Event started at 3am Thursday morning 03/06/2021 KSA time / 1am GMT and ends 7pm KSA / 5pm GMT on Friday 04/06/2021 – read below for a summary of what happened, the Garmin data and links to a couple of videos…
Video of the event itself:
Introduction and preparation the evening before:
So how did the event go?
My original plan was to cycle outside for at least 9 hours on my road bike, then come inside to ride my time trial bike on the turbo trainer where I can control the air conditioning for 7 hours. I would then join the 24 hour spinathon and use a spin bike.
However, the spin bikes do not track distance and as the disc wheel is fully enclosed, I had no way to rig up any trustworthy equipment. This meant I would have to alternate between the road bike and the time trial bike or simply stay on my time trial bike for a lot longer than originally anticipated.
The reality is, it was too hot to stay outside for any longer than 6 hours and so this was suggesting I was due to spend 34 hours on a Time Trial bike?! I tried not to think about it.
I figured if I take it easy and just stay awake, the distance will rack up. If I maintained 25 kilometres per hour average then this would allow me to outturn at 1,000 kilometres distance over 40 hours. I had my nutrition and hydration sorted, I had support on hand (thank you), had taken the day off work and a 24-hour spinathon event to look forward to as the finale.
It wasn’t easy to get up at 2am and in fact I snoozed until 02:40 so I missed some of my breakfast and this likely led to me becoming slightly dehydrated early on. That said, I started on schedule at 3am exactly as per the below:
The first 6 hours outside flew by. I maintained a low ‘easy’ heart rate and was making good progress with an average speed between 25 and 30 kilometres per hour as per the below. I took 15 minutes breaks every 2 hours 45 minutes so I was aiming to simply repeat a 3 hour cycle.
However, at the 6 hour point, it had become seriously hot outside (over 40 degrees Celsius) and I decided to move inside on the turbo trainer and my time trial bike as I was dehydrating. You can see from the below diagram that this was immediately around 20% slower than being outside (I was averaging around 25 kph outdoors and 20kph indoors). I also had to replace the battery in the speed sensor once I moved inside and the impact of this can be seen below by my slow start after the second break.
It was at this point, that I realised I had not factored the heat, the breaks and the increased rolling resistance of the turbo trainer into my calculations properly. It was looking like I would cover a lot less than my 1,000 kilometres over the 40 hour period.
The statistics for the first sector and almost 7 hours worth of cycling are as follows:
I originally wanted to record the whole 40 hours as a single activity but after 6 hours and 51 minutes the battery in my Garmin 245 needed charging. I understood that it could be charged mid-activity but made the mistake of plugging it into a laptop port which made the Garmin assume I wanted to transfer data and it stopped the activity! Having charged it enough to get it out of the red, I started the second sector and considered how to resolve the matter.
Sector 2 was all on my Time Trial bike indoors. Sector 2 at 1 hour and 51 minutes plus the earlier 51 minutes on the Turbo Trainer from Sector 1 and ~15 minute break made up the third 3-hour long section. The negative impact to my average speed is clear here as being consistently lower than when outside.
It should be noted how the GPS signal recorded some quite significant movement when I hardly moved at all for almost 2 hours.
At this point I stopped for my third 15 minute break and stopped the activity to be sure I recorded it, in advance of trying to charge the Garmin again.
I started the new activity at the end of my break (so there is a circa 10 minute gap of unproductive time in the data) and then plugged the Garmin into an external battery pack – thankfully, it kept running meaning I would only need to have three sectors. I was pleased and relieved in equal measure – lesson learned!
Sector 3 includes the final time I spent at home, the time I took moving the equipment to the school sports hall and the whole 24-hour spinathon period. You will notice so odd data. There are significant sections of down time.
I maintained until we had watched the film Top Gun. As much as I love it, Goose’s untimely demise did not provide the adrenaline shot I required. Jester was not dead, but I was in a lot of pain, my hands were numb and needed to do something to help myself. I decided a walk and some fresh air would help and I used the opportunity to fetch my torque wrench from home. This allowed me to dismantle the headset and raise the handlebars on the time trial bike by a couple of inches. The idea being that a more upright position would reduce the weight burden on my hands. It helped but I was already too far gone by this point.
Our DJ Gladderz arrived in the early hours and this was a welcome addition.
Nonetheless, I had become increasingly tired, the rotating and morphing geometric visuals that were projected onto the whole wall right in front of my bike became like something out of clockwork orange, I was suffering from some gastrointestinal discomfort, coffee wasn’t helping and at the 27th hour I had to make the difficult decision to take a proper break.
I was very frustrated at first but upon arriving home and experiencing extreme difficulty inserting and turning the key in the lock due to impaired dexterity, I knew I had made the right choice. I slept, I showered, I changed, I ate pasta, had a cup of tea, sorted my head out and went back for more.
The final 5 hours were like a different event for me. I absolutely rinsed myself and loved doing so, especially when Gladderz came back on for the final hour.
Challenge and sweepstake results:
The challenge and associated sweepstake was to guess what distance I would travel in 40 hours and I have to say how impressed I am at all the predictions and guesses, not least because they were so high. I’m humbled that you have such high expectations of me – thanks for your contributions!
The long and short of it, as per Garmin, is that I only completed 552 kilometres in a 40 hour period. This was not only below my expectations, it was below every estimate that anyone put in!
Therefore the lowest estimate presents a clear winner: Congratulations Nelly Attar whose prediction of 600 kilometres was the closest to how far I cycled in 40 hours!
Nelly Attar is the most experienced person I know in fitness training, endurance and sporting challenges such as this so it should have come as no surprise. Nonetheless, thank you to everyone who took part and made the event possible.
Conclusion:
Whist the average speed over the full period appears to be woefully slow at 13.8kph (552 / 40) it’s interesting to compare against ‘moving time’ alone. For example, only 27 hours and 28 minutes were recorded as moving time. This provides an average speed of (552 / 27.5) 20kph which is acceptable / understandable / more like it – certainly on this particular turbo trainer and considering my relatively unscientific approach to data collection (for example, the watch remained on my wrist as I walked home and this slow period would probably also class as ‘moving time’ – I think my pure cycling moving average was more like 23kph).
I’ve learnt loads from doing this. The main thing is that I’m not doing it again unless truly exceptional circumstances present themselves. It is clear to me that things go down hill after being awake for 24 hours and going past this whilst trying to operate at a high level of performance is not only stupid, it is dangerous. I think missing a night’s sleep two weeks in a row also has a compounding effect, as does working the day before undertaking anything like this; I didn’t sleep well or long enough the night before.
It highlights just how important proper breaks are and sleep is for us to operate properly; really good rest is essential for us to operate at our best. I often forego sleep to hit deadlines or have a good time and it’s not worth it.
My nutrition and hydration strategy remains sound and I’m glad I over-provisioned (I estimated 500 calories an hour and 1 litre of fluids) but I ended up wanting other things, like cups of tea, cookies and nuts, not just energy bars, gels, dates and electrolyte fluids (too samey over 40 hours). In the end, I kept my heart rate as low as possible to go the distance and this meant I Garmin tracked me using 11,998 calories which equates to ~300 calories per hour over the 40 hour period.
I had a few technical and mechanical issues throughout the 40 hour period, my speed sensor battery, charging my Garmin watch, my bottle cage came loose and I had to change the geometry of the bike by raising the headset. In hindsight, setting the bike up better in advance would have helped my longevity but really, I do not believe a time trial bike is good for a spinathon. It was not my plan to use a time trial bike but in the end was the only way I could track the distance.
For sure this turbo-trainer is slower than being outside. I like the set up but it does feel like you have to put too much effort in to achieve a low speed relative to the road outside and the fact you can’t coast at all sucks!
I’ve learned a new appreciation of my capacity for pain and ability to sustain effort over a prolongued period.
In the end my frustration at taking some time out to rest was offset by me realising it was the right decision for me. I listened to myself; I needed it.
The fee for the spinathon went to the Royal Air Force Association, I paid in full. I was not asking for donations, I encouraged estimates as to how far I would travel – the ability to win charitable prizes in return.
Closest estimate won:
1). a #40s440 t-shirt
2). a £40 donation to a charity of your choice
3). Choice how I spend 40 minutes of my time
If you are inspired to make a charitable donation, then check out RAFA or any of the other worthy causes that I have already made donations to on my ‘Forties for 40’ blog @ www.40s440.com #40s440.
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