UltraRob's Adventures

The article I found on Saturday had that John "Blue Dog" Jurczynski and Mike "Mad Dog" Gallagher had ridden 112 hours. John replied to my post on the ultracycling list to let me know it was actually 113 hours.

I had said I could imagine doing the Race Across America but I couldn't imagine spending 4.5 days spinning in one spot. John replied spinning 113 hours was much easier than doing RAAM. He said, "It is like a slumber party on wheels."

Some more articles

• 5 Questions Before a 111 Hour bike Ride
• Cyclists Trying to Set Guinness Record for Charity
• Dream Has Them Spinning in Laconia
• Cyclists Pass Halfway Mark
• Bikers Pedal Toward World Record
• 112 Hours Later, Cyclists Set Record

Related Links: Spinning Again for a Guinness World Record | John Jurczynski's ride last year

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Labels: cycling, spinning record, ultra cycling

John "Blue Dog" Jurczynski and Mike "Mad Dog" Gallagher have set a new spinning record of 113 hours! Jurczynski said Thursday was a hard night for him but as they got close to the record he felt good. Near the end Gallagher said he felt like he could go for another 10 hours.

The Guinness rules allow a 5 minute break every hour and the time can be saved up for a few hours to give enough time for a nap. That makes for a total of 2 hours a day off the bike which means some serious sleep deprevation over 4 days.

They both deserve big congratulations on breaking a tough record. Although it was physically tough, it had to be even tougher mentally.

I always feel like I'm working much harder on a trainer than I do when I'm riding outside. I once did 5 hours on a trainer and even that was tough mentally. I've thought of riding for 24 hours at the local 24 Hour Fitness as a fundraiser to raise money to attempt the Race Across America again. Even that seems pretty brutal. There's an easier way for you to help me raise money to do RAAM again.

Update: The first article I found incorrectly had that John and Mike had ridden for 112 hours instead of 113 hours.

Related Links: The Citizen of Laconia article | Spinning Again for a Guinness World Record

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Labels: cycling, spinning record, ultra cycling

I haven't been able to find much this week on John "Blue Dog" Jurczynski and Mike "Mad Dog" Gallagher attempt to break the Guinness spinning record. I did find an article written on Tuesday from the local Laconia paper. According to that article, they were still trying to get enough people to satisfy Guinness' witness requirements.

They need to ride until 8:17 PM EST tonight to break the record. They have said they want to break it by a good margin but won't reveal by how much until the match the record. The Laconia Athletic & Swim Club have posted some pictures of Cycle Mania 2007 that show John and Mike riding. Hopefully they're still riding and will keep going for a little longer. Although I can see riding that much out on the road, I really don't think I could do it on a spin bike.

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Labels: cycling, spinning record, ultra cycling

Last January George Hood rode an indoor bike for 85 straight hours in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record. It seems that his record keeping wasn't good enough for it to be recognized by Guinness. He raised some money for an Illinois police group so it wasn't totally wasted effort.

The week after George's ride, John Jurczynski was planning to ride for 50 hours to raise money for the American Diabetes Association while he was training for the Race Across America. He decided to try going longer than 85 hours. He ended up doing 87 hours. Since he decided to go for the record at the last minute, John wasn't even sure what the rules were and figured it would be unofficial and it was.

In April Pete Masie and Wendy Gardiner both rode for 96 hours, 4 minutes and 8 seconds during training for RAAM as a 2 person team. I'm not sure if their ride was ever recognized by Guinness.

George Hood didn't let his defeat in January get him down and in July he rode for 111 hours, 11 minutes and 11 seconds. His goal was to ride long enough that the record would be his for a long time.

John "Blue Dog" Jurczynski finished RAAM solo last year and now he wants the Guinness World Record to be his officially. Along with Mike "Mad Dog" Gallagher, John started riding at 5 AM this morning at the Laconia Athletic & Swim Club as part of LASC's 5th annual Cycle Mania fund raiser for needy children in New Hampshire. There will be relay teams riding along with John and Mike. Check out John's website for more information and links to a couple promotional videos. Hopefully there will be some updates throughout the next few days.

Related Link: John Jurczynski's ride last year

Update: New record set at 113 hours!

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Labels: cycling, spinning record, ultra cycling

Last Saturday night George Hood finished riding an indoor bike for 85 hours straight to set a new Guinness World Record. Actually the elapsed time was a little longer because the rules allow for 5 minutes off the bike for every hour ridden. He was riding to raise money for Illinois COPS.

On Monday John Jurczynski started riding for a planned 50 hours to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. John is training for solo RAAM this year. In December he had done 50 hours to raise money for his local Children's Santa Fund. When he heard of the new record, he decided to see if he could break it. Soon after midnight this morning, he made it to over 87 hours with an elapsed time of 89 hours. That means that in over 3.5 days he was only off the bike for about 2 hours! Since he decided to go for the record at the last minute it may end up being unofficial because he wasn't sure what was required to get into the Guinness World Records Book. One thing that Biking Bis mentions is that the whole time has to be videotaped.

In 2004 while training for the Race Across Oregon, I did a training camp with the race directors and 2 others where we rode the 535 miles in 4 days. One of the other riders was Italian Alessandro Colo. Over New Years he had done a massive spinning session that was a little under 200 hours as I recall. Over New Years of 2005, he did another spinning session that was 201 hours and was reported by CyclingNews. Alessandro's English was rather broken so it was a little hard to carry on a conversation with him but I talked to him a fair amount over the 4 days. One of the nights we shared a room. As I recall he took some short naps during his record attempt in 2004. That would be possible with the rules if he saved up his 5 minutes per hour for several hours and then took them at one time. Biking Bis says Alessandro's record isn't in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records but I thought he was trying to get it in. He used to have some English pages on his website but now it seems to all be in Italian. Babel Fish didn't help me very much.

Update 12/15/07: John "Blue Dog" Jurczynski and Mike "Mad Dog" Gallagher have pushed the Guinness spinning record to 113 hours!

Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, spinning record