Three 30-minute rides each week of the year Challenge 2025 [NB Starts 30/12/24!]

[Elswick Cotterpin]

First three rides of the first week completed today, and it was the best one of the three. 'Feels like' temperature varied between minus two and minus six depending which forecast you looked at, but it really wasn't that bad, you could actually feel a bit of warmth from the sun.

I wasn't out long, around an hour for each ride,'cos I'm slow and I like a pootle, but it was good to get out all the same. I did around ten miles each time and I may have have gone out anyway but I think the challenge probably helps with the motivation.

Frosty today with some ice on the puddles and I could hear the frost kind of hissing under the tyres on shaded or untreated roads, but it went well. Weekend isn't looking too clever for cycling, snow in the forecast, although we don't usually tend to get a lot of it around here.

 

[FrothNinja]

Bleeding cold on two wheels today. My tootsies are far from toasty

 

[ColinJ]

Bleeding cold on two wheels today. My tootsies are far from toasty

I put the recycling out in my back yard, felt the cold, and decided to give it a miss today!

I looked at the forecast for tomorrow... Still chilly, but nice and sunny. I will definitely try to squeeze a ride in.

Sunday is still looking really unpleasant so I will not be riding that day!

 

[Saluki]

Sunshine in Denmark at last.
Week 1/1

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Oooh, a Dimanche. You don’t see many Moustache bikes. I am looking at one, right now, in my living room.
Lovely pics.

 

[Saluki]

3 done. One was a bit of a tight squeak with 30 mins and a few seconds. Lunch break ride.
Bottom ride on my Brommie, the others on my Moustache as it was cold.

 

[ColinJ]

I looked at the forecast for tomorrow... Still chilly, but nice and sunny. I will definitely try to squeeze a ride in.

I woke up today with hint of the sniffles and a sore throat. Not enough to force me to stay off the bike, but I decided to play safe anyway and stay indoors in the warm. I don't think that going out in the cold to get a few more km in was worth the risk of this very mild lurgy developing into something significantly more unpleasant.

After a wintry day tomorrow, next week's forecast is not looking too bad - very chilly, but mainly dry with sunny intervals. I'm hoping that I feel better rather than worse so I can make a good start to the week because I don't want to do what I did last year which was to spend [goes off to check...] 36 weeks chasing my target, and then hanging on for the remaining 16 weeks as we went into winter! I'd like to get ahead ASAP this year and do my best to stay ahead, with a steadily increasing surplus.

What I am aiming to achieve in the 2025 challenge (which in my case includes my final ride of 2024!):

• [Obviously!] 3+ rides every week of 30+ minutes duration.
• Last year, I averaged 6 h of riding per week. It would be nice to get that up to 7 h/week, corresponding to 1 h/day.
• My 2024 target was to ride 100 km/week (5,200 km total); I actually managed 5,318 km (excluding my final ride of the year which is counted in this year's challenge). This year I will attempt to ride 10% further than last year's target - 110 km/week (5,720 km).
• If I get sufficiently far ahead, I will switch to a stretch target of 6,000 km, corresponding to 115 km/week (plus one extra 20 km ride).

I'll slightly modify the format of my reports this year...

Week 1: 3 qualifying rides, 51 km in 2.75 h.

Total qualifying rides: 3. Distance to date: 51 km (vs 110 km; 1 x weekly target of 110 km). Time to date: 2.75 h (vs 7 h; 1 x weekly target of 7 h).

Ride 1 (Mon): 26 km. Tod, HB, Cn, Hl [to meet friend but cafe shut so...], HB, Royd, HB, Tod. 1.50 h. [This ride was actually at the end of 2024 but I am using it in my 2025 calculations.]

Ride 2 (Thu): 10 km. Tod, HB plus padding. 0.50 h.

[Scenic hilly walk in cold but sunny conditions...

... then...]

Ride 3 (Thu): 15 km. HB, Tod plus padding. 0.75 h.

All rides on my 6-er.

Abbreviated local place names: Tod = Todmorden, HB = Hebden Bridge, Hl = Heptonstall, Cn = Colden, JB = Jack Bridge, BH = Blackshaw Head, Royd = Mytholmroyd, CV = Cragg Vale, BE = Blackstone Edge, Lh = Littleborough, Wn = Walsden, Ce = Cornholme, By = Burnley, Bp = Bacup

 

[steveindenmark]

Oooh, a Dimanche. You don’t see many Moustache bikes. I am looking at one, right now, in my living room.
Lovely pics.

Its a great bit of kit. Jannie and I both have them. I use mine from November to April. Then I am back on normal bikes.

 

[bluenotebob]

@ColinJ .. are you counting Monday's ride (which was in 2024) towards your total distance to be ridden in 2025?

I will only count rides from Wednesday onwards as part of my 2025 total.

 

[ColinJ]

@ColinJ .. are you counting Monday's ride (which was in 2024) towards your total distance to be ridden in 2025?

I will only count rides from Wednesday onwards as part of my 2025 total.

Ah, er... I hadn't actually considered that issue!

Looked at in terms of the calendar it works one way, in terms of the challenge, the other!

I think I will take the challenge option. I have edited my post above to clarify that.

 

[ColinJ]

Last year I measured the duration of my rides in multiples of 15 minutes, which often led to me aimlessly riding round the block just to clock up one extra quarter of an hour! This year I will work to multiples of 3 minutes (0.05 hour - to simplify calculations) and I will round the times down. That will mean no more junk laps. I'm not bothered about potentially losing a minute or two per ride even though that could add up to five or six hours over the year.

 

[ColinJ]

Thinking about it... The same argument applies to my ride distances! I also tried to finish rides near enough on exact number of km. I will start logging them to nearest 0.1 km, rounded down.

 

[FrothNinja]

W1R1 - Centurion 3 hours 32 mins - Burnley, Brierfield, Sabden, Clitheroe, Sabden, Read, Padiham, the Ridge, Higham, Fence, Burnley (total 37.0 miles / 59.5 km plus 1039 m / 3417 ft ascent).
W1R2 - George Dawes 37 mins - local miles, très humide et venteux
W1R3 - Centurion 37 mins - local miles
W1R4 - Centurion 41 mins - local miles
W1R5 - Centurion 36 mins - local miles
W1R6 - Centurion 35 mins - local miles
W1R7 - CX 41 mins - local miles in walking boots to combat the cold

 

[bluenotebob]

Week 1: 10 rides over 30 mins; distance cycled 131.15km (includes 40.41km cycled in 2024)

Week 1 (2025): total distance cycled 90.74km

Squeezed another ride in this afternoon – howling wind and driving rain, lots of surface water – but at least it wasn’t cold. 14km on the MASSI (62 mins) – the only bike I really trust when it’s this wet.

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

I've only done one ride so far this week! That was yesterday, after forty minutes I couldn't feel my finger tips, but at least I reached the thirty minute requirement.

This morning would have been okay but I went for a walk instead.

I'll have to make more of an effort over the next few days.

 

[bluenotebob]

after forty minutes I couldn't feel my finger tips, but at least I reached the thirty minute requirement.

Well done at staying out to get over 30 mins.

I often bang my fingers on the handlebars, trying to get the circulation going. Good gloves help (and per @ColinJ 's comments upthread, some inner gloves are probably worth acquiring too).

It seems to me that the first hour is generally the worst - after that, it seems to get a bit easier. I managed a 7-hour ride on Tuesday and I was constantly blowing warm air into my gloves for the first 20km .. but I was fine after that and it seems to get better as your body adjusts.

Make sure you get a couple of (probably cold) rides in before end of Sunday !