Rapha Turkey Takeoff Challenge

Rapha Turkey Challenge: Burn 9000 calories (and that’s kilocalories – thousands – meaning 9 million regular ones) during the Thanksgiving festivities. Rapha and Strava have normalized the effort, so 1 mile is 38 calories. For us using the more modern metric system, this means I will have to ride 9000/38*1.609344 = 381,160421052632 km.

So far my riding has been a great success, and the logs are as follows (including stipulated logs for future riding):

  • Wednesday 23th: Completely forgot about it.
  • Thursday 24th (today): Business trip to Helsinki, so only time for a short test of the rollers right before midnight. Looks like the little magnet on the spoke is doing its job, and the distance is logged. This scientific test shows that I can do around 40kph with 90rpm, amounting to 947 calories per hour.
  • Friday 25th: Taking the day off from work (to do you-know-what), then the company’s Christmas dinner (yes, Christmas – Thanksgiving is not observed in Norway, but Christmas starts in early September). If I manage 3 hours on the rollers, I will burn around 2800 calories.
  • Saturday 26th: 6200 calories to go. 4 hours on the rollers should burn 3800 more, leaving only a puny 2400 calories for the leisurely Sunday ride.
  • Sunday 27th: A mere 3 hour ride should burn the last 2400 calories. Easy!

The test, conducted barefoot and in jeans, means that this could actually work – even with no official holiday!

I might celebrate with yet another last «ride of the season» on Sunday if I make this!

Update! Its only 36 calories per mile, so it’s 402,336 km. One hour extra on Sunday, then..

Update Friday 25th 12:14

Update Friday 25th 15:05

After the first session I realized I needed to make this a little less boring, so I downloaded the 7 hour HD version of Bergensbanen. Here’s a 10 minute clip:

To this I listened to 120 Days on Spotify.

Update Friday 25th 16:15

I’ve been outdoors!

Not exactly racing:

Still, it beats this:

Status after the grocery run:

Update Friday 25th 17:55

The last half hour was hard, due to a sudden loss of motivation, as well as tired legs (although I have rested them for a couple of weeks). A short break for refilling the bottle is ok, no? Can’t say I look forward to another 4 hours tomorrow, but I’m sure that’s completely changed after a big Christmas dinner, lots of drinks and 3-4 hours of sleep.

Update Saturday 26th 13:18

Big dinner and then drinks until 03 in the morning does not seem to help. Spotify radio and Bergensbanen made it  bearable (I «rode» from Bergen to Voss), but having 5 days off and just ride five 80km rides (in warm, sunny weather!) would have been nice.

This is my view from the bike:

Detail:

Since I used Spotify radio, I can use the phone to find out which song is playing – and skip if it’s crap:

Update Saturday 26th 23:50

After the morning ride from Bergen to Voss, which I completed in 01:25:39 (the winning time of the official Bergen-Voss race in 04:15:06), I realized I was less than halfway to 9000 calories – and also vaguely remembered that I used to have a life. So I decided to spend the rest of the day off the bike.

I also made a hefty high-carb pizza with rye flour, cow meat, a leftover onion, chili, etc:

Status: Only 4920 calories to go! That means 5+ hours on the rollers (not tempting) or to go out in the lovely Sunday weather:

Which means I need to ride for 9 hours, with less than 7 hours of daylight..

Update Sunday 27th 17:02

I went for another «last ride of the season», for the 5th week in a row. Partly sunny and 10°C! Very unusual for the end of November. Last year at this time the xc skiing season had started.

Since I woke up around noon, I only had around four hours until it got dark. I managed 62km in very leisurely tempo (is «roller legs» a condition, like «tennis elbow»?), including a climb to Tryvannstårnet:

This is some of what I saw:


View of some of the Oslo fjord from near Kragstøtten at Voksenkollen.


Oslo, as seen from Ekeberg. Tryvannstårnet (the Tryvann tower) is the little light on the top of the hill all the way in the back.

This ride brought me past halfway to 9000 calories:

It’s now Sunday evening 17:02 (5:02pm). Will I do another four hours on the rollers..?

Update: «There’s always next year»

Instead of four more hours on the roller, a friend brought over his home-made spaghetti sauce (and spaghetti) and a 1,5l of high-carb nutritional drink (Coke), and we watched the timeless classic and critically acclaimed cinematic masterpiece Captain America.

During these three days of I rode 244.91 km in 8:19 hours:

I’d be suprised if I manage to ride more in November next year:

And I ate no turkey, potatoes, gravy or pumpin pie.

Dette innlegget ble publisert i ymse og merket med , , , , , , , . Bokmerk permalenken.

6 svar til Rapha Turkey Takeoff Challenge

  1. Jens sier:

    Dette fikser du lett :)

  2. Bjartolini sier:

    Eg har troen!

  3. Bjartolini sier:

    At least you didn’t eat huge amounts of turkey…

Svar på BjartoliniAvbryt svar

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