Category: 2016 Target

A few days working away and changeable weather predicted this week, so I wanted to get some miles on the board early.

Ride 1 – Around Bishop

I waited ’til after the school runs and set off for a ride through the villages around Bishop Auckland. Checking off the Etherleys, Toft Hill, Evenwood, West Auckland, South Church, North Bitchburn, and Bishop itself. It was cold and drab out, so I was glad of my Crudguards and lobster gloves.

Ride stats: 24.8 miles, 1,345 ft, 01h 48m 37s

Ride 2 – Around Bishop

The rear tyre was flat as I went to set off and it took a while to fix. I found I didn’t have a single new tube in the house, and one had been patched so often it looked like a string of sausages. I picked the best, fitted it and set off on a route that would give me the chance to buy some more.

Choosing an urban route at lunch time on a Saturday was a mistake, I needed only 15 miles to meet the week’s target but most of those were on roads filled with shopping traffic, so it was slow going. Back into Bishop, I stopped at the fabulous Inspiral Cycles for a couple of Continental tubes and decided to head out of town away from the traffic through the Etherleys, Toft Hill and Hamsterly to finish the ride.

Ride stats: 20.0 miles, 1,106 ft, 01h 36m 28s

Week three total: 44.8 miles, 2,451 ft, 03h 15m 05s

Three rides this week. All short, because it’s been wet and although the weather is considerably warmer than it should be in January, it still gets cold out there on a bike.

Ride 1 - MTB run in the Dale. 

I climbed 1775ft in 17.2 miles going back and to across Bedburn valley at Hamsterley. 1:52:08 in the saddle. It didn’t rain much during the ride, but  water flooding off the fields and over-flowing the ditches turned the roads into rivers.

 

Ride 2 – Road bike with new mudguards

My road bike has no fittings for mudguards, so I bought Crud mudguards for it. When I got them out of the box, I was far from convinced they were going to do the job, but I carried on and with a bit of fiddling and fettling, they were fitted. Out on the road in the rain and spray they were brilliant. Ride Stats: 20.1 miles and 1,137ft climbed in 01:31:55.

 

Ride 3 – A bit of Welsh countryside

Sunny morning in the upper Severn Valley, my plan was to cycle 47 miles from one friend’s house to another, but I’d developed a stinking head cold overnight and there’s little doubt that if I’d already met the week’s target I’d have decided to stay off the bike. But I needed 3 miles, and I wasn’t going to miss the target in week 1. 6 Miles from Llandinam to Llanidloes were OK and I started to feel as if I could ride through my cold.

 

I struggled with the next four miles to Llangurig in the upper Wye valley, barley making it up one of the hills, as the road climbed 650ft. The next section would have taken me over to Cwmystwyth. Another four-mile climb, this time 830ft that merited warning sign.

 

It wasn’t going to be any fun, so I bailed into the Blue Bell in for a coffee and waited to be picked up. Ride Stats: 11.1 miles, 1,343ft, 1:18:12

Week one total: 48.6 miles, 4,254ft, 4:42:15

 

On 02 January, inspired by Kajsa Tylen, I made my #SweatPledge for 2016: 3,000 miles, climbing 150,000ft, and 200 hours in the saddle. That’s what I did in 2015 doubled and rounded a bit. Simple.

My firsts two rides made only the slightest of dents in the target, so I’ve broken it down into weekly chunks to give me something achievable to aim for and a way of knowing that I’m on track.

I’ve given myself two weeks off to keep the sums simple. That would make the linear weekly target four hours on the bike each week, covering 60 miles and climbing 3,000ft. But that doesn’t take into account the limitations of poor weather and limited daylight at this time of year, so I’ve adjusted it to allow for that.

Weekly Target Jan-March & Oct-Dec 40miles/2,000ft

Weekly Target April-Sept 60miles/3,000ft

That will leave me with 720 miles and 36,000ft to find,which going on last year’s numbers would be about ten day rides.

Five days into the year and I’ve done 45 miles already. Only 98.5% of the target to go!

 

I’ve called this Week zero, because it’s the bit before the first full week of 2016. It’s been a wet few days and when it has’t been raining the roads have still been flooded and the trails a soggy mess.

I took New Year’s Day as a cheeky rest day and rode Saturday and Sunday covering 44.9km, climbing 571m, and in the saddle for 2hr 31m 35s

It’s my first progress post, but start as we mean to go on:

There’s still a lot to do. Really pleased I’ve made a start.

After last night’s post making my #sweatpledge, I thought I’d better get out on a bike today and at least get started. The roads around here are still flooded, so the I dusted off the old MTB to give it a run out. The MTB is a weighty old Halfords special, which has served me well for years. It must be more than twice as heavy as my road bike and on the climb out of the village I started to wonder if I hadn’t chosen the wrong bike.

Five miles in I was soaked up to the knees after cycling through flood, after flood. I stopped for a photo and noticed I wasn’t wearing my helmet on top of my skull cap – idiot.

11 miles with some cycle trails thrown in on the way back, just because I was on the MTB. It’s not much, but it’s a start – just 2,989 miles to go; I’ve got a whole year!