75,065 miles in a year!

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John Holiday
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by John Holiday »

Amazing! Have ordered a copy of his biography to read about it in more detail.
I believe someone in US is looking at trying to break his record.
LollyKat
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by LollyKat »

So is someone in the UK -- he has just started :) : One Year TimeTrial

See also Steve's Facebook page, and his live tracking page which will include the other two riders once they set off.
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bigjim
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by bigjim »

breakwellmz wrote:http://vintagebicycle.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/the-great-tommy-godwin-75065-miles-120805-kms-on-a-bicycle-in-one-year-1939/

Great achievement but did not do him much good in the greater scheme of things. He was dead at 63. Shame. I wonder how much damage that kind of excess does to the body.
Tonyf33
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by Tonyf33 »

this seems like a good place to see TG record in detail, looks like he was fairly well scrutinised for his mileages
http://phased.co.uk/tommy-godwin-faq/
The thing I cant seem to tally up though is how he was able to put weight on when he was having to consume in excess of 9500Kcals per day, every day and on some days in excess of 14,000kcals on his 300 mile days.

Firsty given he was a veggie and indeed his written food diary indicates very limited diet I'm finding it hard to see how he was capable of consuming such amounts to keep him going given the huge time constraints, add in all the supposed stops he was having to do for the verifications every day (finding public figures to stamp his log book) It's a very tall order.
Tonyf33
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by Tonyf33 »

bigjim wrote:
breakwellmz wrote:http://vintagebicycle.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/the-great-tommy-godwin-75065-miles-120805-kms-on-a-bicycle-in-one-year-1939/

Great achievement but did not do him much good in the greater scheme of things. He was dead at 63. Shame. I wonder how much damage that kind of excess does to the body.

I would be very surprised if the physical effort had any long lasting effect on him, psychologically extremely difficult but long term damage physically, I don't buy that at all.
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bigjim
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by bigjim »

Tonyf33 wrote:
bigjim wrote:
breakwellmz wrote:http://vintagebicycle.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/the-great-tommy-godwin-75065-miles-120805-kms-on-a-bicycle-in-one-year-1939/

Great achievement but did not do him much good in the greater scheme of things. He was dead at 63. Shame. I wonder how much damage that kind of excess does to the body.

I would be very surprised if the physical effort had any long lasting effect on him, psychologically extremely difficult but long term damage physically, I don't buy that at all.

I think the jury is still out on "intense endurance training over many years can leave signs of "fibrosis" - scarring - on the heart".
Maybe he could have succombed earlier if he did not cycle. His genetics may not have been good.
Anyway it's a good excuse for me to take it easy. :)
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Paulatic
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by Paulatic »

Tonyf33 wrote:this seems like a good place to see TG record in detail, looks like he was fairly well scrutinised for his mileages
http://phased.co.uk/tommy-godwin-faq/
The thing I cant seem to tally up though is how he was able to put weight on when he was having to consume in excess of 9500Kcals per day, every day and on some days in excess of 14,000kcals on his 300 mile days.
.


I too have wondered about that. The pictures I've seen of him look too fleshy to have done those milages but I don't know when exactly they were taken.
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binsted
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by binsted »

LollyKat wrote:So is someone in the UK -- he has just started :) : One Year TimeTrial

See also Steve's Facebook page, and his live tracking page which will include the other two riders once they set off.


This has got to be the hardest world record to beat, Steve deserves as much publicity and support he can get. I find record attempts like this by ordinary guys really inspirational and as much as I admire Tommy Godwin ( http://wp.me/p498Mc-4w ) I am hoping Steve can claim the record.
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easyroller
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by easyroller »

Steve's on the move again this morning. Certainly cracking on! Only 363.5 days to go............. :shock:

Day one: http://www.strava.com/activities/235354357
Ben@Forest
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by Ben@Forest »

Tonyf33 wrote:I would be very surprised if the physical effort had any long lasting effect on him, psychologically extremely difficult but long term damage physically, I don't buy that at all.


I seem to remember reading that when he joined the forces not long after the end of his attempt (by now WW2 had started) he could not join the Army because his feet were somehow misshapen after treading the pedals for so long (or so hard). He had to join the RAF. Not sure where I read it so not sure if it's true.
Ben@Forest
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by Ben@Forest »

Found something here from Cycling Weekly - but does not mention he was unfit for the Army:

...on December 31, 1939 he’d racked up a massive 75,065 miles. But Tommy wasn’t content to settle with that – he continued riding until May 14, 1940, setting the record for the time taken to 100,000 miles – within 500 days.

Godwin’s achievement was legendary beyond cycling fans. He met royalty, appeared on television, was interviewed by Richard Dimbleby for radio, and lent his image to advertising posters. The ride had taken its toll, though; Godwin required a period of rehabilitation to learn to walk normally and uncurl his hands. Yet within weeks he was serving his country in the RAF.
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honesty
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Re: 75,065 miles in a year!

Post by honesty »

Blimey. I'd be rather happy to do a tenth of that in a year!!
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