What it takes to experience 280 km a day indoors: Rupert Guinness on his VRAAM

Late this past Sunday night, cycling reporter( and friend of CyclingTips) Rupert Guinness stepped off his bike in a Sydney car showroom and called an end to one incredible ride. He’d really spent the past 12 eras going on a stationary tutor as one of the purposes of the Virtual Race Across America( VRAAM ), the on-line version of the acclaimed ultra-endurance race that, like so many other events, was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-1 9.

In those 12 eras, the 58 -year-old had travelled 3,358.68 virtual kilometres — an average of 280 km a daylight, on the indoor manager — netting him eighth neighbourhood in the event. A couple of days after finishing the move, Guinness took the time to chat to CyclingTips about the experience and how it facilitated him prepare for a tilt at the “real” RAAM, in 2021.

CyclingTips: Congratulations on an frightening move! How are you pulled up?

Rupert Guinness: Look, I’m feeling pretty good, actually. I’m clearly tired. To be honest, I’m really tired[ but] I’m very happy with how things panned out. But I think this one certainly dipped into the threshold bucket, employed it that way. I feel more fatigued today than I did yesterday. There’s a few little niggles here and there, but nothing long-term or irreparable.

How did this whole thing come about? You were supposed to be doing the RAAM, right?

That’s right. I mean, we were preparing for RAAM and even when COVID rose its heading and when RAAM looked like it would attach the roster of sports events being canceled, I still continued preparing for RAAM because I fantasized I’d wait until the final word that it was canceled. I would have hated to have gone over[ to the USA] and then sorrowed not having training of it properly.

So I continued improving. And then when it was canceled it was put to me by my mate Anthony Gordon, after he had privately consulted with a couple of the other support crew — I didn’t know he had –‘ What about doing it virtually ?’ I tittered at the idea and envisioned’ you’re kidding ‘. But over got a couple of climbs I supposed’ well hold on, what if we did ?’

I guess Anthony had this see in his sentiment of creating an event; one, to provide me with a trip to do to sign off on all the preparation I’ve done and in preparation for next year’s RAAM, and; two, to try and do something which makes some positivity during somewhat challenging eras for everybody. So I envisaged’ Yeah, why not- let’s do this. What else am I going to do ?’

Anthony worked on getting collaborators on board to create their expertise in and to get the event going. And then the RAAM organisation itself yielded its thumbs up to the idea as well. That was kind of important because they didn’t have an event so this at least continued some momentum of interest in RAAM and it also threw their gathering a chance to be involved in something that didn’t exist when they cancelled it.

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For the last 9 hours Australia slept. Not me though. I’ve hold the legs revolving, attacking over 180 km on my opening ranged. @vraammentalmiles HQ at @mercedesbenzgbrothers is the place to be. Come on down to say hello or dot-watch via the ???? connection in my bio ???? ???? by @t_m_peters ???? to the two partners: @sbs_australia @trekbikesau @revolve24aus @mercedesbenzgbrothers @kentwilliams_entoure @zoomsoundlab @suunto @bikeexchangeau @markobaloh @wagnerroofing @terranosystems @albioncycles @rudyprojectaus @crossingthelinesport @sramroad @kodanutrition @prism. motorcycle @letsgomotorhomes #vraam #vraw #the60 #raam #raceacrossamerica #ultracycling #mentalhealth #mentalmiles

A post shared by Rupert Guinness (@ rupert.guinness) on Jun 16, 2020 at 5:00 pm PDT

It looked like you had a pretty great setup there in the car dealership?

Yeah, it’s called G Brothers’ Mercedes in Mona Vale in the north beaches area[ of Sydney ]. So they offered a zone of the showroom for us to use which had a kitchen area and a lavatory expanse and also an outdoor parking area. So that was huge, to have the facility there to do it from.

Mind you, everything “were having” organised was basically pondering of the preparation that we had for RAAM. So it wasn’t just like it happened overnight — the whole operation was nine months of employ and coming all those people and arrangements in place. So it wasn’t just an off-the-cuff’ hey let’s just go and do this and grab parties to come along’- it took a good deal of term putting that crew together, articulated it that way.

And you had a campervan in the car park?

Yeah, the campervan was behind me where you identified me going; it was just behind me. And the relevant recommendations of doing that was we wanted to create a sort of a RAAM setup so it looked like we were at RAAM. So the subscribe vehicle was there and we had another assistance vehicle nearby.

I’d have some of my sleeps in the motor home. And interesting thing like get used to the motor home and how you organise yourself to use the shower inside — they’re all detailed level things but I was much better at being ready and showering and changing at the end than I was at the beginning. It exactly get you more au fait with the environment of what we’ll have in RAAM next year.

A Sydney man is competing in one of cycling’s most grueling contests and all he needed was a Wifi connection. @DaltsWorld #9News pic.twitter.com/ sJpm3ZqHkW

— Nine News Sydney (@ 9NewsSyd) June 21, 2020

What would an average era look like for you? How many hours were you spending on the motorcycle?

Roughly it was 18 to 20 hours per day. We started off on a 20 -hour program then this kind of went from 20 to 18 ordu. I contemplate the key point was to find the ideal sleeping pattern, and the same with nutrition and hydration; to find the liberty patterns that worked best for me.

So from the sleeping patterns, I picture I tried a couple of four-hour blocks which were a little bit long for me early because I’d encounter I’d be restless and only waste time. The best one for several days was anything from midnight to one o’clock in the morning, I’d start a three-hour block in which I’d probably sleep two and half hours. That would also include my shower.

I’d try and eat before I get off the motorcycle — so I would have started grasping my nutrient — and then get off the bike, go into the motorhome, strip off, have a shower and set my fresh bake pack on that I would razz for the next shifting and then go to bed in my pack, and get up after two and a half hours or so and then exactly try and ride till sunup. I’d be picking apart at nutrient and sips that the endorsement crew would bring me and then generally around 10:30 -ish I’d have my first stop for massage.

So I had that three-hour block in the night to sleep. I also permitted myself anything from two to three hours during the day. I may stop for half an hour on the rub counter, and sleep at the same time. I may have a 10 -minute power nap on a mattress, which was near where my bicycle was. On some epoches, I earmarked myself to have a one-hour sleep in the afternoon at three or four o’clock before the evening shift started.

And this helped break the day down too, rather than thinking of the whole long longevity of it all. So it did vary along the way, depending how I felt as well.

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I’m 1,134 kms into @vraammentalmiles. We’ve had certain technical predicaments overnight and every day presents a new challenge. Today I’ll need to complete more than an Everest. VRAAM certainly presents some jolts in the road ….! Check the leaderboard and dot-watch via the ???? join in my bio ???? ???? by @t_m_peters ???? to our partners: @sbs_australia @trekbikesau @revolve24aus @mercedesbenzgbrothers @kentwilliams_entoure @zoomsoundlab @suunto @bikeexchangeau @markobaloh @wagnerroofing @terranosystems @albioncycles @rudyprojectaus @crossingthelinesport @sramroad @kodanutrition @prism. bike @letsgomotorhomes #vraam #vraw #the60 #raam #raceacrossamerica #ultracycling #mentalhealth #mentalmiles

A post shared by Rupert Guinness (@ rupert.guinness) on Jun 19, 2020 at 5:21 pm PDT

The ride took place on the FulGaz programme. How did that work? Were there specific moves you had to do? Or could you really elect whatever razzes you wanted to make up the interval?

The goes would come up[ on the app] from one to 214, and they’re in a established sequence that you have to follow. So that method you’ve got the appearance of a trend that’s narrating before you.

Each time you are able to terminated a travel you’d have to upload the travel as you do with Strava and it would go onto FulGaz where all the data, including the kilometres, would be put onto your appoint and then your accrued kilometres would just add up. And then you’d go back to the menu and the next ride would always have a dark-green marker around it. So you knew where you had to go back to. So you’d simply press’ start’ and do it again.

I remember at the beginning thinking’ Gee, at one point this will be the last one I have to press start on. I’m looking forward to that time .’ And you time chip away at it and before you know it you’re into the 20 s, 50 s and 100 s and then getting to the high-pitched thousands of[ by then] you’re getting to the end.

You intent up reporting around 3,300 km. How did that compare to what you were expecting?

Obviously when I started I thought it’d be great to do 4,500 km[ ed. the duration of RAAM] and then in the end I did 3,358.68 km. I belief after the first 5 or six daytimes I started to think’ This is a lot harder than what I pictured .’ Then we heard, general consensus, that the course was harder than what they had estimated. And you could see that’ Hold on, there’s a possibility that no one’s going to finish the 4,500.’

At the start they said everybody who finishes 4,500 km will automatically qualify for the RAAM. It was forecasted the course was 30% harder than real RAAM because there was 20,000 metres more descending in VRAAM than there was in RAAM. And there was very little descending because a great deal of those individual rides were like straight up a mountain and then you finish the move at the top and you go to the next one and it’s another elevation. So it was like a number of mountain time tribulations.