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

[FrothNinja]

Done two so far - three if I count the ride to Preston as separate from the one back.
Wind is discouraging me today but the sun is tempting - possibly squeeze in a slow challenge ride.
Saturday I am definitely going out in the arvo. Hopefully Sunday will be amenable for a Clarion run.
Monday ride was horrible - outward leg was only borderline nasty but the return was not one I care to repeat soon.
Hope everyone gets their quota in.

 

[FrothNinja]

Happy cyBerth-day @ColinJ 🍻🎂🎁

 

[ColinJ]

Happy cyBerth-day @ColinJ 🍻🎂🎁

Thanks. I still haven't got my 69 km ride in, but fingers crossed, maybe tomorrow?

I will try to get my 111 km (69 mile) ride ASAP after that.

I thought that I might also tackle an elevation gain version, but that will have to wait until the spring - 2,103 m (69 * 100 ft) is more than I want to do on a winter ride!

I have various 100 km routes with around 2,000 m of climbing. I would aim to get back to Tod with 100-150 m left to do and make up the difference on the local climbs. I toyed with trying to find a 111 km route with that amount of climbing but I'm sure that my GPS device would come up with a different elevation gain number at the end!

 

[FrothNinja]

Just done a go slow run - to a café for brekkie with mates. Managed a mind altering average of 12.58 kph / 7.81 mph
Lovely day out (apart from showers while gossiping) plenty of debris around.
Will try another ride today if I get a chance.

 

[FrothNinja]

Just done a go slow run - to a café for brekkie with mates. Managed a mind altering average of 12.58 kph / 7.81 mph
Lovely day out (apart from showers while gossiping) plenty of debris around.
Will try another ride today if I get a chance.
View attachment 760075

Garmin disagrees with Strava and says my avg was 9.2 kph / 5.7 mph - which seems more realistic. Wonder why there is such a big disparity over such a short distance....

 

[bluenotebob]

Week 4: 5 rides over 30 mins, including one Lunacy Distance ride; distance cycled 171.13km

Weeks 1 to 4 (2025): total distance cycled 634.80km

Katie-Mae saved the week (or at least made the week respectable, rather than very disappointing). A 92km ride on Thursday got me off the mark in the Lunacy Distance challenge and proved the value of wearing a good-quality cagoule against the winter wind and rain and a powerful new front light meant I could easily carry on riding after nightfall. The last 15km of that ride were the most enjoyable I've had this year - dark, mild and totally empty of people (apart from the hiss of my tyres on the surface, the only noise I heard was an owl near Bois-de-la-Roche).

The rest of the week has been largely forgettable – just dodging the worst of the wind and rain – and has involved a few short local loops on my two hybrids and on one of my MTBs.

Storm Herminia arrives overnight with yet more heavy rain and strong winds for tomorrow. To be safe, I’ve just brought inside two days’ worth of logs for the fire.

I really don’t expect I’ll get a ride in on Sunday (and even if I do, it won’t significantly this week’s totals) so I’m posting this now.

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

First ride of this week's qualifying rides was last Tuesday and I foolishly imagined I was off to good start. Unfortunately, the weather and not feeling too great, plus other obligations, meant that was the first and only ride until today.

We went out for walk first this morning, cold and frosty and lovely with the sun shining. After a coffee at home I got the slightly worse for wear looking Raleigh Pioneer trail out and had a pleasant hour round and about after most of the frost was gone.

Exercising unusual foresight I left the bike outside and pootled off for another aimless local meander in the early afternoon. It came out at 30 minutes and 54 seconds, so I thought, that'll do it!

Weather alerts for tomorrow, actually, I think the next two or three days, rain, wind, plague of locusts, etc, so no cycling for me tomorrow, after that we'll have to see what gets thrown at us.

 

[FrothNinja]

W4R1 - Hybrid 4 hours 35 mins - Burnley, Whalley, Preston, Longridge, Clitheroe, thence to the outer realm of Pendle, Fence, Burnley.
W4R2 - Centurion 36 mins - local miles
W4R3 - Phillips Folda 40 mins - local slow miles, average speed 5.7 mph / 9.2 kph (went with Strava)
W4R4 - Centurion 35 mins - local miles
W4R5 - Hybrid 1 hour 41 mins - Clarion loop, gravel variant - gambled on the rain not arriving as forecast. This was not a wise gamble and the bike is filthy - but I have scraped the biggest lumps off.
Weird thing. Popped GCN on while doing this and they are talking about slow cycling - here is me thinking it was quite niche and word of mouth...

 

[bluenotebob]

here is me thinking it was quite niche and word of mouth..

I'm pretty sure there was a CC thread on this - either in General Chat or Cycling Discussions - a few weeks before you mentioned it in this thread.

There are times - like this afternoon - when I couldn't do an average of much over 12kph anyway because of the wind.

Now you know what it's like cycling in your seventies (it's slow, sometimes very slow - but it's still fun)

 

[ColinJ]

Garmin disagrees with Strava and says my avg was 9.2 kph / 5.7 mph - which seems more realistic. Wonder why there is such a big disparity over such a short distance....

I reckon that Strava is calculating your average speed while moving, but your Garmin is displaying your overall average including any stops?

Despite sometimes crappy weather this week, I managed to achieve my main goals...

• 3 qualifying rides
• One of which was 69 km (age in km)
• First week of 2025 to exceed distance target.

I was slightly short of my 7 hour weekly target but I got caught out in the rain in very cold windy conditions as I reentered town today, and couldn't face riding straight on just to add enough to hit that target!

Week 4: 3 qualifying rides, 115.2 km in 6.55 h.

Total qualifying rides: 12. Distance to date: 308.2 km (vs 440 km; 4 x weekly target of 110 km). Time to date: 16.35 h (vs 28h; 4 x weekly target of 7 h).

Ride 1 (Wed): 26.5 km. Tod, road closure at HB, Ls, Wn, St, Wn, Tod. 1.50 h.

Ride 2 (Sat): 69.1 km. Tod, By (Mr Road TL), CP, Bp, Sd, Re Road, Lh, BE, lanes round HG, Royd, HB***, Tod. 4.05 h.

Ride 3 (Sun): 19.6 km. Tod, SBm, Tod. 1.00 h.

All rides on my 6-er.

*** The road has now reopened with half the width repaired, and temporary TL controlling the other side.

Abbreviated local place names (now sorted alphabetically):

• BE = Blackstone Edge, BH = Blackshaw Head, Bp = Bacup, By = Burnley
• Ce = Cornholme, Ck = Calderbrook, Cn = Colden, CP = Crown Point, Cr = Caldermoor, CV = Cragg Vale
• HB = Hebden Bridge, HG = Hubberton Green, Hl = Heptonstall, HP = Harvellin Park
• JB = Jack Bridge
• Lh = Littleborough, Ls = Lumbutts
• MR = Manchester, Ms = Mankinholes
• Re = Rochdale, Royd = Mytholmroyd
• SB = Sowerby Bridge, SBm = Southward Bottom, Sd = Sharneyford, St = Summit
• Tod = Todmorden
• WM = Walk Mill, Wn = Walsden

 

[FrothNinja]

Did a pre-lunch time loop - about 1000 ft ascent - started in sun got soggy then the sun came out and dried up all the rain, and me.
Been unpacking my LPs and spotted a copy of Les Garçons de la Plage's M.I.U Album that I bought second hand when I was in highschool - my 412th LP - for 50 cents. I played it once and didn't rate it so it languished unloved for decades. It came over to the UK with my other LPs and still wasn't played. But I noticed it yesterday and I thought of it as I was heading home steaming in the sun.It seemed a suitable soundtrack to getting lunch etc as I could half ignore it. Don't think my tastes have changed that much, but I am really enjoying it - and the sun is still shining as Pitter Patter plays.
Can only assume I was a bit more snobbish about my music, and to be fair, the numbers with orchestration are naff.

 

[bluenotebob]

Don't know the album @FrothNinja - but I did have a much-loved copy of "Surf's Up" on LP which I sold about 20 years ago.

That's one I'd like to listen to again

Managed my first ride of the week this afternoon - we've been under an alerte rouge (red weather warning since Monday because of major flooding). Hope to get my third ride in by Sunday evening.

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

Three qualifying rides in three days, I'm on a roll! Weather stayed cold but bearable, and dry when I needed it, we've even had some sunshine which made a nice change.

Pre-ride check of the tyres before setting off on Thursday revealed a piece of glass embedded in the tread which might have worked it's way deep enough to puncture the tube if I hadn't discovered it.

No great mileage involved, as usual, but all rides were over the hour. I may get another ride over the weekend, but we have visitors Saturday, so have to wait and see if that pans out.

 

[FrothNinja]

W5R1 - Hybrid 4 hours 24 mins - Burnley, Whalley, Preston, Langho, Wiswell, Sabden, Fence, Burnley (total 50.5 miles / 81.2 km, plus 1,059 m / 3,475 ft ascent).
W5R2 - Hybrid 1 hour 30 mins - Burnley, Fence, Padiham, Sycamore Farm, Burnley, Brierfield, Nelson, Burnley
W5R3 - Phillips Folda 2 hours 18 mins - slow miles, average speed 5.3 mph / 8.5 kph, Burnley, Fence, Padiham, Sycamore Farm, Burnley
W5R4 - Centurion 36 mins - local miles

 

[bluenotebob]

Week 5: 4 rides over 30 mins, including one MCAM ride; distance cycled 191.26km

Weeks 1 to 5 (2025): total distance cycled 846.20km

It looked like this was going to be my worst week since the COVID lockdowns with no ride possible before Thursday afternoon. But once again Katie-Mae saved the week by helping me do an MCAM ride yesterday.

Route-planning for any distance rides is very difficult at present because of the extensive flooding. The floods are slowly receding but I think it might be mid/late February before any towpath riding becomes realistic (and that will have to be much further up the river Oust).

You can see the damage done to the towpath west of le Pont-des-Deux Rivières in this photo from yesterday. This stretch of towpath was closed for months in 2024 so that the banks could be reinforced and the towpath surface repaired. I don’t believe that they did either (probably ran out of money) so it was a pointless exercise – and one that involved a lengthy diversion to Eurovelo #1. No doubt that diversion will be reinstated very soon.