[HAMR] A new women's HAM'R challenger- Amanda Coker

[DaveE128]

She's riding round and round a 7 or 8 mile circuit at 20 mph and the Strava track is only showing 1 point every 10 minutes or so, which gives approximately 3 points per loop, which are joined by straight lines.
It may be that the info is coming from the Spot tracker rather than GPS downloads

I think it's just the thumbnails on the activity feed that use simplified data, presumably to speed up the loading of the activity feed page. If you open the activity you should see an accurate map. Definitely works like that on the mobile app, anyway.

[rafletcher]

Strava appears to show an 11km loop is the main component of her ride.

[andrew_s]

My god, the tedium of it all.

I can't disagree.
Possibly not as bad as doing a 24h on a velodrome (Marko Baloh, 3,615 laps, 903.76 km / 561.57 mi), but that's all you can say.

Anyway, the current score, as of last night (25th), is 16,361.36 miles in 72 days (227.24 mpd ave), not ridden less than 200 since 7th June.

[woollypigs]

... not ridden less than 200 since 7th June.

yeah what is this about, just a weee bit of bad weather and she runs and hides, tch tch shakes head in disapproval, it was only a little tropical storm (Colin) that hung around with its heavy rain, tornado warnings and wind gusts

[mrcharly-YHT]

To celebrate turning 24, she rode 240.

The mind boggles.

[Justin(e)]

To celebrate turning 24, she rode 240.

The mind boggles.

I think I can see where you are going with this. 

In the same way that there is an Eddington Number (miles = days), maybe there needs to be a Coker number (years = miles / 10).

(Edited for math error pointed out below.)

Surely her Coker number for that ride would then be 10 (miles in a day / age in years).

I'm hoping to push mine up to 10 in a year or two, right now it's just 7.3

[Greenbank]

Surely her Coker number for that ride would then be 10 (miles in a day / age in years).

I'm hoping to push mine up to 10 in a year or two, right now it's just 7.3

[cygnet]

That penalises the older rider though.

e.g. my best is higher than when Wilko set his 541mile 24hr record (although his 525 in 1997 would give him a CN of 15.9)

Probably Jonathan Schubert would have the highest (I think 19.1 from the ESCA 2014).

/Digression

What Amanda is doing month in month out (rather than a single day) is jaw-dropping

[clarion]

My CN is 6.8 (150 miles at age 22)

To beat that, I would have to ride about 350 miles*


* Risk Assessment: Impact 5; Likelihood 0; Overall Risk = No Chance!

[red marley]

Amanda's total is currently standing at 17,309 miles; Kajsa's is 18,194 miles. Based on their respective daily averages we should expect a 'catch' around next Friday.

[clarion]

[Phil W]

Her daily average is about 227 miles and she appears to be consistently hitting 230 miles a day at the moment. Keeps this up, then definitely upping the ante.

[Wowbagger]

She is amazing. People described Kurt and Steve as being "machines" but Amanda really does seem to churn out these miles mechanically.

[mrcharly-YHT]

She is amazing. People described Kurt and Steve as being "machines" but Amanda really does seem to churn out these miles mechanically.

I would say she's churning them out with joie de vivre. Tales of water bottle fights, seeing her dad riding up ahead, sneaking up on him and dowsing him, dodging lightning strikes, spotting wildlife. She seems to be doing loops and extracting maximum joy out of it.

"To see a world in a grain of sand,"

[Wowbagger]

Maybe so. I haven't read anything other than the stark statistics, which are formidable indeed. If she is enjoying what she is doing then that augurs well for her ultimate success. There were times for both Kurt and Steve when they both had psychological barriers (more so for Kurt, I think - Steve's problems seemed more physical). It seems to me that Kurt thrives on the competition against others, and driving himself every day without a clearly-defined opponent was harder for him than it was for Steve, who is much more accustomed to his own company. If Amanda has the sheer joy and motivation of being out on the road and bashing out 22mph for 10 or 11 hours a day, then that is wonderful indeed.

[TimC]

I agree. And she has the advantage of a fixed, off-road venue, which allows other people to come along and ride with her as regularly as they're able in a safe, unthreatening (other than bidons!) environment. Barring injury, there's no reason to suppose she won't smash the record to bits and put it well out of the reach of anyone other than a very serious - and probably young - athlete. When we were speculating last year about how you'd optimise the approach to this record, I think we pretty much described the way she is going about it. Professional, single-minded, determined and fuelled by massive ability and self-belief.

[Cmiller]

She seems to be doing loops and extracting maximum joy out of it.

"To see a world in a grain of sand,"

You've hit the nail right on the head. This is exactly why she's been so successful to date. Being a freak of nature on the bike hasn't hurt either...

[rabbit]

She seems to be doing loops and extracting maximum joy out of it.

"To see a world in a grain of sand,"

You've hit the nail right on the head. This is exactly why she's been so successful to date. Being a freak of nature on the bike hasn't hurt either...

It is a fact that she has everything needed in bucketfulls! Positivity, genetics, support, good tactics and the weather.

I think it's great 

[yossarian22]

And don't forget she has a great support team.
And Nutella.

[orraloon]

Amanda's total is currently standing at 17,309 miles; Kajsa's is 18,194 miles. Based on their respective daily averages we should expect a 'catch' around next Friday.

Catch is on for today.  Amanda 50 behind as of time of typing this.

[Justin(e)]

Catch is on for today.  Amanda 50 behind as of time of typing this.

I've a mental image of Kajsa pedaling faster and looking over her shoulder. 

Kind of like the breakaway being caught by the sprinter's trains, just before the line.

[wajcgac]

Sorry for the double post but it is relevant to both threads

Don't forget that assuming Kajsa betters Billie Flemings distance, and Guinness don't renege on there promise to her, then Kajsa will have her own Guinness World Record no matter how many miles Amanda rides.

[Cmiller]

Don't forget that assuming Kajsa betters Billie Flemings distance, and Guinness don't renege on there promise to her, then Kajsa will have her own Guinness World Record no matter how many miles Amanda rides.

Amanda *is* going after Guinness record and has been assured by Guinness that they will accept the UMCA certification for the record if she breaks it.

[wajcgac]

It will be Kurt's Guinness Record or even another Guinness Record that Amanda will break on her current progress but not the Guinness record set by Kajsa (if she beats Billie Flemings record)

It's a mess to be honest.

After Kurt's attempt was completed Guinness decided that they would change their rules and accept Kurt's UMCA record as their own. This would imply that they would also be recognising Amanda's attempt as well for a Guinness women's record.

This was a month after Kajsa had started her own Guinness Record Attempt under much more stringent rules.
ie no drafting, no recumbents, same bike, no transfers etc.

Kajsa was rightly annoyed by this and sort assurances from Guinness that her record would stand as a Guinness Record. They agreed with her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3_72NT930I

just after 2 mins in is the important part.

Good luck to both of them and hopefully they'll both get the recognition they deserve.

[Cmiller]

What I think she's talking about is Guinness's rules for the record when *they're* the certifying body. I've been told (multiple sources) that Guinness will also accept any UMCA certified yearly mileage record using UMCA rules and that no distinction would be made between records set under Guinness or the UMCA. Strange? yes, but that's Guinness for you...