Paul's 100 Mile Challenge - Colorado, Nov 26 2011

The 100 mile challenge I think is a great idea - though it started off as mum's challenge - so she had most input! However when she picked the date in November I knew it was not going to be a very good time for me - right in the middle of World Cup set up in Beaver Creek (my paying job heading up the dye team!) However it was mum's challenge after all - and she didn't want to leave it too long and lose momentum - she gave herself three months to train!! In the end it worked out OK as I had the day off - I had been wondering how I would fit in 100 miles after a day on the mountain! Only trouble was I had worked every day up till then and my bike had no chain. I had tried to go to the bike shop twice but had been caught out by Thanksgiving closing!

So on the day of the ride my first task was to buy a chain. The first shop I tried at 10am was still closed - but fortunately the second was open and so I was able to buy and fit my chain. I also wanted to buy some overboots for my shoes as I knew it was going to be pretty cold out there - however they didn't have my size so I had to settle for toe caps instead - assured they would work just as well!! It was then pointed out that I had snow tyres on my bike - which as it wasnt really that snowy out might not be a good idea - they would really slow me down! So I headed back to the apartment to change tyres and was finally ready to set off.

I headed off on the bike path and immediately found some snow!! Interesting riding through it with my road tyres! I took it easy to start with - just having fun and enjoying being out on my bike again - and being entertained by Richard's tweets telling me how mum, dad and the Roswell crew were doing!! The bike path became a little confusing and so I had to go on to the road. I realised that I was going mainly downhill and that my idea of riding out 50 miles and then back again might not be such a good one - 50 miles back all uphill? Maybe not!! So I decided to turn around when I got to Eagle. After about 10 miles I stopped to put on more clothes - it was much colder than I had expected - colder than it had been up on the mountain all week!!

32 miles at Eagle and I was feeling pretty good! It was uphill now when I turned so harder work of course! However I miscalculated the distance back to Edwards so by the time I arrived my feet were really freezing - to the point I was worried about frostbite! Anyway this made me ride even quicker to try to warm up! So at 55 miles (10 miles further on that I had intended to stop) I was freezing with an empty water bottle - so I had a huge hot chocolate and some water and started to recover - although it took ages for my feet to warm up! Then I rode another 5 miles back to my apartment to get a load of extra clothes.

Then I was ready to head off uphill through Vail to do the 18 miles out, leaving me the final 18 miles downhill - another good plan, or so I thought. Halfway to Vail and the bike path was closed and so I had to take the Highway - but I noticed a shortcut through a gate back onto the bike path - however I ended up riding through 2 inches of snow (again very interesting) only to reach another gate which was closed! So, back to the Highway! It was getting dark now so I exited the Highway into West Vail once again back on the bike path, covered in snow, headed towards Lionshead. At Lionshead to go any further it meant taking a very icy road which I decided was probably not a very sensible thing to do in the dark - I really didnt want to fall on the ice! So once again I turned round and as I was beginning to get cold again I stopped a couple of miles downhill at McDonald's for another hot chocolate and the chance to warm up again! Ended up sitting here for quite a while to let my feet warm up again.

After this McDonald's stop I had another 25 miles to go - in the dark - but I knew the first 8 at least would be downhill! After that I decided to turn uphill towards Minturn - just a few miles - a lovely little village - it was kind of cool to ride through it in the dark! Then I turned round to go back towards the apartment, realising I still wouldn't have done enough miles. I was thinking of stopping for a while but my toes were now only cold and not frozen and I really needed to get finished! So I carried on past the apartment and did a loop through Avon and back to Eagle Vail and then back down the main road - until I was finally finished!! It had taken 7 hours 15 minutes of riding - which is pretty slow - but then half of it was uphill at altitude and it was extremely cold!! I was pretty tired at the end - wished I had started earlier without all the delays - there were times when snow tyres would have been useful but overall the roads were clear so they would have slowed me down further! The most important thing was that I didnt fall. And it was a great challenge - really was a 100 mile challenge for me - not easy - but a great thing to do!! I am very proud of mum, dad, Julie and John for finishing their first century - a really great effort - and I look forward to the next one! But let's make it in the summer - please!!

25 Hour Race Frog Hollow, Utah

A bit late with this blog - the race was back in October! With hindsight I still wasn't ready for such a challenge, but I wanted to give it a go and was excited about the prospect. I arrived in Utah with Meg as my support in a rental car - looking around most people had far more support - RVs, tents, tool racks, spares etc etc. There was my hint I wasnt as well prepared as I should have been. Maybe I needed a little more gear! Woke up that morning not feeling great - the antibiotics are still making me feel sick - probably the anticipation of the race as well!! Was going to try to use the Hammer Nutrition through the day!

I had never tried a 24 hour race before and was looking forward to it but not sure what to expect. What I definitely hadnt expected was it to be so cold - with 2 inches of snow on the ground that morning! Made me a little worried straight away! But it did feel a little warmer as we arrived at the start and the sun came out. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad!

There was a 100 m dash to the start where I grabbed my bike and hopped on. I had no idea what the trail would be like beforehand! There was a fairly easy 5 mile uphill to start followed by an easy 5 mile downhill - disappointing - not the type of course I was hoping for (I prefer more of a downhill). Then there was about 3 miles of rolling hills with a steep, rocky, more technical section towards the end. The first three laps were good and I rode well - despite not feeling great - stomachwise. At lap 8 however I was in 5th place only 1 lap behind the leaders and was feeling pretty pleased with myself, especially as I was feeling so ill! It was getting dark at this stage so I put my lights on - excellent - really pleased with them. However on the 9th lap on the downhill section my front light went out and I couldnt see properly! My helmet light worked but this wasnt so great - I would turn a corner and see into the bushes rather than the trail head - not good! Then on the steep part of the course my front tyre popped and I fell, bruising my hip. But I fixed the tyre and went to use my CO2 cannister, screwed in the valve only to find the connection wasnt long enough! Never mind - I would use my pump - but no that seized up on me! So I ended up hiking along the trail until I could borrow a pump from a check point guy! At last I was on my way again! Although I pumped it up a little too much in the dark which didnt make for a comfortable ride!

I got back to the car and immediately set off for the next lap hoping to make up some of the lost time! I was not particularly enjoying the course, especially the rocky section at the end. I had been hoping for more of a downhill section - on the last lap I only had to touch my brakes twice on the whole of the downhill - so overall I was a bit upset with the way things were turning out! Not how I had imagined and my stomach was feeling dreadful!! I hadnt eaten properly and was struggling with the cold! My water bottle was frozen by the end of the next lap! I would get too hot on the climb up and too cold on the downhill! When I got back to the car I decided to sleep for a while - but after an hour I woke absolutely freezing - shivering like crazy - so I decided to put the heater on, take off some of my biking gear and sleep a little longer! Well - that was it - although I did eventually warm up I decided not to go back out again!!

I actually completed 12x laps though because we were parked just before the Finish line I forgot to check in on the last one so am recorded as only completing 11!! Never mind! Despite all this I still placed 9th overall - much better than I thought - though I was obviously disappointed in my overall performance! It just wasnt my day! I could have coped with not liking the course but not with being cold and sick!! I will keep taking the antibiotics and hope that when the course is finished (6 months from end of August!!) I can get my stomach sorted out and be back to full power for this sort of race!! I will definitely try another 24 hour race - and be better prepared all round next time!!

100 MILES

Sorry the tweets and facebook updates didnt show on the website!!!! But yes the Roswell crew have had a wonderful day in Georgia and completed the century in approx 8 1/2 hours. Just waiting to hear from Paul that he too has finished in Colorado - where he not only had hills to contend with (ie mountains) but also temperatures of 28 degrees!!! So proud of him and his support as ever, Miriam

Paul's 100 Mile Challenge

First group in Roswell are setting out early tomorrow morning on the Silver Comet Trail. Hopefully we will be able to follow their progress on twitter/facebook. Good luck to mum, dad, Julie, John and Janice - take care out on the trail!

Hammer Nutrition

Something all of you attempting the 100 mile Challenge might want to consider - the correct fuel and nutrition for training as well as the event! I am now using Hammer Nutrition - good products and good information. Follow the link if you are interested!

Hammer Discount Referral

Training Ride - October 3, 2011

Disappointingly I found out that my Guinness World Record would not appear in print in the book after all - so I decided I had better go set another one! Having a look at some options there was one possible one that took my notice - riding across Australia from Perth to Sydney. This will be a difficult one to beat as it has been hard fought several times in recent years - the current one sets an average speed of about 320 miles per day! I thought it might be a good idea to go for a test ride and see just how many miles I was capable of in a single day - I had a spare day in the UK and Dean was available to help. Time to put myself to the test!

There were a couple of factors that I didn't really give enough consideration to. One being the bike I was using - not really the best one for road distances. I had my cyclocross which I had used for the Scotland Coast to Coast the previous week. In Australia I would probably use something more like a time trail bike with disc wheels etc. - a lot more aerodynamic and quicker! But I wanted to give it a test anyway!

I started at midnight and rode for about 7 hours in the dark. During this first part of the ride my GPS bike computer just didn't seem to be working properly however eg I would be pedalling pretty hard but looking at the monitor it was only recording about 14 mph - I don't think so!! My aim was to keep at a constant 16 mph so this was all very off putting. I would look at the dial,and think I had better pedal faster and then the speed would drop! I ride enough to know the approximate speed I am going and the readings just didn't seem correct! However when the sun came up it seemed to settle down and work a lot better??

Dean slept for a few extra hours ( we didn't want him to be driving tired) and so met me after about 4 hours as I knew I had enough food and water with me for about that time! The route was basically along the south coast via Brighton traveling east initially - I didn't want anything with too many hills although there were a few sections past Brighton where it was a lot hillier than I had expected but back towards Eastbourne and it was lovely! Looking at the flags on the coast there I could see that there was a slight tailwind blowing - not much - all very pleasant!

When it started to get quite hilly again I decided to turn around and head back - it seemed as soon as I changed direction the wind really started to pick up - in fact when I got back to those same flags they were now blowing around violently - a headwind now of course! So we decided to change the route and headed inland - bad decision as this was a dreadful,road - and very hilly! I felt pretty good in myself at this stage but was annoyed at the conditions - not quite what I had planned. I was fed up and decided I didn't really want to drag this on any more for no real reason. I also realized it was probably still,too soon after my illness to push myself so much so maybe better to stop,while I was still feeling good! It would be silly to continue - according to my GPS I had covered at least 215 miles though with the earlier problems I think it was probably a little more! Not bad all things considered - I was pleased enough with my performance. Obviously in Australia I would have to cope with hills and bad weather but I still have a lot of training to do before then!! But no more for today. We will of course try again later!

Lupus Butterfly Gala - October 11, 2011

Just playing 'catch up' with my blogs!

I was very pleased and honored to be invited to the Lupus Butterfly Gala in New York in recognition of my support for the Lupus Foundation. I flew to New York from Denver on the Monday to meet my mum who was also invited and we enjoyed dinner with Morgan that evening. I had first met Morgan when I completed my Guinness World record and it was good to catch up. Tuesday morning was spent buying a suit for the occasion ( not something I owned) and then we spent a fun day sightseeing - I loved the New York Public Library - what a fantastic building and we accidentally crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on the metro giving us a view of the statue of Liberty - and some happy memories of my ride into New York to set my world record last year! We even found a great Italian restaurant with a gluten free menu!!

The Gala was held in The Pierre Hotel near Central Park - very nice! There were a lot of people there including Julian Lennon and the CEO of Sa

ks Fifth Avenue - it was really great to hear all the speeches - very inspirational. As always with all the lupus sufferers I have met since I started supporting the Lupus Foundation they are all really brave and all really fighting this disease - just like my sister! Great! It was a really fun night - I met lots of really nice people and it was especially good to meet some of the Lupus staff we have been communicating with over the last few years - and to be able to put faces to the names ( and have our photos taken!) Great people! Made my mum smile to hear me introduced as Paul - you know - the cyclist!!!

It was a really good evening with wonderful people working for a great cause - and I look forward to continuing to support them more in the future!