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Alex Staniforth

Alex Staniforth

Adversity Adventurer, Motivational Resilience Speaker, Author and Mental Health Activist

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24 hours… on a bike!

You are here: Home / Challenges / 24 hours… on a bike!

July 31, 2016 by AdversityAdventurer 5 Comments

Here’s my latest wacky charity challenge – a solo/unsupported cycle time trial. This is not an official event… Just me in my usual style, jumping on the bike, and cycling as far south as possible from home in one 24-hour period.

I’ll leave home in Kelsall, Cheshire, at 18:30 and finish tomorrow at 18:30. All stops included in the time. All gear carried on the bike and food collected en-route with minimal stops. By setting off in the night I give myself the sunrise to look forward to (and more alertness when the roads are dark and deserted) but it will be a lonely and long few hours trying not to nod off on the saddle. My previous best is 160 miles. I want to double this.

“Why on earth?!” … Well, my Cho Oyu expedition (6th highest peak in the world) is just four weeks away. I haven’t done anything hard for a while. For some reassurance and a boost of confidence, I need to get myself back into the challenge mindset, test my endurance and remind myself that I can still scrape the barrel when the going gets tough. Once I’m back in the Himalayas I’m going to depend on it more than ever. Like with fitness I think the mind has to be trained too – read more about my training on my latest blog here…

I can proudly announce that over the next 9 months I will be fundraising for Young Minds, a mental health charity, so these spontaneous challenges are part of this journey to make a much-needed difference to the lives of young people.

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The priority is to make sure I don’t push the boat out and compromise myself before the expedition. But how far will I get? OK – time to get spinning. So I’ll leave you with a quote…

“If an idea is not at first absurd, then there is no hope for it” – Albert Einstein

Category iconChallenges,  Endurance Tag icon24 hour,  alex staniforth,  challenges,  cycle,  cycling,  endurance,  everest,  training

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Comments

  1. Mike Henshall says

    July 31, 2016 at 11:21 pm

    Go go go Alex.. Don’t stop peddling till your feet get wet in the sea.. Best wishes the Henshall family

    Reply
  2. lewis donovan says

    August 2, 2016 at 9:51 am

    Good luck for the ride. Just wondering if the previous best of 160 miles was part of the Everesting cycle you did earlier last year ? Be sure to strava the ride otherwise it didn’t happen haha

    Reply
  3. killian canaday says

    August 2, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    Hey stainforth,

    its me jesus christ again.

    Thought i would give you kudos on your 24 hour bike ride, which i honestly do mean. I aim to do one myself in the future with my previous longest ride being my everesting cycle. However I will need to ask how you only managed 268 miles in 24 hours when you train 30 hours a week. quote from your last blog post. Thats quite the low average speed even if the course decently hilly.
    I have friends that have done the same distance exactly in 12 hour TT’s and they are on standard road bikes. No special TT gear on courses with decent hills.

    This is just an enquiry into your training, and i really dont wish to come across as if i am slating your effort here, its still an amazing achievement however you cant tell me you train 30 hours a week and only manage that distance.

    Hope all goes well for cho oyu and any future bike rides, coming from a cyclist through and through and really hope you do this challenge again.

    sincerely, The prophet Allah in the east

    Reply
    • Alex Staniforth says

      August 2, 2016 at 12:35 pm

      Hi Lewis Donovan.

      You obviously haven’t heard of an IP address over in the East of Merthyr Tydfil. Actually I’m pretty sure that’s south Wales!

      Perhaps if you put the same effort into your own training you would see some good improvements. You know, actions speak louder than words…

      I won’t be offended if you stop commenting 🙂

      Alex

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The mountains are calling, and I must Cho… – Adversity Adventurer says:
    August 28, 2016 at 7:52 pm

    […] running, Forrest Gumping, interval training, mountain walking, cycling, strength training and 24-hour time-trialling is done. I can’t forget that however strong I may feel down at sea level, there will be some days […]

    Reply

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Back where it all began. Running with my old man! Back where it all began. Running with my old man!

Last March I got my Parkrun PB at Keswick and this weekend got my slowest at Fell Foot.

The plan was to keep my heart rate under 145bpm to avoid another crash of fatigue, which meant walking most of the hills. It took the discipline of Yoda not to set off chasing people like the good old days, especially when my dad overtook me in the first km. 

I hated exercise as a kid. On holiday in France my stepmum bribed me with €2 to run a mile with him. That was a lot of money back then... I hated every minute but dad inspired me to enter a 10km race for charity, and the rest is history. Dad came to watch every race since, as I happily claimed the family record at every distance from 5km to marathon, whilst he retired to become a Parkrun tourist. 

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Much-needed adventure inspiration from @mrmarkbeau Much-needed adventure inspiration from @mrmarkbeaumont on his Faster tour at Rheged last weekend. 

Mark is the fastest person to cycle around the world in 80 days (that's 240 miles a day... for perspective) amongst many other records. He's been a huge personal inspiration and kindly endorsed my 2nd book.

So much resonated, but a few favourite takeaways: 

- Trust the process, the bigger picture will always take care of itself. 

- Remove the faff. His team had to ensure he was on the bike by 4am, not 4:05am. That would have added an entire day to his record.

- Mark had 40 people working on his world record. He knew that if he failed, the whole team failed. 

- Good times won't last forever, but that means the bad ones won't either... 

Thanks Mark. Grab his books, talks and films if you're needing some adventure inspiration! 

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214/214 Wainwrights complete! Somehow it's taken 214/214 Wainwrights complete! 

Somehow it's taken 12 years, 8 months and 25 days since my first summit, Souther Fell, aged 14 (swipe for evidence). For those who don't know, the Wainwrights are a list of 214 summits created by legendary writer Alfred Wainwright. There was no better hill to finish than the aptly named 'Great Cockup', with a great crowd of friends.

The record is 5 days 12 hrs 14 mins... If only we hadn't stopped for a sandwich 😂 

Meanwhile @thehodfather666 is currently climbing all 214 with a 4 stone hod of house bricks, to raise money for @mindomountains.

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A big welcome to the first CEO of @mindomountains, A big welcome to the first CEO of @mindomountains, Ian Sansbury! 

When Chris and I founded the charity in 2020 we never imagined how big it would become. From the flagship event with @adventureuncovered to delivering 27 events last year, supporting 300+ people with their mental health, including the NHS, Police and Ambulance Service.

Leadership is about creating a vision, and building a great team to achieve it - like our wonderful trustees, team and 50+ freelance staff who continually go above and beyond. 

It’s also knowing your strengths and weaknesses, when ironically it's compromised my own mental health sometimes too. As the charity grows I'm not the right person to take it where it needs to be, so it can reach everyone who needs our help.

Feeling like a proud parent sending their kids off to start school, with less crying, but I'm super excited to see the charity grow and support even more people with Ian’s expertise. 

I’ll remain heavily involved as a trustee (and Chief Interference Officer) to support the team, tell the story and raise money through daft adventures… 

Thanks to everyone who's been part of the first chapter. Onwards!

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