Congratulations to Larry Oslund – who set the HWMR (drafting allowed) record in these categories: Male 60-69, Recumbent. This attempt was also ridden without any crew or help at all.
Nov 20-26, 2025 – WUCA HWMR record attempt – Larry Oslund
Why am I doing this crazy 7-day record attempt? Multiple reasons besides just being nuts: (1) I had never tried it before and wanted to see what it was like. (2) With the year winding down I still needed to complete an event over 1500 Km (932 miles) to get points in the WUCA World Cup Challenge. (3) – I also wanted to hit the 24,901 miles required to get the “Around the World” Award in the WUCA Year Rounder Challenge. Since there were not any other events of this distance my only option was to do a record attempt. I also chose the HWMR (High Weekly Mileage Record) because it is monitored remotely with a tracker and does not require a crew to follow you. The current record is held by Alan Johnson at 1021 miles, so I also figured I could do it as a slight modification to my normal life, and still keep working and keeping up with my other daily responsibilities. Not that it would be easy, but perhaps doable.
I also decided to try something a little different than most other HWMR attempts: Primarily because I still had to: work my 3 part-time jobs, keep up my responsibilities at home, and I also could not dedicate every waking hour to the attempt (as some do). Since the record required 1022 miles to break it, I was going to try and break it by riding the minimum number of hours – which is 48: at my “single day 12-hr TT pace. To hit 1052 miles in 48 hours, this means I would need to average 21.9 mph. This was unknown territory for me. I know I can average 22mph for a 12-hr TT on a good day, but to do it for 48 hrs in 7 days – I was not sure.
So, that’s my story and I am sticking to it. 🙂
I rode my Cruzbike Magic and the V20C recumbent bikes, so I am in the recumbent category.
The weather in Hilton Head is usually still pretty nice in mid Nov and I was not disappointed. It was usually 65-70 in the day and only down to 50’s at night. However there was significant fog 2 of the mornings due to the high humidity and dew point. Those 2 days I rode in dense fog for 4-5 hours
I decided to try and ride mostly in my subdivision on a 1.1 mile loop (it is only 1 mile away from my house) so I could be close to home if I had a mechanical issue. I ride this loop a lot to test on so am familiar with it. It is quite technical however, but it is also not boring because it has 11 turns, and one sharp left turn, and 21 sewer covers (that are at least 1” lower than pavement). These are the kind that you pray don’t flat you when you run over them at 22+mph. There are also 2 golf cart crossings and 3 pedestrian crossings where you have to keep your eyes peeled for people on bikes or golf carts shooting into the road without notice.
I decided to try and start around 4am in the morning to have some peaceful time on the loop as it does see a lot of traffic once it gets light out. Sunrise was about 7am, so that would give me 3 hours of night riding each day if I managed to get up early enough every day.
I planned to start on Thursday, Nov 20 and my plan was to try and ride 10 hours for the first 3 days, take Sunday off, and then have Mon, Tues & Wed to get the rest of the required time and or distance.
Thur, Nov 20, Day 1: I woke up at 3:20 and it took me 40 minutes to finally get started. It was amazing how the time flew by. I started right at 4:00 am andI rode my 1.1 mile loop for 5 straight hours and headed home. I had a nice breakfast and rested a little bit and did a few chores. Then I decided to head over to the only other part of the Island that I sometimes ride on because it has a 5 mile stretch with no stops. I must do a U-turn on one end and go through a traffic circle on the other. It is an out-n-back, but that gives me about 10.8 miles each loop. It is not ideal but still the best road on the island for non-stop riding. I rode this route for about 3 ½ hours, but it was pretty busy with traffic and I felt safer on the small loop near my home.
So I drove back home – and rode the rest of the 10 hours mostly on my 1.1 Mile loop.
I finished the first day 222.41 miles in 10:07:42 on about 2W/kg effort – a solid mid-range zone2 effort for me. It was a little after 5pm, so by the time I got everything put away and a shower it was time for supper with Gayle and my parents (who are staying with us for the winter).
Fri, Nov 21, Day 2: I slept well and got started even earlier at 3:08am. I was surprised that I was able to ride pretty much at the same power level this second day, however I did battle 5 hours of pretty heavy fog early on. I had to ride without my glasses and a visor just to barely see. If it had been much thicker I would have had to quit.. I took a break after 5 hours, and another really long one to do some stuff around the house after another 3 hours. Then I finished up a little after 5pm again with 223.30 miles in 10:20:01 – I cleaned up for the day by about 6pm again.
Sat, Nov 22, Day 3: Started at 3:58am this morning. Again – still felt pretty good and was able to ride pretty comfortably at near 2 W/Kg. I rode 5 hours, took a break, then 2 hours, a long lunch break and then 3 hours (with about 90 minutes of pretty heavy rain) to end at about 4:20pm with 225.42 miles in 10:15:00.
Sun, Nov 25 – Day 4: I felt OK to take Sunday off since I was already 6+ hours ahead of schedule and had ridden a total 671 of the 1052 miles needed to break the record. That meant I only needed 381 miles during Mon, Tues and Wed.
Mon, Nov 24 – Day 5 – I woke up really early today, probably because of the rest day. I started riding at 2:30am. It was very foggy – almost too foggy to ride but I toughed it out and was careful. At about 5:30 I rode home for a nature break and about 1 mile after I re-started: my new Garmin 840 lost the satellite connection. All of a sudden I was not clicking off any distance. I kept riding a couple miles to see if it would correct. It did not. I restarted it a couple times while riding, still nothing. I rode back home, grabbed my old Garmin 1000. I restarted the 840, turned on the 1000 and also started Strava on my phone and went back out. I lost about 30 min riding time during this whole process. The GPS on the 840 started to work again, but the Live Track did not because the Garmin 1000 connected to my phone first and did not have live track setup. What a pain. I had to stop around 7am as I have a discipleship class at church every Mon so I had to get home, shower and get to church by 7:30. I was back home about 9:30, made and ate breakfast and did a few other things and started again about 10:30am. I rode about 2 hours and then went home for lunch and to do a few things. I started back again around 12:30 and rode until about 5:30pm. I covered about 200 miles in 9 hours. I lost about 4 miles earlier when the Garmin lost the GPS signal early in the morning. Now I had a total of 871 miles so about 200 left to ride in 2 days. I had decided to ride about 100 miles each of the final 2 days and to use the extra time to catch up on all my WUCA Records work that had started to pile up.
Tues, Nov 25 – Day 6 – I got up about 6am and it looked like it might rain so I stayed in and rode on Zwift for 2 hours and worked on my WUCA duties. At 8 am I started riding and rode for about 2.25 hours – and wouldn’t you know it – it started raining on me after only 15 minutes. It rained steadily for about 2 hours and I finally came in at about 10:30 – took a warm shower, had lunch and did some other stuff around the house and started again at about 2pm for another 3 hours. I covered about 100 miles today in under 5 hours. Only 100 miles left for my goal.
Wed, Nov 26 – Day 7 – My last day. -I got up at 3:30 am, started riding on Zwift for about 90 mins and worked since it was really wet outside . I started riding outside around 5:30am so my riding in the dark would be limited due to the wetness from the rain the night before, so I took it a little easy since there were lots of leaves on it. I came in at 8:30am, and had breakfast and hopped back on Zwift to get some work done for another 90 mins. Then I had lunch and did some stuff around the house and finally got going around 2:30pm. I rode for about 90 mins and then went to visit a friend from church that used to cycle, but he is sadly stuck at home most of the time – on oxygen. We visited for about an hour and then I rode home to finish off my effort that day. I did 108 miles in just a little over 5 hours. It was finally over!
Other stuff:
People asked me how I could not be bored riding that much, especially around a 1.1 mile circle. The circle has 21 Sewer covers to dodge, 11 turns, and one that is a sharp 90 degree one – so it is quite technical which means paying pretty close attention. I listened to worship music most of the time, and also prayed, and listened to my weekly memory verses for my discipleship class. But 90% of the time I just worshiped. So in a way it was very peaceful – I mostly just worshiped and pedaled for about 50 hours.
Power and nutrition:
I rode zone 2 (2.0 W/Kg for me) the whole time and my HR average was just under 120 for the entire time. This is pretty much how I ride on Zwift every day.while I am working. Prior to this attempt I normally rode about 30-40 hours a week at this level on Zwift while working – and I usually do not need any nutrition. So, during my attempt I usually only drank 1 30 oz bottle of fuel for each 100 miles. I alternated between my favorite iced coffee mixture (Honduran coffee, choc/carmel creamer, lots of sugar, and choc syrup – It is really more like coffee flavored chocolate milk without all the lactose – I never tire of it and it goes down so smooth!), and Formula 369 and Gatorade. When riding at night I barely would drink anything – even for 100 miles. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to ride at this power level day after day. It was nice and probably helped a little that I was able to take breaks whenever I wanted.I also just ate normal meals for breakfast, lunch and supper at the normal time with the family..
Wildlife:
I had a few deer sightings when it was foggy. Once a young buck was just standing in the road and refused to move. I ended up having to move over in the lane and just rode right by him at about 20 mph – he did not even flinch. On 2 other occasions a large buck bounded across the road about a car length in front of me. That made my heart skip a beat both times!
Besides an occasional possum and squire trying to run between my wheels, I had a large bird swoop down right above me and flew right in front of me for about 50 yards or so. That was pretty awesome!
Double VIsion:
Any of you who know me know I have been fighting double vision for many years. It is not just when riding, but it does get worse when I am fatigued. It also is worse at night. I recently went to a specialist and he said I had LES (Lazy Eye Syndrome) – First time anyone called me “Lazy”! Haha. But seriously, for my cycling I have had to ride with one eye closed all these years and it was not only physically draining – but mentally draining as well. I tried prisms in my glasses to no avail. Then my wife, who is always full of wisdom, said: “Why don’t you wear an eye patch – then you will not have to physically hold your eye shut.”
There you go – problem solved!! I rode the whole time like this and it solved the problem! And when I had my visor on (which was most of the time)- I did not look as freaky as when it was off.
Of course we all love stats and I am no different – so here are a few I picked to share:
My HWMR by the numbers:
1079.39 Miles in 49.57 Hr = 21.78mph
My weight 140 lbs = 63.5 Kg
Avg-pwr for entire attempt = 121 W = 1.9 W/Kg
Avg HR = 120 bpm
Total Heart beats = 356,782
Avg Cad = 76
Total pedal strokes: 227,272
Dist:
Total miles = 1,079.39
Total Km = 1,737.11
Total yards = 1,899,726
Total meters = 1,737,106
Total inches = 68,390,150
Total mm = 1,737,105,503 (hard to believe some people have more $ than this!)
Time:
Total Hours = 49.57
Total Mins = 2974.12
Total Secs = 178,447
Misc stats:
Mins of riding in darkness: 690
Mins of riding in rain = 285
Mins of riding in fog = 570
TImes around 1.1 mile loop = 980
Sewer covers dodged = 20,606
Sewer covers hit = 30
Reflective soaps dodged – 137,376
Reflective soaps hit- 100
Bad drivers encountered = 100
Idiotic drivers encountered = 11
Miles on Zwift during attempt = 97 (5h;10m = 310 mins)
Flat tires: 0 – (yeah)
Thanks to WUCA Records team members: John Looby, and Jim Parker for being my officials and watching my live track, my wife Gayle, and my parents for putting up with me during this week, all my cycling friends for their constant encouragement – and of course my Lord Jesus for rescuing my life.