Endless Perfect Circles: Lessons from the little-known world of ultradistance cycling

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From the back cover:

A professional psychologist spent his entire life believing he had no ability or interest in sport. Then, in his forties, he became a champion ultradistance athlete before breaking the world record for the fastest bicycle crossing of Europe. This journey - made entirely alone and without any support crew - went from the northernmost point in the Arctic down to the very southernmost point in Spain. Averaging 377 kilometres each day and with up to 18 hours in the saddle at a time, the total distance of 6367 km was covered in well under 17 days, knocking well over two days off the previous record. It was a journey of ultimate self-reliance. Endless Perfect Circles is not just a tale of sleep deprivation and eating terrible food in supermarket car parks, it is also a celebration of how tough sporting challenges offer ordinary people a path to self-improvement. Weaving his own experiences together with psychological insights, Ian Walker demonstrates the rewards we can all find from setting ourselves difficult personal goals and working out how we will rise to meet these. "When I ride, my mind is both crowded and empty. The practical part of me churns, thinking all the time about navigation, shops, food, weather and lodging, seeking information about those raw essentials of life and planning dozens of contingencies. But when I look back on any given ride, even one lasting many days, I would struggle to tell you a single thought that passed through my head, because the rest of my mind has been liberated. All of life's needs have been simplified by the pure act of riding."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Format Paperback | 228 pages

Dimensions 139.95 x 215.9 x 12.19mm | 272.16g

Publication date 27 Jul 2020

Publisher Independent Publishing Network

Publication City/Country United Kingdom

Language English

ISBN10 1838535551

ISBN13 9781838535551

A thoroughly engrossing read with plenty of advice as well as the tales from the road.

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Nothing. Maybe a future edition will include some photographs.

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The book is subtitled "Lessons from the little-known world of ultradistance cycling" and Ian Walker shares generously what he has learned on the way from sofa-surfer to elite athlete. The "lessons" don't turn to didacticism and the main focus of the book is the accounts of the rides themselves which are done due justice by Ian's prose.