Davidsson sa:
Snurrade ihop lite med årsrekordet.
Hur går det för galningen?
23 januari.
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.
