2015 Week 1

Week 1 (w/e 4 January 2015)
Miles: 67

Another year, another target of 6000 to chase down.

The stats
Time taken to get 100: N/a
Total for 2014: 67
2015 average weekly mileage: 67
Consecutive 100s: 0
Miles needed for 6000: 5933
Percentage of target reached: 1.116%
Required average weekly mileage: 116.33

2014 Week 1

Week 1 (w/e 5 January 2014)
Miles: 42.9

The start of another cycling year. Time to reset that counter to zero and get cracking.

But first, a few words about where we start. As I've explained before, my cycling week runs from Monday - Sunday, so inevitably a day or two are usually lost from the figures at the beginning and end of each year. January 1st 2014 was a Wednesday, meaning that although Monday and Tuesday technically fell within week 1 of the new year, I only started the clock on January 1st. So it's a 5 day week. As it happens, I put my feet up for the first two days of the week and quite enjoyed the rest after pushing hard the previous week to beat 2012's total (which I've not yet written up).

So, we pick up the baton on Wednesday 1st January. Unfortunately for me I'd come down with a cold and sore throat just after Christmas and felt rough with it for well over a week, which made New Year's Eve a bit of a non-event. As 2014 got underway, I was greeted by a wet day. This, on top of feeling grim, meant that no cycling was done. The weather on Thursday afternoon was better, so after dosing myself up with lemon powders I got an hour's cycling done, coming back with 14.5 miles. Rain returned in the evening, so no more miles were added. Friday afternoon was showery. I considered going out on my bike, but heavier rain was moving in so I didn't make it. It was a similar story in the evening.

Saturday was dank and dreary but at least it stayed fine. I cycled into town that afternoon, returning with a rucksack of shopping and 24 miles, then nipped out again almost immediately to push on to 30. Rain was moving back into the area in the evening, so I stayed put. Sunday. More rain from noon until 2:30, but then a fine spell until more rain rolled in at 6. In between, I dragged myself out there for an hour and came back with almost 43 miles. By 9:30 in the evening it was pelting down again, so that ended my first week. I'd have liked to have signed off with a half century at least, but it was not to be.

The stats
Time taken to get 100: N/a
Total for 2014: 42.9
2014 average weekly mileage: 42.9
Consecutive 100s: 0
Miles needed for 6000: 5957.1
Percentage of target reached: 0.71%
Required average weekly mileage: 116.81

Looking at the first week results from 2000 onward, this year's 42.9 puts me in 4th place. In 2013 of course, I posted my first ever first-week 100. No chance of that this year.

2013 Week 4

Week 4 (w/e 27 January 2013)
Miles: 60.1

This field has been flooded a full 12 months I think.

Oh dear oh dear. A promising start to the year receives a blow thanks to the weather.

Monday morning. Snow! Thick, wet sleety stuff that didn't stick very much. It cleared away by 5 pm but I wasn't going to get the bike out in a hurry. Tuesday's skies were clear but oddly it felt quite warm - until the sun went down at least. I went out for a ride down the main road just before teatime, almost getting knocked off by some dick in a car pulling out of a goods yard as I passed under his nose. Fecking idiot. I got back with 9 miles then went back out along the same road in the evening to come back with 17.5 in total. Wednesday afternoon brought the sleet back for a brief shower. Brr. The evening was clear but cold so I donned double gloves and went out for the best part of an hour to push on to 30 miles. Crumbs, it was cold though. My fingers still felt it despite the extra layer.

Thursday. Clear skies became overcast by late afternoon. I got out on my bike at teatime. I didn't fancy going down the main road again after the previous evening's near miss. Cycling in the dark when people are travelling home from work can be a bit hairy. So I  headed off into the country lanes instead, correctly thinking that the roads wouldn't be slippy by now. The gritter passed me after a couple of miles anyway, which was reassuring. I got back with almost 39 miles on the clock. In the evening I took up an invitation to go to the pub, so no more miles were added. Friday saw sleet, then proper snow. The gritters struggled to cope with the deluge and even the main road was reduced to a path of white cut by tyre tracks. Not a cycling day, clearly.

Heavy rain arrived on Saturday afternoon and it continued to fall all evening. Not a cycling day then. At least it washed the snow away. Sunday at least was bright and sunny. I got myself out on the bike at 6 for half an hour, moving along to 48 miles on the way. I went out again later in the evening. By this time the wind had whipped up, which didn't make it much fun. I crawled back home almost an hour later with a total of 60 miles for the week.

60 miles! Very poor. The problem is that last year's mild winter let me zip away to a great start and having laid down the early benchmark of 100 a week in the winter, I never looked back. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have to chase a total in the ice and snow.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: N/A
Total for 2013: 347.5
2013 average weekly mileage: 86.87
Consecutive 100s: 0
Miles needed for 6000: 5652.5
Percentage of target reached: 5.8%
Required average weekly mileage: 117.76

My figures are getting worse on my knackered bike. 60.1 miles took me 4 hours and 23 minutes at an average of 13.67 mph.

Meanwhile, back in 2012...
I did 107.1 miles which gave me a total of 362.4. So I've been overtaken already. The lead is only 14.9 miles mind you.

2013 Week 3

Week 3 (w/e 20 January 2013)
Miles: 84

This week, the weather turned cold again. Very cold. Snow was coming. My mileage suffered accordingly.

Monday started off with wintry showers, after which it turned clear and bitterly cold. So cold that I decided not to bother getting out on the bike at all. After all, it was only Monday and I could afford to take a day off, surely? Tuesday saw clear skies again but I got things underway in the late afternoon with a ride down the main road and back for 13 miles. I nipped out again later in the evening along the same road to come home with 19 miles for the day. Wednesday was cloudy and so not quite as cold. I was going to nip out for half an hour late in the evening but ended up struggling with my front light after swapping the batteries. The wretched thing refused to work. I wasted a good ten minutes fiddling with it and by the time I got it working again, it wasn't work going out. I did manage a decent ride in the evening though. Sticking again to the gritted main road, I came back home with 33 miles. So far so reasonable.

Thursday was very cold. A bitter wind from the south really pulled the temperature down. Sleet started to fall here at about 5 pm so I wasn't able to get the bike out at my usual time. There were still flakes in the air long into the evening, so that was that. Sheltered areas had a small covering of snow, but the roads and pavements around here stayed clear. Friday was achingly cold. A few flakes of snow twinkled in the air now and again but that was all. It was too cold for me to want to go for a bike ride, certainly. I think by this time I'd resigned myself to not being able to post a century this week and I was ok with that. I must be going soft.

I headed into the weekend with 33 miles then. The weather warmed up noticeably and it was dank but fine. I made my usual Saturday afternoon trip into town, dashed out again for a short trip when I got home and then undertook a third ride in the evening to push on to 61 miles. It was cloudy but cold on Sunday and fine at least. After making a short trip locally to take some photos for this blog, a 50 minute ride a bit later at tea time saw me on to 75 miles. I got back out in the evening and trundled up and down the main road to come home at 10 pm with 84 miles exactly.

So I missed out on a third consecutive 100. But to come within 16 miles of it in the circumstances (3 days of zero cycling) was a good effort... if I hadn't missed the chance of half an hour's ride on Wednesday thanks to the dodgy bike light, I would only have been about 8 miles short. Gah.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: N/A
Total for 2013: 287.4
2013 average weekly mileage: 95.8
Consecutive 100s: 0
Miles needed for 6000: 5712.6
Percentage of target reached: 4.8%
Required average weekly mileage: 116.58

It actually took me 6 hours and 2 minutes to get my 84 miles this week at an average of 13.93 mph. Very poor. At least I'm 32.1 miles ahead of this time in 2012.

2012 Week 52

Week 52 (w/e 30 December 2012)

Miles: 67.3

The final week of the year arrived. Having set a record of 50 consecutive centuries, I wasn't convinced that I'd make this the 51st. It's no surprise that this should be the case in Christmas week, with festivities to be enjoyed, people to see, pints to be drunk etc. The nights seem darker and less inviting at the very end of the year as well. Mentally I'd accepted that I wasn't likely to get another 100, so if it didn't happen I wouldn't be too bothered. Still, I did have a target in mind and that was the 65.3 miles I needed to pass the revised target of 6500 miles for the year. By a happy coincidence, the same total would set my average weekly mileage for 2012 at 125 exactly. That would sound better than letting it slip to 124.x of course.

So how did I get on? Weather-wise, Christmas week was dank and drizzly, with plenty of showers passing through. Week 52 began with Christmas Eve. It was a dank afternoon, then heavy rain rolled in just at the time when I'd normally get the bike out. Although it turned fine in the evening, this being Christmas Eve it was time to head to the pub... Cheers! Christmas Day arrived and the weather was fine, but this wasn't a day for cycling. Boxing Day came next and the whole afternoon was wet. Although the evening was fine, I didn't feel like getting the bike out so I didn't bother. Hmm, that was three ducks from a possible seven. Normally I'd be feeling itchy by now.

Thursday afternoon was overcast but fine, so I got the chase underway with an 18 mile ride. Wintry drizzle set in for a couple of hours around teatime, but this had cleared later on so I was able to dash out again just after 10 to push on to 26 miles. Friday was similarly dank with occasional drizzle, but I got out in the late afternoon for an hour to advance to 40 miles and then nudged this up to 50 following another trip later in the evening. So I headed off into the weekend with just 13 miles remaining to achieve my target.

Saturday morning was wet but the afternoon was fine, bar a short shower at 3:30. I cycled into town for my customary Saturday afternoon shopping trip, then went out again when I got home to return triumphant with 67 miles. Target achieved! Handshakes all round.

It was just as well that I got the miles done on Saturday afternoon, as that evening was set aside for a pub crawl. Sunday was wild, blustery and wet, with constant squally showers from morning until night. Grim. So no more miles were possible. But it really didn't matter. I was happy to put my feet up and reflect on a job well done.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: N/A
Total for 2012: 6502
2012 average weekly mileage: 125.03
Consecutive 100s: 50
Miles needed for 6500: N/A
Percentage of target reached: 100%

So that's it.

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