I'm still going for Amanda's record, though it does look unlikely that I'll succeed.
I need to get faster to succeed. I tried trying to get faster while riding around 14 hours a day (not including stops) and that didn't really work. So now I'm trying to ride fewer hours and have more recovery while just doing enough to stay ahead of Kurt.
Too early to see if it's working yet. I rode easy for 2 weeks before the Mersey 24 and seem to have gained a little bit of speed, but not much.
I seem to have a reasonable day or two before my speed drops again. That makes sense because I'd expect to have to ride a bit faster than normal then recover, which means slowing down.
I tend to look at a week at a time rather than days. Last week on Strava was a good sign that my speed is increasing. I was generally riding around 95 hours a week earlier in the year and doing over 1500 miles. Last week I rode 1500 miles in under 90hrs riding time. Even then, looking at a week at a time isn't entirely accurate because of weather.
Whether I can beat Amanda's record depends on whether I can get my speed up early enough, then start doing the longer hours again. That'll mean riding longer and faster in the winter. That doesn't seem impossible but I can see that it would seem unlikely.
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
