was holding my breath yesterday!

@jay clock - I think there's been a general assumption from quite early on that the Kurt Searvogel target (76076 miles) is the realistic objective. But I'm not aware this has ever been stated by Steve. If you think about it, there was never going to be a single moment when the 86000+ target became impossible, and by the time it was obviously out of reach, did it really need saying?

I've updated my moving average graph - see below:






The Godwin target is demonstrably under control, although it remains a herculean task. The Searvogel target is, however, slipping away rapidly. Roughly speaking, he needs the equivalent of an extra lap (about 10 miles) of his standard A505 circuit on most of the remaining days. However unlikely, at this stage I don't think you can say it's impossible. I'm quite sure that given reasonable luck he'll find something on the run-in.


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## jay clock (11 Dec 2017)

Aravis said:


> Thanks for the update @Dogtrousers - I was holding my breath yesterday!
> 
> @jay clock - I think there's been a general assumption from quite early on that the Kurt Searvogel target (76076 miles) is the realistic objective. But I'm not aware this has ever been stated by Steve. If you think about it, there was never going to be a single moment when the 86000+ target became impossible, and by the time it was obviously out of reach, did it really need saying?
> .


I was not trying to be arsy, I was genuinely trying to understand what he was trying to achieve having lost track of his various attempts


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## Dogtrousers (11 Dec 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/940149359680860160


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## Aravis (11 Dec 2017)

jay clock said:


> I was not trying to be arsy, I was genuinely trying to understand what he was trying to achieve having lost track of his various attempts


Yes, I'm sorry. I knew I hadn't got the tone quite right, but I had to dash out. FWIW I'm trying to understand as well. Some of his statements do seem purposely enigmatic.


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## jay clock (11 Dec 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/940149359680860160



I had already had a look through his Twitter before posting and was not much the wiser. Fairly infrequent and comments like "very tough week last week" with no reference to how far and whether on target. Sounds like he needs a mate he can simply call once a day, do a 60 sec dump of data and impressions and they add that to Twitter etc. Can't be easy I am sure. I have done a few Ironmans but could not conceive of doing even one day of 200 miles!


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## Dogtrousers (11 Dec 2017)

jay clock said:


> I had already had a look through his Twitter before posting and was not much the wiser. Fairly infrequent and comments like "very tough week last week" with no reference to how far and whether on target. Sounds like he needs a mate he can simply call once a day, do a 60 sec dump of data and impressions and they add that to Twitter etc. Can't be easy I am sure. I have done a few Ironmans but could not conceive of doing even one day of 200 miles!


Knowing what Steve is thinking is never easy. Early on in this attempt he seemed to make an attempt at doing things like video logs, but he kept breaking the cameras and I don't think it's really his thing. At one point we thought that Kajsa was going to be a bit more involved with communications, which would have been good, but that never happened. I don't suppose he has many spare minutes between sleeping and cycling.

As it is, I think all we can know is he's trying his utmost, and at the end of the year we'll see how much he's done. The way I see it, it won't make any difference whether or not we known the gory details of whatever it is that's been setting him back.

That's why I said earlier that "he's trying to ride as far as he can in a year". Which was a pretty smart-alecy response, I confess, but that's pretty much all we know, and pretty much all we need to know, I think. Aside from that, the figures speak for themselves.


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## DCLane (11 Dec 2017)

Essentially he's riding in all weathers and across a range of territory. Amanda and Kurt swapped territory and moved to the Florida flatlands.

Steve could head for the French coast along the Bay of Biscay and ride flat all day long, but he hasn't. For me that's more sensible but not necessarily in the spirit of the ride.


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## tallliman (11 Dec 2017)

Yep, whilst I admire Amanda's record, I prefer the way Steve has gone about it. However, he seems to have increasingly done circuit rides along A roads to keep the miles up. It almost seems a concession that the long loop rides weren't good for his attempt (unless it's more down to his health/weather)


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## Dogtrousers (12 Dec 2017)

Steve managed 229km in and around Milton Keynes yesterday Strava
_Started finding it difficult to keep my line and started veering further into the road. Melted snow was freezing up, so I headed for M. Keynes to ride under street lights thinking that being in a town would be warmer to help prevent icy roads as well. _


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## ianrauk (12 Dec 2017)

142 miles in this freezing weather to us mere mortals would be an amazing effort. For Steve I think even he may be disappointed at that. Of course he's not helped by the conditions. Where Kurt and Amanda had warmer climes, Steve is battling with the winter UK elements so unfortunately unless he can pull out a good few stunning huge efforts in the remaining amount of days he has left, even's Kurt's mileage will be beyond Steve.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Dec 2017)

Required rates for various records

Days remaining: 83 Current rate 207.8 miles/day
35.5 miles/day required for René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles
48.8 miles/day Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles
60.2 miles/day Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles
78.5 miles/day Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles
198.2 miles/day Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles
210.4 miles/day Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles
336.9 miles/day Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles

Edit: Note that's not including yesterday's ride, so it's as at end of Sunday.


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## Aravis (14 Dec 2017)

Steve has posted yesteday's activity. He was hit by a car, but is OK.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1314105590


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## ianrauk (14 Dec 2017)

Flippin' heck.

Steve is just not destined to get this record is he.


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## Dogtrousers (14 Dec 2017)

Sheesh. I noticed the tracker was quiet today, but didn't see Strava.


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## HLaB (14 Dec 2017)

Aravis said:


> Steve has posted yesteday's activity. He was hit by a car, but is OK.
> 
> https://www.strava.com/activities/1314105590


On Faceboke he says the doctor has told him to rest for 72hours :-/



> I was hit from behind by a car. Just a glancing blow, rather than a direct hit. Took the wing mirror clean off.
> Worst of my injuries are in the photos taken about 20 hours later. Right hand side of my drop handlebars is now more like an extra tri-bar. Probably lucky I was on the tri-bars at the time. Not much more than superficial wounds really. Walking is uncomfortable, not in any pain if I am resting and I should be OK in 72 hours, according to the doctor. Been checked out and X-rayed and nothing broken. Swelling seems to be going down very quickly. I've just been eating and sleeping today.
> So, I was hit and found myself lying at the roadside with my right leg tangled in bent up handlebars and in shock. I untangled myself and a passer by stopped and phoned the police. The person who hit me did stop.
> Ended up waiting at the roadside for about an hour in freezing temperatures (having now checked my ride on Strava, it was 32F or 0C, so literally was freezing), covered in blankets and going into hypothermia. It got tough when my temperature went down to 34 degrees and it went as low as 33.
> As I've had people ask what my resting pulse is, it went down to 37bpm when I was in hospital and warmed up again. It gave the medic a fright until I told him I cycle about 200 miles a day. I even got a free sandwich



At least he's smiling about it :-/


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## Pale Rider (14 Dec 2017)

Oh dear.

I'm not much good at reading the tracker, but it looks to me as if he'd already dropped well below 200 miles a day for the last 10 days or so.

No doubt Doggers will crunch the numbers, but adding a blank day or two, I suspect surpassing Godwin's record may now be looking unlikely.


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## Glow worm (14 Dec 2017)

Oh ffs what is wrong with drivers in this bloody country?
I'm sick of it, and feel so desperately sorry for Steve who I greatly admire.
(I found myself literally shaking yesterday, before my morning commute, dwelling on the psycopathic drivers I was about to encounter, after some recent scares from nasty, aggressive drivers).
I'm sick of all these lardy bullying sods in cars/vans/trucks whatever bullying us off the roads.
Recover well swiftly Steve.


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## tallliman (15 Dec 2017)

Not great to hear but at least nothing is broken. It makes his task more difficult as it must add 2mpd for every day he's off the bike or so (assuming about 100 days to go)


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## Aravis (15 Dec 2017)

He's off! So much for 72 hours!

https://frrt.org/tg/r/1-steve


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## ianrauk (15 Dec 2017)

Ain't no stopping the boy


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## ianrauk (15 Dec 2017)




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## ianrauk (15 Dec 2017)




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## ianrauk (15 Dec 2017)




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## Ming the Merciless (15 Dec 2017)

I get knocked down 
But I get up again 
You're never going to keep me down.


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## Dogtrousers (16 Dec 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/941962720622018561


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## Dogtrousers (18 Dec 2017)

A somewhat challenging week, of ice, snow and handlebar remodelling, in which Steve managed a "mere" 994.4 miles.

*Steve's stats as at 17 Dec 17* 
Days: 289, 79.2% of year, 76 days remaining 
Dist: 95,926 km / 59,605 mi 
Avg daily dist: 331.9 km / 206.2 mi_ (Last 7 days: 228.6 km / 142.1 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,260 m / 4,135 ft_ (Last 7 days: 760 m / 2492 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.7 km/h / 16.0 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 24.4 km/h / 15.1 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.1_ (Last 7 days: 10.9)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 121,152 km / 75,280 mi (331.9 km / 206.2 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 113,302 km / 70,403 mi (310.4 km / 192.9 miles per day)_ 

Required rates for various records 
25.7 miles/day required for René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles 
40.2 miles/day required for Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles 
52.7 miles/day required for Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles 
72.7 miles/day required for Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles 
203.4 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles 
216.7 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles 
354.8 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles


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## ianrauk (18 Dec 2017)

C'mon Steve. You are now sailing very close to the wind for even Tommy's total which we know is the record you really want to beat. Fingers crossed for better weather, cycling conditions and your health.


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## Dogtrousers (18 Dec 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/942663040587190272



View: https://twitter.com/yearinthesaddle/status/942677606616444930


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## Dogtrousers (25 Dec 2017)

A tough week still recovering from being knocked off

*Steve's stats as at 24 Dec 17*
Days: 296, 81.1% of year, 69 days remaining
Dist: 98,108 km / 60,961 mi
Avg daily dist: 331.4 km / 206.0 mi_ (Last 7 days: 311.7 km / 193.7 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,262 m / 4,139 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1309 m / 4294 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.6 km/h / 15.9 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 23.5 km/h / 14.6 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.1_ (Last 7 days: 14.6)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 120,977 km / 75,172 mi (331.4 km / 206.0 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 119,617 km / 74,326 mi (327.7 km / 203.6 miles per day)_

Required rates for various records
8.7 miles/day required for René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles
24.6 miles/day required for Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles
38.4 miles/day required for Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles
60.4 miles/day required for Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles
204.4 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles
219.0 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles
371.2 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles






*Last 7 days*
2017-12-17 10:04 193.3 miles Set out to do 199 miles to make 1000 for the week. Scuppered by stopping for a meal and unhelpful wind (the weather) all the way home.
2017-12-18 00:00 5.2 miles Late to bed!
2017-12-18 08:57 200.0 miles Still having to avoid icy roads.
2017-12-19 09:04 189.6 miles Still recovering
2017-12-20 00:00 4.3 miles Night Ride
2017-12-20 10:35 191.2 miles Feeling stronger but my shin and lower back are still slowing me down.
2017-12-21 00:00 9.0 miles Coming Home
2017-12-21 10:45 175.5 miles Morning Ride
2017-12-22 00:00 31.3 miles Night Ride
2017-12-22 10:19 174.4 miles Still hurts
2017-12-23 00:00 23.8 miles Night Ride
2017-12-23 10:43 176.2 miles Coccyx has become painful and slowing me down. Being injured is tiring. 
2017-12-24 09:05 175.3 miles Merry Christmas Everyone


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## tallliman (25 Dec 2017)

He really needs to get back to the higher mileages soon!


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## tyreon (25 Dec 2017)

WOT!

Gee!

Sir(Steve),I salute you. OTOH...wotsgoinon! This attempt is over-the-top. Crackers!

Best wishes,but don't compromise your well-bing. TC


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## Beebo (26 Dec 2017)

It is sad seeing Kurt’s record target slip away.


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## ianrauk (26 Dec 2017)

Beebo said:


> It is sad seeing Kurt’s record target slip away.


Agreed. If there was one person I wanted Steve to beat, it was Kurt.


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## Dogtrousers (26 Dec 2017)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/945284129607831554


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## Ming the Merciless (26 Dec 2017)

Good miles yesterday


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## Supersuperleeds (29 Dec 2017)

Looks like he had a bad day yesterday, only 92 miles done. I think he came off on the ice the day before.


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## Pale Rider (30 Dec 2017)

According to the tracker Steve has had a couple of days off followed by a late start this morning, which means today's ride will probably be a short one in his terms.

I reckon this week may have added about six miles a day to the already stiff looking required rate to beat Tommy of 205 miles a day.

With two grotty months to finish the year, beating Tommy is looking increasingly unlikely.


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## jay clock (30 Dec 2017)

I am impressed that someone is still going when there is no kudos other than "cycling a lot in a year but not probably the highest Brit or male" - I feel sorry for Steve. How does he fund this? Any prospect of another attempt?


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## Pale Rider (30 Dec 2017)

jay clock said:


> I am impressed that someone is still going when there is no kudos other than "cycling a lot in a year but not probably the highest Brit or male" - I feel sorry for Steve. How does he fund this? Any prospect of another attempt?



Steve's 2015 attempt was crowd funded.

Many on here and in the other place contributed, including me.

We've never been told figures, but it appears the original fundraising was so successful there's just about enough in the kitty for this attempt.


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## Aravis (30 Dec 2017)

Pale Rider said:


> *According to the tracker Steve has had a couple of days off *followed by a late start this morning, which means today's ride will probably be a short one in his terms.
> 
> I reckon this week may have added about six miles a day to the already stiff looking required rate to beat Tommy of 205 miles a day.
> 
> With two grotty months to finish the year, beating Tommy is looking increasingly unlikely.


I believe he had problems with the tracker - presumably now solved. So not quite that bad!


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## Pale Rider (1 Jan 2018)

Aravis said:


> I believe he had problems with the tracker - presumably now solved. So not quite that bad!



Hopefully he can claim those rides, because however you look at it, every mile is now crucial if he is to beat Tommy.

There's still a two-day gap in the tracker, not that I full understand it.

Looks to me as if Steve finished in the early hours this morning, but is not riding today - unless the tracker is acting up again.

https://frrt.org/tg/riders?offset=250&limit=50


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## Dogtrousers (1 Jan 2018)

I'm afraid the weekly stats update will be a day late this week. Sorry


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## ianrauk (1 Jan 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> I'm afraid the weekly stats update will be a day late this week. Sorry




Thanks for doing these. Appreciated.


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## Supersuperleeds (1 Jan 2018)

He's posted this on Strava today:

*Into 2018...*
Some basic stats copied and pasted from my Strava page 

Last 4 Weeks 
Avg Rides / Week 9 
Avg Distance / Week 1,243 mi 
Avg Time / Week 83h 10m 

2017 
Distance 65,195.5 mi 
Time 4104h 22m 
Elev Gain 1,362,825 ft 
Rides 407 

So, over 65,000 miles since Jan 1st, which is more than my UMCA age category HAMR record from 2015. Though I set off on March 4th 2017 but the 65,000 miles does include about 2-3000 miles of training rides I did before I set off. So I pretty much matched my own year record in 10 months. Not getting a broken ankle seems to help. 
During this attempt I have discovered that I almost certainly have a condition that has been holding me back since even before I started with the HAMR. It's being dealt with and I am feeling a lot better with regards to that. 
The thing that is holding me back most now are my injuries from being hit by a car, which would have been traveling at around 50mph and was probably very close to being fatal. Also my painful hip which I got from coming off on ice last week. Walking and getting on or off the bike are still uncomfortable but riding the bike isn't so bad as long as I don't go too hard. My injuries are also making me sleepy, so I sometimes stop for sleep and rest. Apart from that I am feeling a lot better and waiting impatiently for my injuries to heal so I can get on with it.


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## Dogtrousers (2 Jan 2018)

A tough week. Here are Steve's stats up to the end of 2017. He logged 30km on New Year's morning but I've not included that yet.

*Steve's stats as at 31 Dec 17* 
Days: 303, 83.0% of year, 62 days remaining 
Dist: 100,068 km / 62,179 mi 
Avg daily dist: 330.3 km / 205.2 mi_ (Last 7 days: 280.1 km / 174.0 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,260 m / 4,135 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1217 m / 3994 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.6 km/h / 15.9 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 23.5 km/h / 14.6 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.1_ (Last 7 days: 16.2)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 120,544 km / 74,903 mi (330.3 km / 205.2 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 117,431 km / 72,968 mi (321.7 km / 199.9 miles per day)_ 

Required rates for various records 
René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles Passed 27/12/17 
7.7 miles/day required for Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles 
23.1 miles/day required for Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles 
47.5 miles/day required for Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles 
207.8 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles 
224.1 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles 
393.4 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles 

Last 7 days  
2017-12-24 09:05 175.3 miles Merry Christmas Everyone 
2017-12-25 07:02 232.3 miles Accident of birth 
2017-12-26 00:00 200.5 miles Cunning route to get a day of tailwind and dodge the snow. It mostly worked. HR strap battery died. Wasted time charging up the 520 for power data but the 520 lost the ride.... 
2017-12-27 00:00 176.8 miles The wind was more westerley than I'd have liked, so the tailwind home wasn't great. Saw how much snow I'd missed. Icy roads after St Neots. I went down on ice near Bedford. Slow, painful ride home. Another injury to the collection.... 
2017-12-28 11:07 92.1 miles Lost over 2 hours sorting out the live tracker (ended up using a phone plugged into a battery with a GPS) New injury from yesterday's crash is slowing me down a lot. Continued in &quot;Description&quot;.... 
2017-12-29 08:59 155.6 miles Morning Ride 
2017-12-30 09:59 182.4 miles More time lost sorting out live tracker, then several other problems on the road. But going surprisingly well, considering how uncomfortable it is for me to walk and get on or off the bike. 
2017-12-31 09:31 178.4 miles Thought I'd get over 200 miles but the hip got very painful. Ended up stopping for sleep then riding into the wind with a painful hip.


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## Dogtrousers (2 Jan 2018)

Ooops. Forgot the graphics.


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## Dogtrousers (3 Jan 2018)

Steve rode to Shrewsbury yesterday (about 160 miles) and seems to be planning a visit to Wales. 

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/948135257299136512


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## Aravis (3 Jan 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> Steve rode to Shrewsbury yesterday (about 160 miles) and seems to be planning a visit to Wales.


Erm, he's now heading out into Fenland!!

I guessed wrong at every turn yesterday. For a while I thought he must be coming to Gloucester and I was getting my camera and waterproofs ready.


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## tatr (4 Jan 2018)

Nevermind I've come to Gloucester instead.

Bit quiet on the quay, isn't it?


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## Dogtrousers (8 Jan 2018)

*Steve's stats as at 07 Jan 18*
Days: 310, 84.9% of year, 55 days remaining
Dist: 102,145 km / 63,470 mi
Avg daily dist: 329.5 km / 204.7 mi_ (Last 7 days: 296.7 km / 184.4 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,261 m / 4,136 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1263 m / 4144 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.5 km/h / 15.9 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 23.2 km/h / 14.4 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 18.0)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 120,267 km / 74,731 mi (329.5 km / 204.7 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 118,464 km / 73,610 mi (324.6 km / 201.7 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.
2.5 miles/day required for Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles.
30.1 miles/day required for Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles.
210.8 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles.
229.2 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles.
420.1 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles.


*Last 7 days*
2017-12-31 09:31 178.4 miles Thought I'd get over 200 miles but the hip got very painful. Ended up stopping for sleep then riding into the wind with a painful hip.
2018-01-01 00:00 164.8 miles Had to delete the previous ride to upload this one for the whole days miles because it was coming up as a duplicate and my other GPS isn't saving my rides.
2018-01-02 10:39 103.6 miles Late start after sorting out GPS Strava etc etc. Ride into the wind for a good tailwind. Had to stop to recharge GPS continued in description or comments, whatever I can get to work
2018-01-02 19:19 58.8 miles Evening Ride
2018-01-03 00:00 224.7 miles Lady Eleanor
2018-01-04 06:48 163.6 miles Managed to sleep on the bad leg for the 1st time since I hit the ice. Wind picked up at the worst time, when I was in the Fens and I had to get home to upload and recharge everything. Down to 8mph a lot of the time. Even 5mph going slightly uphill.
2018-01-05 10:38 99.5 miles Leg feeling a bit tired after yesterday's headwind but strangely a bit better walking. Last few miles were pretty grim feeling cold and wanting to sleep. Feeling much better having food and rest before I set off again. Looks like uploading too much in one
2018-01-05 18:28 72.7 miles Really nice ride but very slow going
2018-01-06 00:00 213.1 miles To Scunthorpe Travelodge, then back home, mostly with a tailwind after Skegness
2018-01-07 00:02 20.7 miles Night Crawler
2018-01-07 09:41 169.2 miles Very slow with the injuries and wind. Had to sleep for a bit in a church porch. Maybe my injuries will be OK again by the end of the week?


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## ianrauk (8 Jan 2018)

Tommy Godwin record slipping away.
C'mon Steve, please pull something out of the bag to get back on track.


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## Dogtrousers (8 Jan 2018)

Here's the "last 2 weeks" graph with the Y axis adjusted a bit


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## Dogtrousers (8 Jan 2018)

I just noticed that Steve has ticked off another record, Ossie Nicholson's 1937 record of 62,657 miles, which Steve passed on 2nd Jan. Next up is his own 63,609 record.

Not the primary targets but worth noting.


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## Pale Rider (8 Jan 2018)

About 130 miles needed today to beat himself in 2015.

I think he's done that, possibly in the last hour or two, which is good.

What's no so good is today is looking like another behind Tommy target day.


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## tallliman (8 Jan 2018)

Add to that the hills and the freezing winter.....its incredibly difficult!


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## themosquitoking (8 Jan 2018)

I reckon the north of Spain somewhere would be the best place to do it in Europe, venturing further south in winter maybe.


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## Dogtrousers (8 Jan 2018)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/950295524288204800


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## Pale Rider (10 Jan 2018)

A rare trip west this week for our intrepid road warrior.

Looks like Steve spent Monday night in Leominster in Herefordshire, and yesterday headed north, passing through @Rickshaw Phil territory to stop last night in Shrewsbury.

If I read Strava correctly, that's 328 miles over two days.

Not so good when he needs about 420 miles to keep up with the Tommy target.

West in this country roughly equals hills, and Steve will wake up this morning to more climbing whichever way he goes.

Steve will know all this better than me, so I'm wondering if he's accepted Tommy is beyond him so he may as well finish the year doing more interesting rides.


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## Pale Rider (11 Jan 2018)

Worth noting a rare 'plus Tommy target' ride for Steve yesterday.

He did about 220 miles from Shrewsbury to the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Looks like he nipped up to York this morning, spun around at the city wall, and is now headed back to familiar territory in the East of England.


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## Dogtrousers (11 Jan 2018)

I think from recent Tweets: _once I get over my injuries (hopefully making me a bit faster and giving me more ride time) I can do some proper miles._ and ride titles _Maybe my injuries will be OK again by the end of the week?_ and _Can almost walk again and less painful on the bike_ he's not thrown in the towel quite yet, but is riding out a tough time.


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## Pale Rider (11 Jan 2018)

Let's hope he hasn't thrown in the Tommy towel.

In the past, the benefit of a usefully long ride has been negated by a short one the next day.

Steve is showing about 70 miles at present, he could do with another 140, but that's a big ask in about 10 hours.


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## User10119 (11 Jan 2018)

Sone fast bugger in red scalped me on the commute this morning - greeted me (by name!) with a cheerful good morning.


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## User10119 (11 Jan 2018)

S'funny - it was a hundred yards or so from the school where I once (a bit before the moped incident during his first attempt) spent an ICT lesson helping the infants to make "Good Luck Mr Abraham" cards.


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## ianrauk (11 Jan 2018)

[QUOTE 5112863, member: 10119"]S'funny - it was a hundred yards or so from the school where I once (a bit before the moped incident during his first attempt) spent an ICT lesson helping the infants to make "Good Luck Mr Abraham" cards.[/QUOTE]
Hope you threw him some of the legendary Crinkly Lion cake to catch and eat.


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## User10119 (11 Jan 2018)

I didn't have any actual cake on me! Had I been quick enough to catch him, of course, he could have had his pick of doughnuts (custard or jam or chocolate), caramel shortbread or dried mango/strawberries (for one colleague who quite bizarrely doesn't like any cake/biscuits/chocolate so gets fruit-based alternatives) from the cavernous cake-pushing ortliebs...

Mind, it's statistically much more shocking that he saw me riding a bike than it is that I spotted him doing the same, today being my most miles in a day of the year to date by a mahoosive margin. By the time I get home I'll have done at LEAST 6 or 7!


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## Pale Rider (12 Jan 2018)

Pale Rider said:


> In the past, the benefit of a usefully long ride has been negated by a short one the next day.
> 
> Steve is showing about 70 miles at present, he could do with another 140, but that's a big ask in about 10 hours.



Well, if you have a 'big ask' Steve is clearly the man for the job.

Yesterday's ride hasn't been uploaded to Strava yet, and the third party tracker seems to under-record distance.

But I'm all but certain Steve hit the Tommy target of about 210 miles, and probably exceeded it by 10 or 20 miles.

Two good days does not a year record breaker make, but if 210+ miles is the new par for Steve, he may yet squeak past Tommy.


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## ianrauk (12 Jan 2018)

Fingers crossed he can pull out a good few more rides like that during the rest of his year.

Go Steve.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Jan 2018)

Yesterday's ride was 223 miles. 
2018-01-11 08:54 223.1 miles Thought I'd get 230 miles but had to stop and rest my hip about 30 miles from home. Seem to be getting better.
212.3 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Jan 2018)

A slight downward movement of the line


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## Mugshot (12 Jan 2018)

*Steve Abraham*
1 hr ·
Just sent my entry in for another attempt at the month record. You get 3 free attempts at the UMCA month (30 day) record during a HAMR attempt. I was hoping to run 3 concurrent Month Record attempts to finish on my last day of HAMR, but with being hit by a car, coming off on ice, being sleepy from my injuries and having to sort out endless technical problems, getting an entry in on time was forgotten about or put off until I had time. I had to make time today as I must give at least 21 days notice for a UMCA record attempt and today (12th Jan) is my last chance to get an entry in at all. So a morning and some afternoon lost to sorting stuff out and getting organised.
But my injuries are getting better and I'm feeling stronger. I'm still slowed down by my injuries. Still get tired from them and sometimes have to stop and sleep. This is setting me further behind.
I don't know if I can do what I originally set out to do in 2015. It depends on how soon I recover from my injuries and how much better I can go now that I am treating my condition. I need over 230 miles a day now. With a late start today, I will be lucky to get over 150. I don't expect to do much better tomorrow, so will get even further behind. But I do know that as part of my training, I averaged 236mpd for 30 days before I knew that I had a condition that was holding me back.


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## Dogtrousers (15 Jan 2018)

More problems for Steve after his two Godwin+ rides earlier in the week

*Steve's stats as at 14 Jan 18*
Days: 317, 86.8% of year, 48 days remaining
Dist: 104,091 km / 64,679 mi / 2.60 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 400,745 m / 1,314,781 ft / 45.3 Everests
Avg daily dist: 328.4 km / 204.0 mi_ (Last 7 days: 278.0 km / 172.7 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,264 m / 4,148 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1425 m / 4675 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.5 km/h / 15.9 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 24.7 km/h / 15.3 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.1_ (Last 7 days: 13.8)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,852 km / 74,473 mi (328.4 km / 204.0 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 117,433 km / 72,970 mi (321.7 km / 199.9 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.
9.3 miles/day required for Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles. 
216.4 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles. 
237.4 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles. 
456.1 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles. 

*Last 7 days*
2018-01-07 09:41 169.2 miles Very slow with the injuries and wind. Had to sleep for a bit in a church porch. Maybe my injuries will be OK again by the end of the week?
2018-01-08 00:00 150.5 miles Lost time having to make a phone call then had to re-plan the route to avoid hold ups from cars and level crossings. Headed for home early and got sleepy, so went to bed. Thought I might wake up in an hour but got a full night. Hip is getting better thoug
2018-01-09 08:16 131.2 miles Feeling a lot better. Can almost walk again and less painful on the bike
2018-01-09 17:51 46.5 miles Early to bed
2018-01-10 06:26 118.7 miles Morning Ride
2018-01-10 15:05 99.1 miles Afternoon Ride
2018-01-11 08:54 223.1 miles Thought I'd get 230 miles but had to stop and rest my hip about 30 miles from home. Seem to be getting better.
2018-01-12 14:48 125.2 miles Very late start after a faffing fest.
2018-01-13 01:16 140.6 miles Slow, sleepy start. Sped up when I woke up.
2018-01-13 13:43 38.4 miles Ride to CTT Champions Night to collect the Team 24hr medal. Managed to stay awake long enough to collect the medal and eat some food, but not much else.
2018-01-14 09:44 135.9 miles Ride home from CTT Champions night. Had to get home in time to upload yesterdays ride. Fell asleep uploading so went to bed instead of going out again.


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## Aravis (15 Jan 2018)

Its heartbreaking to see Steve losing so many miles over the last three days, when the weather conditions were as perfect as you could possibly hope for in mid-January.

Making what seems a reasonable assumption, if there are 10 days in the remaining 48 where, for a variety of reasons, the most he can do is 175 miles, the target to match Godwin on the remaining 38 becomes 227.3 miles. It looks very difficult now, but what he can do in a final push remains to be seen.


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## Ming the Merciless (15 Jan 2018)

Seems to be slip sliding away. Come on Steve get the miles back up.


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## Brandane (15 Jan 2018)

I don't understand why he didn't do the same as his American rivals did, and do extended laps of quiet, well surfaced, flat routes in a more suitable climate. Was it Amanda Coker who did repeated laps around a national park in Florida?
I am no fund raising expert, but I would have thought that it wouldn't be beyond the bounds of possibility to get sponsorship from one of the many USA based hotel/motel chains to provide him with accommodation for a year while he undertakes this task.
Attempting this record on modern day UK roads and all that goes with it (traffic, weather, winter darkness, and poor surfaces immediately spring to mind) makes it a very dangerous as well as difficult in the extreme challenge IMHO.. Things were much different back in the day of Tommy Godwin with regards to traffic volumes and road conditions in general.
This record is after all all about miles done. It doesn't take into account the difficulty of those miles and is therefore not a test of how you cope with extreme weather, or climbing, or dealing with close passes from half awake drivers.


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## tallliman (15 Jan 2018)

^ I think Steve's motivation has been more about emulating Godwin than the overall record. Hence him doing it in the UK. I may be wrong!


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## Dogtrousers (16 Jan 2018)

230 miles yesterday, but he didn't get home til 1am, which may be a problem for today.


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## Aravis (17 Jan 2018)

Yet another magnificent effort yesterday - 205 miles, a familiar-sounding number. But he was out for 17 hours.

He's now within 10,000 miles of Tommy.

Another back-of-an-envelope calculation. With 46 days to go, in order to reach the final 30 days with the Godwin target no greater than his 2016 month record, Steve needs "only" 178.1 mpd over the next 16 days - less than he's been maintaining recently.


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## Dogtrousers (17 Jan 2018)

Steve has lost a bit of speed of late (Based on Strava "moving time")





But the good news is that his popularity is holding up!


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## Dogtrousers (17 Jan 2018)

Steve should pass Bernard Bennett's 1937 record of 65,127 miles today.


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## tallliman (17 Jan 2018)

We all know it's kpd not mpd that Steve's going for! ;-)


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## Pale Rider (17 Jan 2018)

Steve averaged 216 miles a day for the first two days of this week, which is exactly what he needs to beat Tommy.

An inevitably later start today, so reaching 216 miles by midnight or not long after won't be easy.

Hopefully the wind has eased, which may enable Steve to up the pace.


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## Dogtrousers (18 Jan 2018)

162 miles in the wind yesterday, to add to his early morning 23 giving 185 for the day.

*Not much help from the wind and still slowed down by injuries*


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## Aravis (18 Jan 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> 162 miles in the wind yesterday, to add to his early morning 23 giving 185 for the day.


It might be worth noting that in my version of Steve's stats, although my totals match yours to within a fraction of a mile, I've always coupled any after midnight activities with the previous day's. So I have 205 miles for two days ago, 162 yesterday.

If Steve is still significantly held back by injuries I fear that Godwin is too far away now to be caught. But a rapid start, well before 8am today shows that he's nowhere near giving up. Over this way we have a sparkling morning, more indicative of early spring than mid-winter.


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## Dogtrousers (18 Jan 2018)

Aravis said:


> It might be worth noting that in my version of Steve's stats, although my totals match yours to within a fraction of a mile, I've always coupled any after midnight activities with the previous day's. So I have 205 miles for two days ago, 162 yesterday.


It doesn't really make much difference, unless he's done a morning ride and not yet completed today's ride, in which case the incomplete day will have a very low mileage recorded. I did look into gluing together rides split over midnight, but it was complicated and I gave up.


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## Dogtrousers (19 Jan 2018)

2018-01-18 07:36 180.0 miles Got sleepy riding into headwind, so eased off. Weight down to 62kg, so I ate more, which meant several toilet stops
2018-01-19 00:04 35.0 miles Not sure why so slow. Headwind? Injuries? A bit of both?


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## Pale Rider (19 Jan 2018)

Looks like Steve didn't make it home until nearly 3am.

He was out again at 10am, which is a tremendous effort but will make 200+ miles today even more of a challenge.

Average so far this week is about 202 miles a day.

Regrettably, that means Steve's lost more ground to Tommy, so that target has gone up by a mile or two a day.


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## Pale Rider (21 Jan 2018)

Steve's currently meandering through the Cotswolds heading for Gloucester/Cheltenham.

I wonder if @Aravis is on his tail.


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## Aravis (21 Jan 2018)

Haha, sadly not! Haven't managed to intercept him yet.

He went up the Slad "Cider with Rosie" Valley just now. Very scenic, if only it were light! I'm guessing he'll decend the valley to Cirencester and return to MK the "easy" way. Another very long day. Hats off to the guy. I wouldn't've put a wheel outside today.


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## Pale Rider (21 Jan 2018)

Aravis said:


> Haha, sadly not! Haven't managed to intercept him yet.
> 
> He went up the Slad "Cider with Rosie" Valley just now. Very scenic, if only it were light! I'm guessing he'll decend the valley to Cirencester and return to MK the "easy" way. Another very long day. Hats off to the guy. I wouldn't've put a wheel outside today.



Sounds like a grand route, although perhaps not one for someone purely out for miles.

I shall leave Doggers to do his usual excellent job of crunching the numbers, but Steve has fallen further behind Tommy this week, making beating him increasingly unlikely.


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## Dogtrousers (22 Jan 2018)

*Steve's stats as at 21 Jan 18*
Days: 324, 88.8% of year, 41 days remaining
Dist: 106,357 km / 66,087 mi / 2.65 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 413,681 m / 1,357,222 ft / 46.8 Everests
Avg daily dist: 328.3 km / 204.0 mi_ (Last 7 days: 323.8 km / 201.2 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,277 m / 4,189 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1848 m / 6063 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: 16.1)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,816 km / 74,450 mi (328.3 km / 204.0 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 119,631 km / 74,335 mi (327.8 km / 203.7 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.
219.0 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles. 
243.6 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles. 
499.7 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles. 

*Last 7 days*
2018-01-14 09:44 135.9 miles Ride home from CTT Champions night. Had to get home in time to upload yesterdays ride. Fell asleep uploading so went to bed instead of going out again.
2018-01-15 06:46 214.8 miles Slow start to a windy week
2018-01-16 00:01 12.8 miles Late home because of the headwind
2018-01-16 09:04 182.0 miles Still windy
2018-01-17 00:02 23.0 miles Night Ride
2018-01-18 07:36 180.0 miles Got sleepy riding into headwind, so eased off. Weight down to 62kg, so I ate more, which meant several toilet stops
2018-01-17 09:25 162.2 miles Not much help from the wind and still slowed down by injuries
2018-01-19 00:04 35.0 miles Not sure why so slow. Headwind? Injuries? A bit of both?
2018-01-19 10:08 159.8 miles Light tailwind. Rode at an easy pace, as it seems to make me less sleepy. But still got sleepy, so finished a bit early.
2018-01-20 06:18 227.5 miles Morning Ride
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 &quot;Description&quot


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## Dogtrousers (22 Jan 2018)

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.


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## tallliman (22 Jan 2018)

Looking at the above, I'm wondering if the variation in Steve's weeks are smaller than for his days. There just doesn't seem to be any consistency in his riding day to day apart from hitting 180miles or so all the time.


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## Dogtrousers (22 Jan 2018)

@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


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## tallliman (22 Jan 2018)

Interesting that he's been suffering with apnoea. It's a shame that no uni has wanted to explore these crazy people's bodies when exposed to these levels of stress.


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## Dogtrousers (22 Jan 2018)

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._


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## srw (23 Jan 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> @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:
> 
> ...



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.


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## Dogtrousers (23 Jan 2018)

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.


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## srw (23 Jan 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> 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.


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.


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## Dogtrousers (23 Jan 2018)

srw said:


> here's the NHS guide.
> https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obstructive-sleep-apnoea/


_This may lead to regularly interrupted sleep, which can have a big impact on quality of life_​
Pretty fundamental for a 365-day-a-year distance cyclist.


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## Pale Rider (23 Jan 2018)

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.


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## ianrauk (23 Jan 2018)

*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. .


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## Dogtrousers (29 Jan 2018)

*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 &quot;Description&quot
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


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## Aravis (29 Jan 2018)

No messing about with whimsical ride names any more. I think we can safely say the final push has begun!


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## Beebo (29 Jan 2018)

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.


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## Aravis (2 Feb 2018)

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.


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## Supersuperleeds (3 Feb 2018)

Title for his Strava data from yesterday

*Day 1 of Month Record attempt and 1st of the last 30 days of the year record attempt. 236mpd needed to beat my UMCA/Guinness WR mens month record.*

He rode 240 miles

https://www.strava.com/activities/1388593363


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## ianrauk (4 Feb 2018)

Awesome stuff.

Go Steve!!!


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## Pale Rider (4 Feb 2018)

Looks like 200+ miles yesterday to Scunthorpe, although the ride hasn't been uploaded yet.

As someone pointed out in the other place, if Steve can keep up month record pace he will also beat Godwin - which looked beyond him a couple of weeks ago.


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## Dogtrousers (5 Feb 2018)

It's the final countdown. Tiddle ee dee. Tiddle it dit dee.

*Steve's stats as at 04 Feb 18* 
Days: 338, 92.6% of year, 27 days remaining 
Dist: 110,829 km / 68,866 mi / 2.77 times circumference of earth 
Total elevation: 437,400 m / 1,435,038 ft / 49.4 Everests 
Avg daily dist: 327.9 km / 203.7 mi_ (Last 7 days: 334.2 km / 207.7 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,294 m / 4,246 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1791 m / 5876 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.3 km/h / 15.7 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 23.9 km/h / 14.8 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 15.5)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,682 km / 74,367 mi (327.9 km / 203.7 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 119,853 km / 74,473 mi (328.4 km / 204.0 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. 
229.6 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles. 
267.0 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles. 
655.8 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles. 

*Last 7 days* 
2018-01-28 08:11 200.4 miles Morning Ride 
2018-01-29 00:05 5.7 miles Night Ride 
2018-01-29 09:32 191.0 miles Morning Ride 
2018-01-30 00:01 12.9 miles Night Ride 
2018-01-30 08:34 183.5 miles Slow going and got sleepy. Could be the slight ENT infection I've had the last few days? 
2018-01-31 07:30 135.1 miles Seem to be getting over the minor ENT infection. Early stop to upload rides and sleep through rush hour traffic. 
2018-01-31 21:33 43.2 miles Night Ride 
2018-02-01 00:03 246.8 miles Night Ride 
2018-02-02 07:04 240.3 miles Day 1 of Month Record attempt and 1st of the last 30 days of the year record attempt. 236mpd needed to beat my UMCA/Guinness WR mens month record. 
2018-02-03 07:32 220.2 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-04 00:02 8.7 miles Night Ride 
2018-02-04 06:59 166.4 miles Morning Ride


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## Beebo (5 Feb 2018)

Good luck, he has managed to pick the coldest week of the year.


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## tallliman (5 Feb 2018)

He needs a kick to those trend lines and quickly


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## Aravis (11 Feb 2018)

I haven't produced my moving average graph since before Steve was hit by a car, mainly because it didn't seem particularly helpful! Anyway, here it is, updated to this morning with yesterday's overnight epic estimated from the tracker:





I'm seeing two big messages here. Firstly, Steve was fighting back strongly in the weeks immediately before being hit by a car. In view of the tenacity he's shown in recent weeks, you have to think that Searvogel was well within his capability at that time.

Secondly, being hit by the car was a catastrophic blow.

Assuming he carries on trying to the end, and I can't really imagine anything else, he'll end up about 600-700 miles short of Godwin's 75065. That's roughly the equivalent of the three days unavoidably lost due to illness and injury.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Feb 2018)

No update yet as Steve hasn't uploaded all of his data from yesterday. However, on Saturday he posted this on Strava.

*That's probably put an end to my getting Tommy Godwins year record. More in description....*
_Now that I'm sleeping better I am more awake and riding more hours a week. Trouble is that the speed isn't there. It hasn't really gone up since I was run over in December. I'm still below pace even when I have a good tailwind. I still can't get through a day without needing a sleep either. This ride is a good example. Late start because I woke up late after a longer than usual sleep. Very good tailwind, but still only averaging below 16mph where I'd expect 17-18, at least! 
I don't know why. My injuries don't hurt nor do they bother me. My left leg does ache after a while, so maybe I'm not recovered from that yet? I feel better and more awake until I get sleepy in the afternoon. but feel better again after a sleep. 
I started getting sleepy on this ride so headed to Mc Donalds in Ely. Somewhere warm where I won't be disturbed. They do salads as well. Also handy to have a toilet nearby after a sleep and coffee. 
I put my head on the table and an hour had passed by. 
My guess is that I'm not fully recovered from my injuries. I feel much less tired overall and mentally. I just get an urge to sleep in the early-late afternoon. There is a natural lull in wakefulness at that time of day. I have tried riding a bit faster but I just get sleepy and end up stopping for more sleep. I am guessing that it's more down to physical tiredness from not being recovered from my injuries rather than overall lack of sleep. But who knows...? 
The bottom line is that I'm not going fast enough and can't ride any more hours than I am._


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## srw (12 Feb 2018)

I wonder whether he's tried Vitamin D supplements. He won't be getting enough from sunshine or diet.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Feb 2018)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/962972128743215105


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## ianrauk (12 Feb 2018)

Gutted if he can't beat Tommy's record because that is the one record that he really wanted to beat.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Feb 2018)

*Steve's stats as at 11 Feb 18* 
Days: 345, 94.5% of year, 20 days remaining 
Dist: 112,731 km / 70,048 mi / 2.81 times circumference of earth 
Total elevation: 446,456 m / 1,464,749 ft / 50.5 Everests 
Avg daily dist: 326.8 km / 203.0 mi_ (Last 7 days: 271.8 km / 168.9 mi per day)_ 
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,294 m / 4,246 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1294 m / 4244 ft per day)_ 
Moving speed (Strava): 25.3 km/h / 15.7 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 21.7 km/h / 13.5 mi/h)_ 
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2_ (Last 7 days: 15.2)_ 
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,267 km / 74,109 mi (326.8 km / 203.0 miles per day) 
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 118,167 km / 73,425 mi (323.7 km / 201.2 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. 
250.8 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles. 
301.4 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles. 
826.3 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles. 

*Last 7 days* 
2018-02-04 06:59 166.4 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-06 00:31 35.8 miles Night Ride 
2018-02-06 07:55 173.5 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-07 08:34 122.3 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-07 20:33 44.6 miles Chilled out. Cold enough to freeze water with electrolyte tabs! 
2018-02-08 00:04 53.7 miles Night Ride 
2018-02-08 09:41 178.0 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-09 07:01 208.2 miles Morning Ride 
2018-02-10 11:23 129.7 miles That's probably put an end to my getting Tommy Godwins year record. More in description.... 
2018-02-11 00:02 51.1 miles Falling asleep riding into a headwind. Couldn't stay awake for more than 5 miles, so kept stopping to sleep. Lucky to find a bank foyer that was open so I didn't have to sleep in near freezing temperatures every time. 
2018-02-05 08:20 185.3 miles Morning Ride


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## Milkfloat (12 Feb 2018)

I 'liked' @Dogtrousers posts for the stats and information, but I don't 'like' it for the message. I worry that Steve will do himself some real harm in chasing Goodwin.


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## tallliman (12 Feb 2018)

It just shows how crazy the record attempt is. One incident in the year is enough to derail you entirely.


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## Beebo (12 Feb 2018)

User3094 said:


> Its unattainable now, he'd be better of quitting.


For the record I agree with you, but If we have learnt anything over the past 2 years, it is that there is no way he will quit.


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## Ming the Merciless (12 Feb 2018)

User3094 said:


> Its unattainable now, he'd be better of quitting.



Why on earth would you quit with just 20 days left? May as well finish it, and bring the three years to a close.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Feb 2018)

YukonBoy said:


> Why on earth would you quit with just 20 days left? May as well finish it, and bring the three years to a close.


Took the words out of my mouth.

All up to Steve of course, but bailing out with 20 days to go would seem to me to be a terrible thing to do


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## srw (12 Feb 2018)

User3094 said:


> Its unattainable now, he'd be better of quitting.


Its up to him, but I suspect he's not a quitter. Psychologically, carrying on to the end feels like the better option.


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## ianrauk (12 Feb 2018)

Steve's no quitter


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## Pale Rider (12 Feb 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/962972128743215105




I wonder if Steve's tactic of trying to turn night into day has done him any favours.

Riding overnight or starting in the small hours might work on London Edinburgh London, but is probably not sustainable on a year-long endeavour.

I don't recall Kurt riding at odd times, and Amanda was positively metronomic - 20mph for 12 hours, give or take, for months on end.

There is no 'right' way, but the pair of them spanked Steve's ass so their tactics must be worth looking at.


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## ColinJ (12 Feb 2018)

Pale Rider said:


> I wonder if Steve's tactic of trying to turn night into day has done him any favours.
> 
> Riding overnight or starting in the small hours might work on London Edinburgh London, but is probably not sustainable on a year-long endeavour.
> 
> ...


I think not doing their rides on British roads in British weather conditions was the winning tactic!


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## Pale Rider (12 Feb 2018)

ColinJ said:


> I think not doing their rides on British roads in British weather conditions was the winning tactic!



Not riding in such a state of exhaustion that you don't know which end of the bike is pointing forwards may have had more impact.

Kurt had his share of aggro from motor traffic, and Amanda fell off several times, although there was nothing to subsequently run her over.

More risk of being bitten by a snake or an alligator.

I believe the pair of them also had a significant amount of bad weather.


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## Dogtrousers (12 Feb 2018)

Pale Rider said:


> I wonder if Steve's tactic of trying to turn night into day has done him any favours.
> 
> Riding overnight or starting in the small hours might work on London Edinburgh London, but is probably not sustainable on a year-long endeavour.


For reference Steve has been riding at 2am on 76* of the 345 days. I thought it would be less, and I was going to condescendingly refute your suggestion. "Pah!" I was going to say. But it is quite a lot.

As to what tactics would be better ... none of us is in a position to say, really. 

* Warning. This number may be wrong. In fact it almost certainly is wrong, but probably not very wrong.


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## swansonj (12 Feb 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> ....
> * Warning. This number may be wrong. In fact it almost certainly is wrong, but probably not very wrong.


That, sir, should be compulsory text to add to almost every scientific paper ever published. I salute you.


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## tallliman (13 Feb 2018)

We mustn't forget that Steve's currently doing a concurrent month record attempt.


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## ianrauk (13 Feb 2018)

tallliman said:


> We mustn't forget that Steve's currently doing a concurrent month record attempt.


Indeed. And no one can take away the sheer amount of accumulated miles he has done over the past three years.


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## swansonj (13 Feb 2018)

ianrauk said:


> Indeed. And no one can take away the sheer amount of accumulated miles he has done over the past three years.


I've lost track, if there was a two-year or a three-year record, did any of the other players either recently or in the 1930s do big miles for more than one year/hundred thousand, or would Steve walk it?


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## Aravis (13 Feb 2018)

I was going to mention the possible 73000 miles/200 mpd target, but I see from his comments on Strava that Steve's on the case already. I make it that he needs to average 148½ as of this morning, which almost sounds like a gentle warm-down.

Has Steve has had more than his share of bad luck? I don't know - clearly you can't go through a year without some unfavourable things happening. But in the end, a single moment has ruined his chance. It wasn't to be, but Steve has proved beyond any conceivable doubt that he had what it takes.


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## Milkfloat (13 Feb 2018)

Is the month challenge still do'able - or has that slipped away too?


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## Dogtrousers (13 Feb 2018)

I think his month record was in excess of 230 mpd. Need to look it up. I don't think he's in any shape for that at the moment.

Edit. From umca
*Distance (miles): *7104.3
*Time (days): *30
*HAMR (miles/day): *236.81


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## Tim Hall (14 Feb 2018)

From the other place, from the horse's mouth at 1031 today:


> Haven't read all the comments yet but I probably will in a few weeks time.
> 
> The game is up for me.
> Mostly killed by sleep apnea. I reckon ifI never cottoned on to my having sleep apnea I'd have got so far behind and felt so terrible by November that I'd have stopped then. I did get very bad!
> ...


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## Dogtrousers (14 Feb 2018)

It's a shame that he's not going to hit the TG record but to be honest, after about 3 years of witnessing discussions about the ins and outs of records and rules, and maintaining spreadsheets and Strava interface software for his and Kajsa's years, calculating required rates and all kinds of numbers. I've lost a bit of interest in the record stuff myself.

Time to take a step back. I'm just in awe of what he's done. As I'm sure we all are.


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## Beebo (14 Feb 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> It's a shame that he's not going to hit the TG record but to be honest, after about 3 years of witnessing discussions about the ins and outs of records and rules, and maintaining spreadsheets and Strava interface software for his and Kajsa's years, calculating required rates and all kinds of numbers. I've lost a bit of interest in the record stuff myself.
> 
> Time to take a step back. I'm just in awe of what he's done. As I'm sure we all are.


Thanks for doing the number crunching, it has help me gain a much better understanding the whole thing.
You deserve a rest, will you be writing a book about your experiences?


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## tallliman (17 Feb 2018)

The weekly stats posts have made sense of the craziness of the weeks. 200+ mpd is too many to properly be up to date with each day otherwise.


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## Dogtrousers (19 Feb 2018)

*Steve's stats as at 18 Feb 18*
Days: 352, 96.4% of year, 13 days remaining
Dist: 114,398 km / 71,084 mi / 2.85 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 454,941 m / 1,492,588 ft / 51.4 Everests
Avg daily dist: 325.0 km / 201.9 mi_ (Last 7 days: 238.1 km / 148.0 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,292 m / 4,240 ft_ (Last 7 days: 1212 m / 3977 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.2 km/h / 15.7 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 23.2 km/h / 14.4 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.1_ (Last 7 days: 12.0)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 118,623 km / 73,709 mi (325.0 km / 201.9 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 117,494 km / 73,007 mi (321.9 km / 200.0 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.
147.1 miles/day required for 200 miles per day (73,000 miles.)

*Last 7 days*
2018-02-05 08:20 185.3 miles Morning Ride
2018-02-12 12:48 128.6 miles Still slow and tired after a 20 hour sleep. Looks like I'm not recovering from my injuries fast enough. With today's ride, about 160mpd needed to reach 73,000 miles or 200 mpd for the year
2018-02-13 09:41 172.9 miles Morning Ride
2018-02-14 00:00 3.4 miles Night Ride
2018-02-14 11:08 84.7 miles Lunch Ride
2018-02-15 09:23 145.8 miles Morning Ride
2018-02-16 10:10 174.4 miles Morning Ride
2018-02-17 12:14 149.9 miles Lunch Ride
2018-02-18 10:36 176.0 miles Morning Ride


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## Dogtrousers (19 Feb 2018)

I won't be doing an update next week. I may fit in an interim one later in the week. Then the week after, when Steve has finished, I'll try to do a bumper souvenir edition.


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## Mugshot (19 Feb 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> I won't be doing an update next week. I may fit in an interim one later in the week. Then the week after, when Steve has finished, I'll try to do a bumper souvenir edition.


Oooooo, a pull out and keep, I can't wait


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## Pale Rider (26 Feb 2018)

A day off and some short rides for Steve last week means his daily target for 73,000 miles has gone up.

In the next six days, including today, I reckon he needs just under 170 miles a day.

Not a lot in the overall context of the attempt, but a stiffish target looking at Steve's daily mileages over the last few months.

The weather may yet play a bigger hand than it has already.


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## Pale Rider (1 Mar 2018)

Under 60 miles for Steve yesterday and he's not out so far today.

Steve now needs 200 miles a day for the last three days to get 73,000 for the year.

Looks like the weather is having the last word on the record attempt.


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## Aravis (1 Mar 2018)

Indeed. My figures have him just under 200 mpd for the first time - after 362 days! I really don't know if overall Steve has had more or less bad luck that he might have expected, but what he's been served up for the finish is exceptionally cruel.

I'm reminded of Don Bradman's final test innings. No-one thinks any the less of him because he finished on 99.94 - if anything it added to his legend.

There's an invitation on Facebook to join Steve for laps of the Milton Keynes Bowl on Saturday afternoon.


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## Ming the Merciless (1 Mar 2018)

Aravis said:


> Indeed. My figures have him just under 200 mpd for the first time - after 362 days! I really don't know if overall Steve has had more or less bad luck that he might have expected, but what he's been served up for the finish is exceptionally cruel.
> 
> I'm reminded of Don Bradman's final test innings. No-one thinks any the less of him because he finished on 99.94 - if anything it added to his legend.
> 
> There's an invitation on Facebook to join Steve for laps of the Milton Keynes Bowl on Saturday afternoon.



I would not say he's had particularly bad luck. Looks fairly average luck for the distance.


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## DCLane (1 Mar 2018)

Aravis said:


> There's an invitation on Facebook to join Steve for laps of the Milton Keynes Bowl on Saturday afternoon.



Oooh. I'm due to be there with my 13yo for racing, providing it's on. Might have to bring 2 bikes


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## DCLane (2 Mar 2018)

Edit to the above - race cancelled due to snow, so I won't be there.

On the up-side, Steve can start earlier round the bowl ...


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## toffee (2 Mar 2018)

DCLane said:


> Edit to the above - race cancelled due to snow, so I won't be there.
> 
> On the up-side, Steve can start earlier round the bowl ...



Its not going to be nice for him, its bloody freezing in MK


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## Dogtrousers (2 Mar 2018)

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/969608522521567233?s=19


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## tallliman (2 Mar 2018)

Quite a sad end to the year.


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## Crackle (2 Mar 2018)

72500 miles in this country in all weathers. There are very, very few people in the world who could do that, it's an astonishing achievement and fully puts into perspective the immensity of Godwin's record.


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## themosquitoking (2 Mar 2018)

Can we organise a team of taxis to ferry him from the bottom of a long downhill to the top all day long? He should be able to beat the year record in a month then.


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## Pale Rider (3 Mar 2018)

A recent tweet from Steve says he's spending today - the last day of the attempt - in Wetherspoons in Milton Keynes.


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## Ming the Merciless (3 Mar 2018)

What the Year Record for time time spent in a Wetherspoons?


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## Beebo (3 Mar 2018)

YukonBoy said:


> What the Year Record for time time spent in a Wetherspoons?


I imagine it is frighteningly high.


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## Dogtrousers (6 Mar 2018)

Sorry it's a bit late. I was away enjoying myself last week.

*Steve's stats as at 03 Mar 18*
Days: 365, 100.0% of year, 0 days remaining
Dist: 116,509 km / 72,395 mi / 2.91 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 468,044 m / 1,535,577 ft / 52.9 Everests
Avg daily dist: 319.2 km / 198.3 mi_ (Last 7 days: 131.0 km / 81.4 mi per day)_
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,282 m / 4,207 ft_ (Last 7 days: 807 m / 2649 ft per day)_
Moving speed (Strava): 25.2 km/h / 15.6 mi/h_ (Last 7 days: 20.6 km/h / 12.8 mi/h)_
Hours per day riding (Strava): 14.9_ (Last 7 days: 8.4)_
Projected total at overall daily rate: 116,509 km / 72,395 mi (319.2 km / 198.3 miles per day)
_Projected total at 7 day rate : 116,509 km / 72,395 mi (319.2 km / 198.3 miles per day)_


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## Beebo (6 Mar 2018)

Thanks @Dogtrousers 
A sad ending to an epic tale.
The mileage distribution chart is the most telling. Too many rides beloww 200 mpd.
I'm sure you have better things to do, but a similar chart for Kurt and Amanda would be interesting, my recollection is that they had much tighter deviation and almost never slipped below 200mpd.


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## Dogtrousers (6 Mar 2018)

Interesting facts.


According to Strava (plus some fudgery) Steve burned 2,148,000 calories. If Steve were to have derived all of his energy for the year from sausages he would have needed a string of sausages 1.3km long.[1]*
According to Strava Steve was moving for 278,000 minutes. If he had a walkman with only the Ace of Spades on it, he could have listened to it 99,248 times.[2]
Steve has a total ascent of 468,034m. A stack of 2p coins that tall would be worth £4,611,270.20 [3]

[1] Assuming 168 cal per 10cm sausage
[2] It's 2 min 48 sec long.
[3] Assuming 2.03mm thickness

* I think that's also equivalent to a Camembert about 2m in diameter. But I got a bit confused and may have messed up the calculation.


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## Milkfloat (6 Mar 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> Interesting facts.
> 
> 
> According to Strava (plus some fudgery) Steve burned 2,148,000 calories. If Steve were to have derived all of his energy for the year from sausages he would have needed a string of sausages 1.3km long.[1]*
> ...






Both you Steve for achieving it and you for the facts and figures.


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## tallliman (6 Mar 2018)

Thanks for all the stats over the year. It's a shame Steve tailed off at the end but it feels that the UK isn't the place to do this without some serious help. The weather was the final denouement.


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## Aravis (7 Mar 2018)

A epic tale it certainly was. I will miss the daily updates, and I hope this isn't the last we hear of him.

I suppose in the end Steve was undone by three factors:

He was unable to take advantage of his favourite months through the Autumn, particularly September, and in fact started to lose significant ground. This meant that with the oncoming winter pressure started to build very early.

He was hit by a car at a stage when there was very little room in his schedule for any losses. Although he fought on bravely, the incident had lasting effects and his form was well below his best thereafter.
The last few days were lost to the weather.
I hope Steve is OK. I don't think anyone can seriously doubt he had it in him to surpass the Searvogel total, but it wasn't to be.


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## Dogtrousers (7 Mar 2018)

Here are some more graphs. They're raw data. I did try smoothing it with rolling averages and so on, but ... well I think one can do just as well, if not better, by eye.


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## ianrauk (7 Mar 2018)

Aravis said:


> A epic tale it certainly was. I will miss the daily updates, and I hope this isn't the last we hear of him.
> 
> I suppose in the end Steve was undone by three factors:
> 
> ...


..... and I don't think it will be last we hear of Steve going for the record.


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## Dogtrousers (7 Mar 2018)

Just a reminder for any tough nuts on here that Steve may be organising something in September



View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/947389329688743936


View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/947258779149783040


It's just possible I might be up for the 300.


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## Phaeton (7 Mar 2018)

I believe he should consider calling his ride a work of art, he then could probably attract multiple ££££'s of funding allowing him to consider a place more suitable to the attempt.


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## Dogtrousers (7 Mar 2018)

A couple more graphs. These two are rolling average over 20 days with an arrow showing where he was hit by the car (13 Dec, day 285) This makes it pretty clear how serious this was. He fell on the ice a couple of weeks later (27 Dec, day 299) picking up another injury. You can see that he never recovered speed after this.


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## tallliman (7 Mar 2018)

Whilst the mileage seems to suffer following the incident, the average speed appears to have continued dropping without noticing it.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2018)

Before I put it all to bed, I found these.

Something to boggle your mind


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2018)

I worry about Dogtrousers. How will he cope without his graphs? How will he return to normal life without his head buried in Excel? Has his skin turned blue with the amount of time he has spent locked in the basement , slaving over a keyboard?


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2018)

Aaaaand finally.


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## swansonj (9 Mar 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> Aaaaand finally.
> 
> View attachment 399153


Please not quite finally...

What is Steve's Eddington Number? From your cumulative % graph it looks to me like for this year alone he achieved a smidge over 200. 

Do we know what his lifetime E was before he started these couple of years and what it is now?


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2018)

swansonj said:


> Please not quite finally...
> 
> What is Steve's Eddington Number? From your cumulative % graph it looks to me like for this year alone he achieved a smidge over 200.
> 
> Do we know what his lifetime E was before he started these couple of years and what it is now?


That's a bit tricky because so many of the rides were split over midnight. I avoided this problem by only ever considering daily (midnight to midnight) totals. But the question of how long a "ride" is requires a bit more head scratching.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2018)

swansonj said:


> Please not quite finally...
> 
> What is Steve's Eddington Number? From your cumulative % graph it looks to me like for this year alone he achieved a smidge over 200.
> 
> Do we know what his lifetime E was before he started these couple of years and what it is now?


I think Steve's E number for the year is 202. That is he did 202 _days_ of 202.05 miles or longer. 

That's not quite the same as _rides_ but the definition of a "ride" gets a bit problematic when you start doing longer distances. For instance is a 600k audax in which you sleep in a hotel half way two 300k _rides_? How about a 400k audax in which you nap for an hour in a bus shelter?

What was his lifetime E number before? I don't know and given his propensity to do these long distances it may be hard to say. But given the way E numbers get harder and harder to raise I'd be very surprised if his overall E number is significantly more than 202.


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## ianrauk (18 Mar 2018)

From Steve's FB page

72,388 miles is my total distance for my 2017-18 HAMR (still to be verified by the UMCA). After my last day of my HAMR on 3rd March I pretty much ignored the whole thing and went to sleep. 
Once I'd stopped, I was often falling asleep in the middle of the day. I have ignored all my messages etc on social media. Just wanted to get away from it all and just bum around for a bit. I've barely ridden my bike at all in the last two weeks and have been out for a few short walks. Now I'm starting to get back into my riding and probably do some walking then running. I'll start very easily just doing very short rides and walks while I can get on with other stuff. I've been at the HAMR for over 3 years now. Lots of stuff to sort out and put back in order.
Two weeks later, I'm feeling more awake and my legs have stopped aching. I had to do a report on my HAMR for the UMCA (as below) That should tell the very basic story but there is still more to the story and that's just the riding. I tried to keep it brief.

I should be putting some rides up on my events sometime soon. They'll mostly be provisional until I get myself orientated, organised and have a more definite daily routine.

Steve Abraham 2017 HAMR report

I set off at midnight on March 3rd, 2017 with Matt Seward, who had ridden a few training rides with me. On that first day I clocked 319 miles and it felt easy and was a good start to my year.
The next few days went well and I felt comfortable for the rest of the month averaging around 230 miles a day. I was riding for around 95-100 hours a week, not including stops and from my power meter, my fitness seemed to be improving.
On into April and I could see signs of improvements in my fitness and my speed was increasing slightly, but my mileage had dropped, which did puzzle me because I thought that I was spending the same number of hours on the road. Looking back at my rides on Strava, I probably was spending roughly the same time out on the road but was stopping for a bit longer so was riding a few hours less each week. The decrease in mileage didn't concern me very much because I could see the increase in speed and the weather was improving. I had the whole of summer to catch up the lost miles and as I could see my speed increase I expected to get faster as the weather improved as well as my fitness hopefully improving. I was still riding around 95 hours each week.
I never really noticed any improvements in speed during May, nor did my speed increase noticeably but I was riding for slightly fewer hours. My mileage remained pretty steady at around 1550 each week, so with the good start it meant that my daily average was dropping.
I hoped that in June I would get a bit faster and maybe even ride for a few more hours each day. I didn't try to force myself to ride extra hours and never used an alarm clock to get up earlier for an early start because getting too far behind on sleep would slow me down in the long run. However, I was starting to feel more tired. Well, I wasn't expecting it to be easy and I still felt reasonably in control. Much more so than in 2015 and although my daily mileage wasn't as much as I'd have liked, I still had 4 months of good weather to come. I wasn't just feeling a bit more tired, I was feeling stronger as well, so I didn't try to force a few extra hours each week, I just tried to keep it steady and thought that better weather and improvements in my fitness would give me extra speed.
Having noticed that my speed didn't improve as much as I'd liked during June, I tried going easier and a bit slower for a few weeks. I was riding roughly the same hours as I was in April. I thought that I might have recovered, got some training effect and hopefully get my speed up some more. This did work, so for the last two weeks of July, I was around 1-2mph faster than I was in June. Instead of using the extra speed to try and do more miles, I used the extra time for more rest. I was starting to feel a bit tired and I thought that an hour or so extra sleep each day would improve my recovery and give me a further improvement in speed.
By August I was getting very tired. Physically, I felt much better. My speed hadn't dropped since I'd eased off in early July and I was feeling stronger if anything. But I was feeling more tired.
At the end of July, I rode a 24 hour time trial and finished the event in the early afternoon, which meant that I got a longer than usual sleep before I set off the next day. I was surprised at how well I was going the day after the 24 hour. 
Thinking back to that ride, I decided to try getting a good sleep of around 10-12 hours then doing 2 days with little sleep in-between to try and replicate what I did on the 24 hour and the following day. I thought that riding steady might not do so much damage and that the longer sleep would give me a much better recovery than my usual sleep of around 7 hours. Then, if that worked, maybe I could do 2–3 days with minimal sleep followed by a very good long sleep for recovery. 
I only kept it up for about a week and soon fell back into my more regular sleeping pattern. I was now down to riding around 85 hours a week. I didn't try to force myself to go back up to 95 hour weeks again. My speed was still OK and I thought that keeping my riding hours down to 85 hours would give me an extra 10 hours more sleep each week than my first few months. I thought that would hopefully mean an improvement in my fitness and speed. After all, I seemed to get fitter at the beginning of the year while riding 95 hours a week, so only riding for 85, in theory, should mean that I recover faster, I would have thought. 
Amanda's world record was starting to look like it was getting out of my reach but I still hadn't given up on it entirely. If I could get my speed and number of riding hours up, I still might have had a chance. And if not, there was still the men’s record and my original aim to go for. Not exactly what I was after but giving up never made any sense.
By September I felt even more tired. I asked myself why I was still tired. I was riding fewer hours than I was in the first few months, so what was different? I was riding faster, so perhaps if I eased off the pace a bit, along with the extra sleep, I should recover and hopefully be able to ride faster more easily and for a few more hours. But, it didn't work.
Just over a week into September Idai, from my support team, who rides an elliptigo bike suggested I use the A505 Leighton Buzzard by-pass. I looked at his rides on Strava and from his data it looked like it might help me go a bit faster for the same effort. Elliptigos are affected by headwinds more than bicycles because you have ride them in an upright position and can't really get into a tuck like you can on a bike but Idai was getting some good speeds (for an elliptigo) 
I tried the new route and it did seem to be faster for the same effort. It also had the advantage of being close to my home and being a 10 mile circuit riding up and down the same stretch of road. Roughly 1-2000ft less climbing than my regular routes and more sheltered from the wind. It was also near a town so it would be easy to get supplies. It also had a 24 hour McDonalds, which I could use for toilet and short sleep stops, as I had it in mind to do rides through the night. Being close to home meant that if I started getting sleepy I wasn't committed to a long ride home while sleepy. If I got sleepy I could take a nap in McDonalds before riding home and going to bed for a better sleep. I could also leave food, drink and clothing just off the road so that I could travel lighter and not have to send so much time stopped buying food and drink as I did on my regular routes.
Mid September I fell ill and didn't ride for two days. It wasn't that I felt so ill I couldn't ride. I was just very sleepy and didn't think it wise to ride when I was so sleepy. I thought I might be at risk of falling asleep while riding and that if I did try and ride, I'd be very slow. I thought that my time would be better spent getting over my illness as well as maybe getting some recovery so that when I went out again, I'd be faster and better rested. 
After my two days spent almost entirely asleep in bed, I felt awake enough to ride but had painful legs, especially my calf muscles. I had my suspicions that it was DVT. I'd been laying in bed for a very long time and seemed to have the symptoms. If I stood still it got very painful. Even riding was painful but not as bad as standing still. I couldn't stand still for more than a few seconds and started walking on the spot whenever I had to stop, including when I stopped for a pee. It got so bad near the end of one day that I stopped for a meal so I could sit down and rest. I sat down for about 20 minutes before the pain subsided enough for me to stand at the bar to order my food. 
I tried using compression stockings that I had left over from when I had the broken ankle in 2015 and they really helped relieve the pain so I bought some compression tights which made a big difference. I don't know if it was DVT or not. I did hear from another in my team who was ill at about the same time, that he also had painful legs, so it could have just been what was going around at the time. Within about a week it was pretty much gone. In spite of riding fewer hours, I was getting more and more tired.
By late September I was often feeling very tired. Sometimes sleeping at the roadside because my concentration was going. I never took any chances with getting sleepy on the road. 
The best way I can describe how it felt is that feeling of tiredness you feel in your legs. I was feeling that on the inside. I was struggling to keep food down and bringing it up about once an hour. At worst I was riding for about 2 hours where I was being sick every 2 miles. I found somewhere to sleep at the roadside and was back to my normal being sick about once an hour again. 
I started taking caffeine. I was already drinking coffee, but I moved on to caffeine pills.
I didn't intend it to be for the rest of my year. The idea was that the caffeine would keep me more awake so that I would ride faster. My legs didn't feel bad, I was just tired and didn't feel very good. Riding a bit faster would buy me more recovery so that I could hopefully, catch back up on sleep and be able to stop using the caffeine. The caffeine really did seem to help too. My speed increased and I felt a lot better.
Into October I was still struggling to ride around 85 hours a week but although the caffeine was helping, I knew it was a bad situation. 
After giving it some thought, there was only one thing that made sense. I read up on sleep about 15 years ago and in spite of me waking up naturally every day without an alarm and getting as many hours sleep as I thought I needed, all the signs were there that I really wasn't getting enough sleep. The only thing that made sense was that I had sleep apnea. I knew that I snored. So I bought some anti snoring throat spray from a chemist to see if it helped. 
When I woke up the next morning I felt a whole lot better! After a few days and feeling much better but still exhausted, I bought a chin strap and nose vents to see if I could improve on the throat spray (which wasn't really for apnea, but I knew it would probably help if I did have apnea) I felt better still. Then I had another look to see if I could go one up on the chin strap and came up with a tongue stabiliser, which is simply a device that you put your tongue into before bed. It basically looks like a todlers dummy (pacifier) and keeps your tongue pulled out while you sleep so that your airway stays unblocked. That made the world of difference. I also tried another MAD device but didn't think it was working so well so went back to the tongue stabilser.
That was a huge turning point, from there on, every day I felt better and less tired. After about a week I started to taper off the caffeine. Because I was sleeping so much better, I was feeling better, even though I was spending as many hours asleep as I was before. 
When I got a little better, I even felt like I was catching up on sleep while sleeping for fewer hours than when I was falling behind on sleep. This meant that I could start to build up my riding hours again. 
Coming off the caffeine did reduce my speed a bit but the extra few hours riding each week more than made up for that, so my mileage started to creep up a bit. Laying off the caffeine was only going to help me sleep better and give me a better recovery, so the short term loss would have hopefully given me a longer term gains and besides, I could always go back to caffeine at the end of the year to wring out a few extra miles. 
Another reassuring sign was that in late October I became slightly ill and got a productive cough. When I normally get a productive cough, it usually gets very bad and lasts for weeks. When I started coughing I thought that having that on top of how tired I was, I might have ended up in a very bad way and been so ill that I'd have lost a lot of miles. This may have potentially ended my attempt. I do wonder if discovering my apnea when I did was just in time for me to not get beaten up by my illness. My cough never really got bad at all and was gone within a week.
Into late November and early December, I was feeling a lot better. I was still riding on the Leighton Buzzard by-pass and was getting very fed up with it. It wasn't so much using the same road all day, it was just the amount of traffic. It had a lot of advantages and it was handy not having to plan a route to get best benefit from the wind. I just found it stressful and usually stopped to eat sometime during the rush hour just to have a break from all the traffic. I also noticed that my speed didn't seem to be much better than my old routes and wanted to get back to riding the roads I used earlier in the year, just for something more interesting. Now that I was recovering from loss of sleep, I'd not want to spend as much time stopped if I could help it and my old routes did quite a good job at putting me on quieter roads when the traffic built up. 
The trouble was, the weather. My routes work best with a SW wind that dies down in the evening but the wind just kept coming from the North or East so I stayed on the Leighton Buzzard by-pass, which had less climbing than my other routes. The other problem was ice. The Leighton Buzzard by-pass and my route to get there was all gritted roads which would be much safer when there's a risk of ice. Pus you learn where all the hazards are when you ride up and down the same bit of road all day, so as much as I wanted to get off the by-pass, I was stuck with it until the temperature went up a little bit and the wind changed to it's prevailing SWerly.
On 13th December, more bad luck. Someone drover their car into me at about 40-50mph from behind. No broken bones but my right leg was hit by their wing mirror, which came clean off and my right shin got tangled in my handlebars somehow. I also landed on my coccyx. The right hand drop of my handlebars was now like a 3rd tri-bar arm. I'd hate to think what my hand would have been like had I not been on my tri bars. If I'd been about a foot further into the road I'd most likely have been a lot worse off, possibly dead. So a relatively lucky escape, though it was a long wait at the roadside for an ambulance to take me to hospital for a checkup and because it was so cold my core temperature dropped down to 33 degrees. I was very close to hypothermia.
That was probably the nail in the coffin to my getting the men’s record. My injuries made me feel sleepy again and slowed me down. It was a different kind of sleepiness to what I was just getting over. I didn't feel so run down or exhausted, but it came up quite quickly. It meant that not only was I riding slower, I had to stop for a nap now and then. I never tried to ride through it because I knew that sleeping would help me recover faster. 
After I was hit, I stopped using the Leighton Buzzard by-pass. The wind did more or less change to being more SWerly. I didn't rule out using it again if the conditions made it the best choice but I'd had enough of it and it wasn't really giving me any advantage that I could see.
I still had it in mind that I had my 3 attempts for the month record and was thinking of entering them at 1 week intervals, concurrently, until the end of my HAMR. I had nothing to lose. Either I wouldn't get back up to speed again but on the other hand, if I made a good recovery and if what I was doing to treat my sleep apnea worked well, I'd be kicking myself if I started going very well and never sent an entry in for the month record.
As if being hit by a car wasn't enough, just as I was starting to recover from being hit by the car a little bit, I came off on ice very hard. 
I landed quite heavily on my left side. The next day I could hardly walk and leaned on my bike. To get on and off the bike I had to rest my leg on the top tube and slide it over. My new injury only made me slower and more sleepy. And while that was going on my tracker decided to give up on me and my GPSs were old and tired after so much use and abuse. So that all needed to be sorted out.
My speed never recovered. It took me about two weeks before I could walk reasonably comfortably again and get on and off my bike by swinging my leg over the top tube instead of sliding it over. Because of my injuries, I had to keep stopping for sleep now and then. I was never sleepy all the time, I just had to have a good nap when I did get sleepy and felt much better afterwards. In fact, I enjoyed the last two or three months as much as enjoyed the first few. I wasn't feeling as run down as I was a few months ago now that I was sleeping much better and caught up on sleep. 
I did try riding a bit faster, but that meant that I stopped for sleep and rest more often, so I resigned to riding steady and taking a nap when I needed to. I also went back to taking caffeine to try and reduce hours spent not riding but had a watershed of 3pm so that my caffeine wouldn't intefere with my sleep at night so much.
With all the distractions from injuries, tiredness from injuries, sorting out trackers and GPSs, I only just got one entry in on time for the month record attempt. I was still hoping that I would recover from my injuries so that I could get back up to speed and riding more hours in the last month or even few weeks. But it never happened. My injuries never really healed properly and were always in the background. I did recover enough to get my riding hours back up to around 95 a week but doing that while having to take a nap during the day now and then caught up with me and I couldn't keep it up. I ended up tired again, though I think it was more physical tiredness from recovering from injuries than lack of sleep in general. Mentally I still felt good and although my speed was way down, I was enjoying the riding a lot more. I simply ran myself down until one night I was trying to get home and had to keep stopping for sleep. It was then that I knew that the game was up for me taking the men’s record so resigned myself to aiming for 73,000 for the year, an average of 200 miles a day. It also meant I wouldn't beat my month record.
I eased right off once I decided to aim for the 73,000 miles. I didn't worry too much if I fell behind by a few miles now and then because I thought that I could do a bit extra at the end. The other thing was that the weather forecast was looking bad for the last week with snow and strong winds. I didn't want to tire myself out too much before having to ride in bad weather. Also, the weather would either be not too bad, so I'd still be able to do a bit extra at the end, or it will be very bad and even if I'm in a good position to get the 73,000, very bad weather would probably spoil it so I wasn't going to batter myself just yet. Instead I just rode steady and tried to recover. I did get a bit behind what I needed for the 73,000. 
In spite of riding fewer hours, I was still getting sleepy and my speed wasn't increasing. I was sleeping much more than I was in July and I was sleeping better as well. I can only guess that I was still recovering from my injuries and it was that what was making me so sleepy and slowing me down. I could certainly still feel that I had my injuries. They never really hurt, but they were definitely still there. It's the only thing that makes sense to me as to why I was feeling so much better, but was so slow and still getting sleepy.
Finally, the snow started to come. I set out to ride on local roads in case it got bad. After about 65 miles I got back home with the intention of eating, having a sleep while the roads got busy, then going out again after seeing what the road conditions were like. But I overslept and didn't go out again and as I slept the snow came down. 
The next day, the roads were very hazardous with the snow and I was very tired. I certainly could have gone out and done a bit. But I doubt that I could have done much and didn't see any point in battering myself and taking risks in bad weather. If I wasn't so tired I'd have probably been more adventurous, but getting exhausted in the cold weather in very hazardous roads didn't seem wise. So for the last 3 days I didn't do anything more than push my bike in the snow for a few miles. On the last day I walked with my bike to a pub and spent the day there drinking tea and eating.
Not the result I wanted but with my sleeping disorder and injuries, I think I can say I gave it a good go and it could be argued that I might have at least done what I set out to do when I set off in 2015, to try and exceed 75,065 miles in a year. I was never expecting it to be easy and I would never have taken it easy. On the other hand, I probably didn't even realise how hard I was trying and I think that my biggest enemy was sleep apnea.


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## Dogtrousers (18 Mar 2018)

Strava link which says more or less the same I think. Not read it all yet:

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/975354818628907008


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## Aravis (19 Mar 2018)

Eye-watering stuff from Steve there. I hope he fully appreciates how much entertainment he's been giving to so many over the last few years.

Some time this year, as a kind of tribute, I thought it might be neat to do a ride of exactly 198 miles - no more, no less. Anyone else like the idea? Probably my best chance will be the Rough Diamond 300km Audax, where I'll only need to find a few extra miles and there are plenty of small diversions I could add on the final approach to the finish, by which time I'll know exactly what I need. A bit of planning and I should be able to hit the number spot on.


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## Aravis (19 Mar 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> Good idea. Got me thinking.
> 
> *Mind you, the "no more, no less" bit might be tricky.* Especially the "no more" bit. A bit of overrun is always required for "GPX shrinkage". And there's the problem of what to do if you hit the finish distance and yet you aren't anywhere you want to be.



Agreed, but I see that as part of the challenge. It's hardly the end of the world if you just miss, but the essence is to show solidarity with Steve by being prepared to forego the extra two miles. As my personal record is 202 miles the sacrifice is even greater!

I've quite often aimed for a specific target, and when doing that I make sure the length of the planned route is just below the next whole number. I've never known the recorded activity to be longer than the RwGPS-planned route if I've followed it exactly. The biggest hazard to antics of this sort is the enforced diversion, but when you think about it, it's really not that important.

Anyway, I've made it a Sweat Pledge, in support of Steve.


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## ianrauk (21 Mar 2018)

From the other place.

Steve was asked if he kept a record of all the miles he had done over the years.
His reply.

_Not really but I reckon I'm on over half a million for my whole lifetime. I could probably just about get into the 300,000 mile club if they accept Audax results and some of my old Audax Mileater diaries plus Strava. I just don't have the inclination._


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## Serge (20 Jul 2018)

Just read this thread from start to finish. 

One word: incredible!

I just can't believe that I heard nothing at all about it whilst it was happening.


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## Dogtrousers (29 May 2019)

There's an interview with Steve here. I've not listened to it yet.

View: https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/1133702425859301378?s=19


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## Dogtrousers (4 Nov 2019)

Steve has written a long blog post here
https://sweatpledge.com/usersc/blog.php?id=97&blogpost=161

It covers his thoughts on his HAMR experiences, plans for the future, and a report of the Trans Atlantic Way. 

It's very long. I've not got to the end yet.

Edit: My favourite from the chunk I just read:
_The ferryman knew about the event. I asked for a cup of tea, thinking that there was a cafe on the ferry. I'm not sure that there was but the ferryman got me a cup of tea anyway. I'm not sure if that counted as outside help that would get me disqualified or not, so I'm not telling anyone about it._


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## Mugshot (14 Nov 2019)

Hells Bells!

This is Idai Makaya, he's liberally sprinkled around this thread, and the other record attempt one, he was on Steve's support team and rides a funny bike, which he holds a world record for;

Rider of the Month Idai Makaya Breaks ElliptiGO World Record

Now he's doing this;


View: https://twitter.com/idaimakaya/status/1184396396067217408?s=20


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## KneesUp (14 Nov 2019)

Mugshot said:


> Hells Bells!
> 
> This is Idai Makaya, he's liberally sprinkled around this thread, and the other record attempt one, he was on Steve's support team and rides a funny bike, which he holds a world record for;
> 
> ...



It's only just over 5 a minute for 24 hours! Pah! I could easily do that (for a maximum of one minute).

Good luck Idai!


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## Phaeton (14 Nov 2019)

Funny way to ride a bike


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## Beebo (16 Nov 2019)

KneesUp said:


> It's only just over 5 a minute for 24 hours! Pah! I could easily do that (for a maximum of one minute).
> 
> Good luck Idai!


One every 11.3 seconds. Easy.
how do you even start to train for this? The fatigue on your arms would be immense.


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## Dogtrousers (10 Nov 2021)

Thread ressurection 
_Amanda Coker becomes first woman in history to break 500 miles in 24 hours
Twenty24 rider covers 512.52 miles smashing the previous record by 76.2 miles_

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/am...an-in-history-to-break-500-miles-in-24-hours/


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## matticus (10 Nov 2021)

Dogtrousers said:


> Steve has written a long blog post here
> https://sweatpledge.com/usersc/blog.php?id=97&blogpost=161
> 
> It covers his thoughts on his HAMR experiences, plans for the future, and a report of the Trans Atlantic Way.
> ...


I've not got to the start - sweatpledge's certificate has expired!


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## si_c (23 Nov 2021)

matticus said:


> I've not got to the start - sweatpledge's certificate has expired!


http://web.archive.org/web/20211111103936/https://sweatpledge.com/usersc/blog.php?id=97&blogpost=161

Looks like the site has been pulled, but's been archived.


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