Bike Marathon Challenge

[Vinay]

It's 9:20pm and I'm feeling kinda bored and restless so I figured.. let's do something constructive.

A few weeks back, my younger brother was talking about how he was going to enter into this long-ass bike marathon with his work buddies. Of course, this guy doesn't do any physical activity at all, so it came as no surprise to me when he kinda.. dropped out, lol. BUT.. then I thought to myself.. this is an interesting opportunity. Why not enter myself instead? Since I had already been cycling daily for about 4 weeks at that point, I knew that the potential for success was definitely there. But it was just thoughts swimming around in my head.

Over the past few days I've gone back to the website, had a look at the details and after doing some calculations on my present workout, I've decided to make a commitment (via this blog post) to take on the challenge.

The Event
The inaugural HBF Freeway Bike Hike for Asthma was held in March 2005. As a unique fundraising event for the Asthma Foundation of Western Australia it has evolved into WA's largest mass participation cycling event. After four years it is now a regular fixture on the WA sports and community calendar.

In 2008, with the support of the State Government and Main Roads WA an additional 60km distance was added to the existing 30km and 10km events. With a turnout in excess of 2000 cyclists in its first year the 60km event proved popular with regular and more experienced cyclists while also posing a challenge to tackle for the less experienced.

The 2009 HBF Freeway Bike Hike for Asthma will be held on Sunday 22nd March 2009 and will kick off with the 60km Hike from Kwinana followed by the 30km ride through the tunnel with plenty of fun to be had in the 10km City of Joondalup Family Ride, with all events finishing in the City of Joondalup for more fun, food, drinks and festivities.

6 Week Training Guide

I'm currently doing 20km/1hr per day so I'm going to enter into the 60km event for the challenge. Since I've already been riding for 5 weeks, I'm starting the training program at week 3. This means I'll have to increase my distance as well as practice riding uphill. I actually think I'm not doing too badly on pace since the maximum training duration they have at the end of the 6 weeks is 150 mins. But at my current pace, ignoring stamina, I could do 60km in 180min. Tomorrow I'm going to try doing 40km in 2 hours and see how I go.

Why am I doing this? Well for starters I can tell you right now that after a month, I feel 10x better than I did before I started riding, especially since I'm doing it in the morning. But on top of that.. if someone had told me about this marathon even 2 months ago, I would have laughed and never even considered it. Now I actually believe it's achievable for me, and I can just imagine what a great feeling it would be to complete something this challenging.

I'm going to try and keep a weekly blog on my training progress so I can stay motivated. And who knows.. maybe someone reading this who has a bike might just decide to go out and try it themselves. I know I never thought I would :P

[razor159]

vinay u have made this half story of your on and lest u have found on the net when is this event so call HBF Freeway Bike Hike for Asthma so what big deal i think u dont do cycleing as much as u mention your younger brother will be a cycleing freak but what u have paste he far more than i think tell the true in blog

[Adela]

you rawk ! :-&

[MIchael]

woo if i had the mone i totally go and do it with u or at least be there for mora support... best of luck my friend

[NUTSO_Kliph]

you got this in teh bag Vinay!

[Trent Skull]

GO VINAY IM ROOTIN FOR YA

[Xavier]

PS: 14 KM a 5 times a week.

[Xavier]

Interesting!
I cycle to school 7KM (and 7KM back) at a speed of 20KM/ph. When i started i felt much better!
But after some months (like know) it gets 'normal'.
I would even have to cycle more now because 17KM's a day already is piece-of-cake to me, and i don't feel better from it.