A massive thanks to all at FCCUK. My total now stands at over £2000! And you have contributed a staggering quarter of that total!

Only 3 days to go and I am all set, it would be too late if I wasn’t mind Just hoping the rain stays away.

My original target was £1000 and I was amazed to have surpassed that and raised it to £1500. Now I am over that too and so am seeing if I can make £3000 as a final amount.

Doing this ride has been good at keeping me focused on my weight loss too, but I have also learnt a lot about juggling weight loss with nutrition and intense training.

The conclusion is that it is all too easy to over or under eat when you are exercising more than 20 hours a week. In the build up to this ride I have had to revise my target weekly weight loss down considerably. If I lost too much I would soon find that I had to lower my training intensity, as the energy stores were too low. If i maintained the intensity my health would soon suffer and resting pulse rate starts to climb, as does blood pressure.

So my next long ride will not be until September where I should be within reach of my final October target. That gives me a good 3 months just concentrating on weight loss.

If you are having trouble sleeping you can always track my progress on my blog, it is linked on my just giving page.

Thanks again not just for your donations but also the support I have had from everyone here.

John

Good luck John. You've put the hard miles in, the ride will be a doddle

Out of interest, what's your resting pulse rate?

If I am properly rested it is 48. If it is over 54 then I do not do any exercise that day.

Good luck John

Recently discovered a colleague's sister is being treated atm for pancreatic cancer at the Royal Marsden - seems like there is only a 5% survival rate but she might just be one of the lucky ones according to latest news
Keep up the good work!

Good luck, John. Great total too.

You're absolutely right about the training. I had a diet plan put together and on busy cycling days it's 4400kcals and on non-cycling days, it's barely 2000kcals. Eating 4400kcals heathily is hard work (today is a 55-mile day) - but it's working: belt notched in more than it has ever been.

I have not heard of that rhr thing, to train or not to train, I shall have to read up on it, sounds interesting and very simple. Di U have any links to articles about it?

Take a look at heart rate variability whilst you're at it

How'd you get on, bockers?

"If anyone sees me on a bike again they have permission to shoot me" These were my first thought as I crossed the finish and had my timing chip scanned. Half an hour later and I was contemplating the time I could do the ride in next year.

It was hard, very hard. Outbound leg average for the 47 miles was 16.5. Then we stopped for lunch, and waited as there was a patch of rain. So lunch stop was way longer than planned. The return leg was hell, the wind was cold and gusting over 20mph. The climbs were long drags with short sharp descents.

Total ride time of 6:32. Event time of 7:44. Riding average of 14.2mph. Disappointed to not do the event in under 7hrs but it was better to stop at the lunch till the rain had passed. Without the wind 15mph average would have been possible with ease.

A very tough day and my legs are feeling it, but the rest of me is fine, no sores and no pain.

Thanks again everyone for your support and contributions. Next year i will be doing it again, but plan to be 3 stone lighter then.

John

Well done John.

Damn fine job, John.

Well done John

Damn good job John!

Great job - I totally empathise with the 3 stone lighter. Sounds like it was really hard work. What were the ride stats (distance, elevation, HR etc)

Here are the stats from my Polar Watch.
My sports tracker session timed out due to low battery on my mobile at 82 miles

Cool - well done - great effort

Truff here is a link. This may be old skool but was considered the best way of determining recovery ro onset of ilness 20 years ago, about the time commercial heart rate monitors became affordable.

Anything more than 5 beats above the norm indicated lack of recovery or start of ilness. It serves me well and I rarely get ill or overtrained unless i ignore the reading