Matthew
Lefthand

Highest Weekly Mileage Record (HWMR) is 7 full days to ride as many miles as you can. Earlier this month (April 2026), Alex McCormack set a new upright record of 2,377.65 miles. He rode on average 18.5 hours a day and achieved an amazing outcome.

Training for ultras has taught me a lot and with races like RAAM in my future plans, I thought to myself "I could do that, but more rest or go further."

Less than a week before we left, our other plans cancelled and we decided to take on this crazy challenge. Read that again. There were no months of planning or a big team. My wife and I said let's do it and threw everything together in one week's time.

The plan fell to pieces after we started, as the weather turned to absolute chaos at the end of our week. After calling it quits on day 3 after 1,080 miles already accrued, we got on the phone the next morning with Maria Parker. Maria, a RAAM finisher and winner, is also the co-owner of Cruzbike. She said get on the bike and ride, we will figure out more support.

The real issue with the weather was that we needed to move and my wife was my only support because we were supposed to be stationary — same start and end each day.

So, I got back on the bike for day 4 and we made a plan during my riding to move with the weather. This included John and Laura Crawford coming to our rescue. They would bring another vehicle and more drivers to the team.

We had to get out of the high wind country in the mountains. This meant fleeing to Kansas which had its own strong wind but less than the high mountains.

After 4 days in the high mountains the crew chased me up, down, and then up Kansas again. We went like this:

Fun fact: because KS has a weird time-zone situation on the west end, we went in and out of Central and Mountain time a few times a day. Our phones and brains felt extra fuzzy.

It was chaos while Jim and Maria Parker coordinated our routes for the day. We could not fight the wind in small loops or out-and-back — it was too strong. We had to use it when we could. This meant WAY more climbing than you should do on a week like this and WAY rougher roads at times. The Parkers did amazing. With the logistical nightmare we threw in their laps, they brought it home classy.

It still meant some really hard days for me. It was hotter than anticipated. It was rougher roads for many miles. It was a busy highway. It was not ideal.

On Thursday we were almost in a tornado. I am not kidding. Tornados actually spawned to the east of us, we later learned.

I was riding south and turned north because the winds changed. As we traveled north, I saw a huge dust storm in the distance. All of a sudden our phones get dust storm warnings — shelter in place — about 30–40 miles north of us.

My follower John and I decided to turn around. Sure enough the wind changed and we were cruising south again. Next thing I knew I saw the dust storm beside us in the distance. Where did that come from?

My wife calls me. She says "STOP NOW AND GET IN THE CAR." I don't ask questions. I knew it was coming.

As soon as I stopped it hit. The bike tries to take flight. I'm holding on thinking "if it flies off we are done," but I also wasn't sure I could hold on.

John gets to me and helps me to the side of the van. I wrestle a tumbleweed out of the back spokes — I'm pretty sure that tumbleweed is in Texas now from mid Kansas — and then we fight the van doors together. By the time we were in the van it looked hellacious outside.

Lost an hour of move time waiting out the storm, although I did get a little nap.

Success isn't about the smooth days. It's about the days that go wrong and you still find a way through. Everyone can do well when things are good, but the real winners find out how to make a hard day work.

Hard moments don't define your life. Yesterday I spent 4 hours on the roughest roads I have ever ridden on. During it I wanted to quit so bad. It's gone, it's over and now I feel amazing about the whole thing.

Find a way to do the hard things, to embrace the suck and find success on the other side. As for me and my team — we are just getting started!