Three 30-minute rides each week of the year Challenge 2024

[bluenotebob]

Week 50: 13 rides over 30 mins; distance cycled 197.5km

Weeks 1 to 50: total distance cycled 12893km

This is now my best year in terms of annual distance cycled – I passed my previous best of 12,804km (in 2022) earlier this week and I’ve also just passed 8000 miles (12,876km).

I’ve still got a few more targets/challenges to aim for this month – so that’ll keep me going on my bike until New Year’s Eve.

No photos this week – it’s not been photo-friendly with seemingly endless murk, low cloud and mist. At least it’s been a bit less cold today – I’ve only just lit the fire (as opposed to lighting it at 7.30am and burning a few trees’ worth of logs every day).

 

[ColinJ]

I am just getting this done now! I don't enjoy riding in grotty weather conditions so I will be 'going virtual' later this winter and for the future. I will still do enough outdoors for the challenges but will opt for the turbo when that seems more fun and/or more productive for fitness gains.

I hope that once I get fitter I will start to enjoy longer (fair weather!) outdoor rides again. It would be nice to do a few imperial centuries a year and maybe 200 km from time to time, but they have been taking me too long. I haven't even been riding enough metric centuries in recent years.

Anyway, this week's update...

Week 50: 3 qualifying rides, 57 km in 3 hrs.

Ride 1 (Tue): 24 km. ELLL plus extra to Cliviger Gorge lights and back via LBS. 1¼ hrs.

Ride 2 (Sat): 14 km. ELLL plus bonus hill in Tod. ¾ hr.

Ride 3 (Sun): 19 km. ELLL. 1 hr.

All rides on my 6-er.

Success rate: 50 weeks out of 50.

182 qualifying rides so far this year. Weekly target 100 km; total to date: 5,154 km. Average progress now = 103.1%; last week = 104.0% Total ride time approximately 304 hrs.

PS Special characters to copy and paste for ride durations - ¼ ½ ¾ !

 

[bluenotebob]

am just getting this done now! I don't enjoy riding in grotty weather conditions so I will be 'going virtual' later this winter and for the future. I will still do enough outdoors for the challenges but will opt for the turbo when that seems more fun and/or more productive for fitness gains.

Not much of an advert for this challenge, is it?

This is going to be a difficult week (Week 51) - or at least Tues/Thurs will be tricky - so I've already done 3 rides over 30 minutes today.

Please don't rush to read my Week 50 post @ColinJ (which I posted a couple of hours before you posted yesterday). Obviously you were in too much of a rush to post yours that you didn't bother to check whether anyone else had posted.

 

[ColinJ]

Not much of an advert for this challenge, is it?

I have explained multiple times how much this challenge has helped me, including the fact that I have ridden more than 50% further this year than last.

I have also posted widely elsewhere about the problems that I have with winter. Hence the birth of the Lunacy challenge. This is winter. I am having problems with it!

The fact is that my cycling always slowed down in the winter, and almost came to a stop during the early Covid years. It is only slowly recovering now.

I have been cycling in this hilly area for 35 years and the truth is that I have only been fit enough to really enjoy the climbing in a couple of those years. The rest of the time has involved varying degrees of suffering.

I am also getting increasingly fed up with crazy motorists and crappy road surfaces.

So... I have decided that I will probably limit myself to a maximum of around 6,000 outdoor km a year, and as many of those will be in quiet, scenic places on sunny days.

If I got fit enough to ride further and faster then I would make more of those sunny rides and there would be more of them.

Meantime... I will use a smart trainer the rest of the time to get fitter and relax away from the traffic, potholes, rain, and blustery winds. I may also try virtual racing. Despite quite fancying the idea, I never tried real racing because I was too frightened of crashing. (I hurt myself quite badly in a crash in my teens and I feared it happening again.) The turbo trainer would therefore be extending my cycling, not restricting it.

Please don't rush to read my Week 50 post @ColinJ (which I posted a couple of hours before you posted yesterday). Obviously you were in too much of a rush to post yours that you didn't bother to check whether anyone else had posted.

I did read your post before making mine. I thought to myself that you had obviously had a very good year and that even if I did get really fit, I was not sure that I would be riding that far in a year. The fact is that a couple of phone calls distracted me otherwise I would have commented on that at the time.

You will probably be really irritated by the fact that I intend to log my virtual rides (and any other significant exercise) next year in a separate section in each post below my real rides! They obviously won't be counted for the challenge but the weekly write-ups will be a good way for me to keep track of what I have been doing.

 

[FrothNinja]

Tough week- work plus pleurisy, not a great combo. Showed in my zones - was a zone up on usual effort but went slower. Weird sense of achievement for some reason...
W50R1- Centurion 41 mins - local miles.
W50R2- Centurion 40 mins - local miles..
W50R3 - Centurion 38 mins - local miles.

 

[ColinJ]

Tough week- work plus pleurisy, not a great combo.

Yikes - GWS!!

 

[FrothNinja]

Went out today and the weather lured me into staying out longer than I anticipated.
Average speed up, heart rate down (but still not down to normal), so signs are good that the pleurisy will have naffed off by Chrimbo
Loads of photo ops today but it never occurred to me stop and get the camera out. So... brain not properly in gear, was too comfortable in it's cycling mode that it couldn't engage any others.
Perfect cycling weather - cool enough for clothing to be bob on but cold enough to reduce numbers of riders and walkers on paths, views were great, and no wind. Wish I had wagged off work for the full day....

 

[ColinJ]

Please don't rush to read my Week 50 post @ColinJ (which I posted a couple of hours before you posted yesterday). Obviously you were in too much of a rush to post yours that you didn't bother to check whether anyone else had posted.

Ah, I forgot to 'like' it... Sorry!

 

[steveindenmark]

I have completed the 50km a month challenge for years now. I have decided that next year I will change over to this challenge if it is running. I retire in March and this will get me out on a regular basis.

 

[FrothNinja]

I have completed the 50km a month challenge for years now. I have decided that next year I will change over to this challenge if it is running. I retire in March and this will get me out on a regular basis.

More the merrier

 

[ColinJ]

I have decided that next year I will change over to this challenge if it is running.

I will start the 2025 thread towards the end of this month. We will start early, just before the end of this year (December 30th) so we can stick to logging rides from Monday to Sunday.

Hopefully, a few more people will join us for 2025. I think this challenge would be more helpful for most people than the other challenges. It has helped to encourage me to complete well over 100 consecutive weeks of 3+ rides per week, even when I have been ill or travelling.

 

[bluenotebob]

Week 51: 9 rides over 30 mins, including one Lunacy Distance ride and one HMCAM multi-bike ride; distance cycled 218.17km

Weeks 1 to 51: total distance cycled 13111km

A couple of photos from Friday’s ride – a VAB marker near Bodevrel (distinctive blue + yellow and, if you look closely, you can see the coquille de St Jacques shell) … plus the start of the road to Talhouët. I haven’t explored it yet – it’s a one-way road and I’m not sure how much of it is private. But there’s a chateau and a chapelle down there .. so I will venture down it one day soon (when the days are a bit longer and I’m not so pressed for time).

 

[FrothNinja]

W51R1- Centurion 37 mins - local miles.
W51R2- Centurion 46 mins - local miles.
W51R3 - Centurion 36 mins - local miles.
W51R4 - 1 hour 45 mins - Clarion run. Apparently a Clitheroe cycling club had made the ride in the morn. The weather was piddling down with high winds so I phoned my baby bro back home - where they are facing loads of rain too, but a forecast max of 40 C to look forward to. Meanwhile back in the UK.... This arvo the wind was gusting at a higher speed but less often and there was no rain plus, big plus, it was borderline sunny!!! Pleasant gossip and got home with lights on as a precaution. Plus, no idiot drivers - just an idiot of a rider
View as I was leaving Clarion

 

[FrothNinja]

Week 51: 9 rides over 30 mins, including one Lunacy Distance ride and one HMCAM multi-bike ride; distance cycled 218.17km

Weeks 1 to 51: total distance cycled 13111km

A couple of photos from Friday’s ride – a VAB marker near Bodevrel (distinctive blue + yellow and, if you look closely, you can see the coquille de St Jacques shell) … plus the start of the road to Talhouët. I haven’t explored it yet – it’s a one-way road and I’m not sure how much of it is private. But there’s a chateau and a chapelle down there .. so I will venture down it one day soon (when the days are a bit longer and I’m not so pressed for time).


View attachment 756278

View attachment 756277

Can I spy a baler twine tree to the right

 

[ColinJ]

Another taking it easy week, but I did exceed the minimum requirements. I am looking like easily passing my target for the year, though probably not quite exceeding last year's total by 50%. I need to squeeze a 50+ km ride into the final week of the year to complete the 2024 '50-a-month' challenge so I should do 70+ km.

Week 51: 3 qualifying rides, 38 km in 2 hrs.

Ride 1 (Mon): 10 km. LLL. ½ hr.

Ride 2 (Wed): 13 km. ELLL incl. LBS in Cornholme to have power meter cranks fitted. ¾ hr.

Ride 3 (Fri): 15 km. ELLL + a bonus hill in Tod. ¾ hr.

All rides on my 6-er.

Success rate: 51 weeks out of 51.

185 qualifying rides so far this year. Weekly target 100 km; total to date: 5,192 km. Average progress now = 101.8%; last week = 103.1% Total ride time approximately 306 hrs.

PS Special characters to copy and paste for ride durations - ¼ ½ ¾ !