2012 Week 5

Week 5 (w/e 5 February)

Miles: 115.3

The cold snap descended upon the north west this week. On the plus side, that meant clear and fine weather. In the minus column, it led to freezing conditions. In general, the afternoons were a few degrees above zero so generally I got myself out on the bike every day before the sun went down and dragged the temperature with it. I've put evening rides on hold for now, doing a bit extra in the afternoon to compensate. Monday's ride saw me start the week with 18 miles. Tuesday's trip advanced me to 31 miles, which improved to 50 miles by tea time on Wednesday, despite the bitter wind that was blowing in from the east on the latter. Like a football manager, I like to get points on the board early on, so racing to 50 miles by Wednesday night is a secondary target for the week for me. Continuing with a sporting theme, a 50 by Wednesday usually gets converted to a 100 by Sunday night, barring atrocious weather. Or a dubious lbw decision. By Thursday I'd moved on to 68 miles. Another afternoon ride on Friday pushed me on to 87 miles. All good stuff... but then wintry showers arrived on Saturday. While the rest of England got snow, or so it seemed, all the Fylde received was rain. It finally stopped at about 7:30 in the evening, but the clear skies that followed instantly froze it. Slip-o-matic. So no cycling was done. That left 13 miles to get on Sunday and fortunately the icy conditions had thawed. So off I trundled at 3 pm, returning home a little later with a total of 108 miles. I fancied pushing on a bit more than that, so at 9 pm I dashed out along the (gritted) main road and back, ensuring a finish of 115 miles.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: 6 hr 31 m.
Total for 2012: 477.7
2012 average weekly mileage: 95.54
Consecutive 100s: 4
Miles needed for 6000: 5522.3
Percentage of target reached: 7.96%
With 47 weeks to go, average weekly miles needed for 6000: 117.49

Almost identical time for the 100 as last week. Now there's consistency.

Fascinating fact #1. Every week so far this year I'd cycled further than the previous week.

Fascinating fact #2. If I manage 122.3 miles this week, I'll have got my average weekly mileage up to 100 with historically stunning haste. Now that's a target to aim for.