So I am going to do an hour record…

I have had this in my head for a few years really, and with my 40th birthday coming up I figured it was now or never. I have always been interested in the hour following Moser, Obree, Boardman etc. with great interest – I mean who does not like the slick gear and the entire concept of an hour record? Of course most people understand this is a specialist event, in reality how many people can actually even say out loud that they want to go for an hour record without all their buddies laughing at them? But once you start digging a bit deeper you learn that this is not just for the pros. They have women’s, masters, pro, amateur, world and national records, something for everyone eh? Robert Marchand just broke the 100+ hour record at 100 years old!  Even so, once you narrow down your age, nationality and gender (hope you had the gender down already) it is still not looking all that easy. For myself it got narrowed down to the 40-44 US Men’s National Record for 1 hour. Damn, that sounds pretty good. As I write this, I have still only told a hand full of people about this for fear of laughter.

I started doing basic road training the beginning of September 2012, I will go into more details in a future blog post but I basically went out and did 3 x 15 minutes or 2 x 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week, uphill on my road bike. The original goal was to bang out a few months of building my threshold up, jump on the track and do a test or two and then bang out a 35-39 hour record by the end of the year, allowing me to jump right into my road season (as a national record holder). Of course (as you will read in future posts) it is not quite that easy, especially when you are nearing 40 years old and have responsibilities such as owning your own business, wife, 2 kids, house etc. As the year end was nearing and I was fighting off my 3rd straight hacking/sniffling cold, I realized I would have to shoot for the 40-44 record as I was aging faster than I was progressing in my hour preparations. Of course the 40-44 record is only meters shorter than the 35-39 record, so not like it was going to actually be any easier in the next age group up. I am just really hoping this works out before I turn 45, as that record is held by Kent Bostick in the superman position on a super bike at a super-distance of over 49 kilometers (almost Eddy Merckx distance). After that the 50-54 record and the 55-59 record are nailed down by KK (good buddy and training partner, and I will have a post on him in the future as well) at over 45k each, so it is not really looking any easier till you hit 60-64, but damn I will be 20 years older so any saved distance will be more than off set by my own age … better get this thing done while I am young! I would actually say the 40-44 record is set a bit low, really due to the fact that not many people attempt hour records (back to the whole buddies laughing at you thing). As you will see in future posts the complexity of doing an hour record is much more than meets the eye, this really is a specialist event, I sure hope I am special enough to do it. So as of this writing, I am shooting to do my hour on my 40th birthday, June 30th 2013. What better than having a bunch of my buddies come down to the track and watch me flog myself for an hour (and hopefully break a national record) and then go drink some beers. I am not the type to bungee jump or sky dive so the hour record seems to fit me perfect.

I created this blog to document the journey of a 40 year old average guy attempting to break an hour record, keep reading and enjoy the journey with me. This entire experience is going to be an exploration of my physiology, technical ability, brain power and a whole lot more – remember it is about the journey not the destination right?