2012 Week 1

At the beginning of the year I gave myself the target of 6000 miles. That's a required weekly average of 115.3 miles. Going on last year's score of 5736, I only need to replicate the same weekly scores and add an extra 5 miles every week to get it. Easy enough I would have thought. I'm planning at least one big cycling trip for the summer as well, which will help propel the total upward. I also plan to produce a graph every four weeks showing the relative positions of the last four years.

Before I give the figures for the first week of January, a note of explanation about the dates. My cycling week runs from Monday - Sunday. So week 1 for me usually closes with the first Sunday of the year. My final week of the year should then be the last Sunday in the calendar - which generally makes it week 52. Inevitably I lose a couple of days in the first and last weeks of the year using that "full week only" system, but it doesn't tend to make very much difference since I don't normally feel like getting out on my bike much at those times of the year anyway. Understandably. Sadly, 2011 was one of those years where I missed out on a chunk of time, because having started counting on Sunday 2nd January (a two day week!), the last full Monday - Sunday week of the year ended on Sunday 25th December. That was my week 52, but it left 6 days of the year remaining. These were written off and don't form part of my stats. As it happens, I only went out on my bike on one of those 6 surplus days anyway (Tuesday 27th) during which I totted up 25 miles. I was feeling rough for the remainder of the week as it happened. If I'd started counting the weeks of 2012 on Sunday 1st January, by the time the final full week of the year arrived (w/e Sunday 30th December) I would have 53 weeks in my stats. That wouldn't be right, so this year my first week ran from Monday 2nd - Sunday 8th January. Simple really. With the dull explanation over with, here's how it went:

Week 1 (w/e 8 January)
Miles: 50.2
I began the year feeling rough with a lingering cold that had developed a few days after Christmas. There was more than possibly a hint of man flu about it, so it wasn't until the weekend that I got 2012's massive chase underway. Despite a dank and wintry feel to the weather, I managed to cycle 26 miles on the Saturday and then did 24 on the Sunday to start off with a satisfying half-century.
The stats:
Total for 2012: 50.2
2012 average weekly mileage: 50.2 (quel surprise!)
Miles needed for 6000: 5949.8
Percentage of target reached: 0.83%
With 51 weeks to go, average weekly miles needed for 6000: 116.66