2012 Week 51

Week 51 (w/e 23 December 2012)
Miles: 103.3

For the second week running I just managed to scrape together 100 miles in trying circumstances. This time, the cold snap of the previous week had been replaced by warm, wet conditions. It rained a lot. Two days out of the seven were washed out completely and a third rain-affected day went cycle-less. Nevertheless, I managed to dash out there enough times - often between showers - to cobble together a record-breaking 50th consecutive ton. It took an especially valiant effort on the final day though. Here's how it unfolded:

Monday afternoon brought several hours of steady rain. Although this had cleared away by the evening, the roads were still wet and I was feeling a bit ropey anyway, so I didn't get out on the bike at all. Tuesday's weather was much better and I got the chase underway in clear, fine conditions that afternoon with a 17 miler. I pushed that on to 25 miles by going out in the evening. Wednesday was another day disrupted by rain. It started in late morning and kept on falling until 7 pm. Looking at the rain radar I noticed that a gap had opened up between the bands of rain so I should at least have been able to get 40 minutes worth of pedalling done before the next band of rain rolled in. Alas! I dallied too long and by 9 pm a new patch of light rain had bubbled up out of nowhere over the Irish Sea and was moving in. I decided to hang on and see if this would blow over in a reasonably short space of time. If anything, the rain got heavier. Damn it! With the forecast for Thursday looking very dodgy, I was desperate to get out there for half an hour at least, so I took myself out at 10 pm despite the steady rain. I came back with 33 miles. It had stopped raining by then... (but not for long.)

Thursday was a complete washout with constant rain from morning until night. Bah. Friday was fine at least, but there were plenty of local floods to contend with as the groaning dykes burst under the strain of so much water. I took myself out in the late afternoon and pushed on to 52 miles. I was keen to get myself to 60 for the weekend, to give myself a fighting chance of landing another 100, and a ride later in the evening saw me on to 61 miles.

Saturday arrived and it was an utter washout. Bad news. There was no chance of doing any cycling that day and to make matters worse I was off out to the pub in the evening, which meant that it would all come down to the final day, when I needed 39 miles despite the inevitable hangover. I was certainly glad that I did those 8 miles in the rain on Wednesday night. It was a relief to find the weather on Sunday calm, clear and fine. So, 39 miles needed. I had a couple of options. I could either go out and do a big ride of 28 - 30 miles and then mop up the remainder later, or I could plan a shorter route and do several laps of that to shave the total down bit by bit. I went for the latter option. I identified a loop of around 12 miles and planned on doing that three times. It didn't quite work out like that though - the first ride turned into a 14 miler, after which I came home for a coffee break instead of doing the loop again as I'd intended. Refreshed, I went back out 40 minutes later on the original loop and came home with 88 miles. Finally, at 9:30 I dragged myself back out for an hour and rolled home with 103 for the week. Phew! 42 miles up on the day.

It truly was the greatest escape of the year.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: 6 hrs 38 m.
Total for 2012: 6434.7
2012 average weekly mileage: 126.17
Consecutive 100s: 50 (new record)
Miles needed for 6500: 65.3
Percentage of target reached: 98.99%

With 1 week to go, average weekly miles needed for 6500: 65.3

The third slowest 100 of the year, beaten only by weeks 3 and 19 which were both grinds in the teeth of gale-force winds. The ponderous pace this week owes much to the fact that my bike is knackered. It's desperately in need of a thorough service as the gears keep slipping. I can't use gears 17 - 24 because of the constant slippage so my average speed is down by around a mile.

So with just one week to go, I only need 65 miles to reach the revised target of 6500 miles. Having become accustomed to doing 100 miles every week, this seems a doddle... as long as the weather holds up.

How was 1998 getting on?

1998 Week 51
Miles: 154
Total: 7089.2
Difference: +654.5