10 Fred Whittons in 10 Days

Having just done one fred whitton in one day, and finished in pieces, i can only say chapeau and wish you all the best, leon! you're clearly insane.

by the way, what kind of finishing time are you aiming for each day? just people will have an idea if they'll be able to keep up...

Cheers Dave,
I rode the Lakeland Loop at 8-hour pace for the Fred - and seeing as THAT was 40 miles shorter and about 1000m less climbing - for the first couple of days I'm going to be aiming for more like 9-9½ hours.

A lot depends on the weather, of course!!

Come on, one of the days, you have to bury yourself and beat the 8.34 hours that dave did at the weekend

If all goes well, and my experience of other multi-day endurance events are anything to go by, I'll be looking at a quick one later on!
It'll be interesting to see what time I can churn out at some point!
Hmmmm 8:34, eh..?

or you could aim for the 6:05 the first man home managed

LOL - I think not!!

Was his name Mr T Boonen, lol

Thats going at some lick for the course

Its interesting viewing the times http://www.fredwhittonchallenge.org.uk/Results.php

3rd and 4th home managed to lose 2 mins on every check point, kept a steady pace and the you look down a few the people who went out a little bit quick and suffered at the end

Then you scroll right down and see 4 guys who only made the 1st check point as those up top were finishing

I dont suppose you know how many non finishers there were Dave?

8:34 is respectable mid table, it seems - better than the mediocre two-thirds down the field i usually manage

there were 89 DNFs according to Saddleback: 1223 started, 1134 finished

It seems that word is getting round, and I now have a couple more people interested in coming along for the ride.
This is Most Excellent!

OK - 2 done, 8 to go
Day 1 was ridden with a friend and took 10:29
LOVED the ride, and especially the climbs

Today I was pretty much alone apart from the Keswick-Borrowdale-top of Honister section where a local rider joined me.

I'm using a phone basd GPS tracking (which has a few blackspots, it being the Lakes) if anyone fancies following my progress.

I'll put it in the next post!

The tracker thingy for my 10 Freds.

http://www.greenalp.com/RealTimeTracker/index.php?guestmode=1&viewuser=m...

Nice work, are you doing the same route each day? or are you going one way and then back the reverse the next?

Cheers
I'm doing it the same way each day, The SportIdent timing system is set up that way, and I want a record other than my Garmin one of the 10 days

Oh i see, i didn't realise you were using the sportident timing aswell

Is it set up all year or just because the Whitton has just taken place and they left it for your timing?

Nice day for it today!

It's there all year - you can get the timing card off Paul, the guy who organises the FW

Dave - it was pretty harsh today!!!

I've written a long report about my adventure today on my 10FW-in-10 blogspot site
I stopped short of calling the MRT on Wrynose...... just

Number 4 done and dusted and a LOT of words on my blogspot blog for anyone interest (Link is at the top)

Half way through this now!

It was a decent day in the Lakes and I had company - both of which are very helpful

Glad to hear it's going well Mr_el_Bee and thanks for keeping us in the loop as it were

Enjoying the tale - how much / what are you eating en route and outside of the ride?

Cheers
I'm getting most of my calories from my drinks - and using them as a kind of rolling recovery regime as well, as some have a protein element to them.
And to keep my stomach happy, I'm giving it flapjack, Nakd bars and cake!
Oh and tea at Cyclewise Bike shop at Whinlatter
Off the bike, it's a 500ml Carbo Loader drink in the morning and 4 weetabix,
And a large evening meal - about 1½ times my normal portion size

Day 6 complete
And despite the legs feeling like Soggy Spaghetti, I posted my quickest time so far
8:45

OK - not quick - but I'm really pleased with that

you're homing in on my 'benchmark' time

I'll be happy to *complete* all 10!! :)

Does the route take you past the bakery in Gosforth - Gill Unsworth's I think it's called? It's in a house just opposite the car park - worth stopping there for a pie… or two.

Right, one important question that has not been asked, what saddle are you riding on?

Cause i know my behind would be rather sore after over 1000 miles in 10 days unless i had a comfy one and plenty of butt'r

Our intrepid Leon's position doesn't appear to have moved for some time. Whinlatter Pass, just before the Hope Memorial. What's it like around there? Looking at the satellite view it looks kind of isolated.

Is that near the ice cream van?

Would that be the same one you 'went missing' behind recently

My apologies for the loss of StalkerTracker today - I left my phone at Cyclewise.
I may be killed fatally to death for worrying the wife on that one!
Today was a 8:54 - I'm having to 'manage' a slightly painful and swollen knee now.
Wasn't too bad today, it behaved until about 90 miles!!

And my saddle is a Selle Italia Flite Gel Flow....

Is there anyone out there....????

Day 9 - Tough day!! Really windy and I was riding in to it for long sections, and the bike needed some work from the guys at Cyclewise - and they stopped it making the Click Of Doom!
So I was stopped there for 45 minutes
8:55 for the day though - pretty pleased with that!

yeah, we're still out here! got a bit preoccupied with the giro the last two days

two solid times and only one more to do! a big chapeau! is waiting for this time tomorrow...

Leave it all on the last climb and destroy Dave's time

Last one Leon. Great achievement already. Good luck for today

Dave, your time is intact.
A puncture just after Whinlatter saw to that.
Today was incredible. The worst weather all week to start with and wind - OMG the wind!
And I had company from the Honister 92 guys to the end.

8:45 for today which I was pleased with! Body is glad that I'll not be riding again tomorrow though!!

Long blog will be written shortly....

Fantastic achievement Leon! Chapeau!

Brilliant news! Congratulations. How's your arse this morning?

I think he must still be in bed...

I'm pleased to report that my 'seat' is fine!
Completely fine in fact!!

And thank you for the incredibly generous donation

Anyone out there think that my efforts are worth a few quid for Macmillan?

1 in 3 (Oh - the same ratio as Hardknott) of us will be effected by Cancer at some point in our lives, and may well NEED these people to support us!

Cheers guys!

Hello again

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been following my little adventure and to those who rode with me and sent me messages!

OK, The nice folk at Onixbikes have donated one of their Onix BC1 Carbon Bottle Cages (RRP £34.99) for my exploits on the Fred Whitton.

It's very nice and I think it would would look fantastic on my bike - but the whole point was to raise as much money as possible for Macmillan.

So If someone would like to make a decent offer for it as a donation to Macmillan, I'll part with it.

If no-one wants it, I'll be making a generous donation myself, and keeping it

update:

I have an offer of a £40 donation for the Onix BC1 Carbon Bottle Holder

I'll leave it open for folk until some time next week

update:

I now have an offer of a £45 donation for the Onix BC1 Carbon Bottle Holder

I can't get over just how generous people can be!!

Nice work people with your offers, unfortunately i'm not in a position to offer for it, skint n got a couple of charity rides later in the year, so need to get things for them

But i could possible give you an offer for your legs to have them transplanted, lol, Well done on your 10 Fred's

I don't think you'd want them now!! They are still recovering!!
And they are reminding me just how hard they worked. Seemed like such a good idea at the time