Dec 06, 2024
WUCA World Record in the HWMR category for 7-day Time Trial attempt. Finally my 2024 season is over. I did accept it as being completed and start looking at preparation for some resting and 2025 season. However since I had no family get together for Thanksgiving I somehow came up with the idea to use Thanksgiving week for a 7 day time trial attempt to see how many miles are doable. Funny as is - I was not prepared since I started to focus on some slower times over end of the year and I could not pull a crew together for this. Sio that lead me to the decision to go for the 7 day time trial attempt without any crew help and no special preparation. Why would I do this? Simple answer ... its was a test to see what I need to watch out for and work on for 2025 when doing it possibly with a crew. will provide a bit of a riders report by day and more details. However I learned a lot from the attempt this year. Besides getting a decent distance of 1858.09 miles (2990.31 km) I admit a lot came up showing what I better watch out for. First of all doing it without support crew was a challenging lesson learned and did lead to some issues. Second of all a proper training preparing for it would be more helpful as well. Every stop took much longer than I expected. Not having a crew I admit my time trial attempt was over a bit sooner than I wanted ... lack of focus and slowed reaction times caused an accident that ended it before I was able to go for the 2000 mile marker. Nevertheless it was an interesting experience. and I will take all the specific infos from my attempt and use them for a 2025 time trial attempt where I hope getting much better milage. Big thanks for all year support from Heidi Maldonado and from my coach Giovanni Prosperi .... A result like this would not have been possible without their great support all year.
Nov 19, 2024
Horrible Hundred Ride 2024 -> Had fun at Horrible Hundred Ride last Sunday. It's always a cool ride and I enjoyed it a lot. Nice to see that I improved a bit over the last years and still felt great at end of the ride. Next focus is on a cool attempt to check my limits a bit at end of a ride season. #infinitybikeseat discount code #Ingolf676 #hammernutrition
Nov 12, 2024
My First Randonneur rides ... Was planning for Cracker Swamp 1200 but due to work requirements only went for Saturday 300k and Sunday 200k brevet rides. It was fun ans seems to be a good addition for the future to my training sessions. Event was very well organized and lots of cool cyclists participating in it. Will do that type of riding again. Distances are easy for me due top using Infinity Bike Seats and good endurance for longer distances. #hammernutrition #infinitybikeseat
Nov 03, 2024
Fun Preparing for 48 hour race in early October: Want to share some of my preparation for Psycho48 race. I ended up at the location a bit earlier due to the hurricanes causing issues at home and on road. So I relocated for work and training to a more safe location which was right at the Psycho race area. Kept doing the race route on regular basis with interval as well as recovery rides to get used to the route and memorize it. Its an easy route so not much needed than understanding road condition and wildlife and most important ... had a few rides of 8 and 12 hours to stick with that route to just preparing my mindset for it (riding at night times and day times). It was fun riding and learned a bit about the different wind conditions. The race went perfectly well and preparation paid off.
Oct 28, 2024
Some cool numbers: My first 100 miles I did in 5 hours and 5 minutes. The first 12 hours I was able to get 221 miles in and for the first 24 hours I was able to get 422 miles in. Some might wonder why not keeping it up that way after the 24 hours. OK it is a 48-hour race and as of my experience it starts getting seriously tough after about 35 hours riding without sleep. And as the competition shows it is seriously tough and sounds easier than it is for real. Also, cool numbers to me I am 60 years young and did win across all age groups, genders and bicycle types. So next best racer was a woman with 610 miles, next best male racer was at mile 581 miles and best recumbent bike at 571 miles. Most impressive result (not mine) was Jeff Chaffin doing hand cycling and pulled off 501 miles. That number is amazing to me.
So, it’s my second year I did win across all other racers. What’s next to me on the 48-hour racing? I guess I won the second year and better prepare to defend my title again in 2025. For 2025 I may have to do some better preparations since the 750 miles is the minimum milestone for me while a dream distance would be 800+ miles in 48 hours. I know some may say based on what I have done it should be easy or when watching some 24-hour racers yep … shall be easy to get. But 48 hours is a different situation then 24 hours and you cannot simply double the distance. The body system his giving us a hard time after 35-40 hours and I need to work on overcoming some of those issues.
If anyone has questions related to the race … feel free to ask since I will try to answer those. I believe getting across 700 miles on a race like that is extremely tough and requires good physical and mental training and preparation as well as solid crew support. In the race a racer must stay focused all times, be dedicated and keep pushing even when power level goes down. Being only a short time into such racing and not sponsored as some top racers, it means I do train around a full time work schedule, and work keeps priority over my training. To me it’s still hard to realize that I seem to be very good in those type of races and looking forward to a race season 2025. For 2024 it was my last race. Borrego Springs, I had to skip due to race being too close after Psycho48 (with driving across the USA) and I had personal things and work to define and take over my schedule. It feels amazingly cool to finish a season with such a cool and clear win. It does not put me into the top ultra cyclist category, but I realize that I seem to be very good at those things.
For those who finished behind me. Be realistic –> you have done an amazing job in this race. Anyone getting to the start of a 48-hour race must be a ‘Psycho’. It’s insane what we try to do and sticking to it the 48 hours. I have an amazing respect for all of you and its all of you who keep pushing me to new records and such cool results. I am very thankful for that.
In addition, I cannot thank my crew chief Heidi enough. Results like that would be impossible without her. She keeps motivating me and she is responsible to straighten out my nutrition schedule and my pace. That’s very cool for me to have you on board and get all your support. Also big thanks to my coach Giovanni. He helped preparing me for the race and I know I am not always a good student and might ignore some advice well knowing he is right. Ohh … and as a cool side note talking about nutrition … I can pull the additional power levels due to dedication, amazing training and due to a major change in nutrition. Also changed my diet over 18 months ago to use vegan food only. Some may shake their heads, but my results (both medical and race results) clearly show that the change in diet helped me a lot. Did receive lots of help and advice what to eat to make sure I am on track. That’s also thanks to Heidi and Giovanni.
