Proper rides: 38 miles (one ride)
Commuting/business: 104 miles (12 days riding to work and back)
Misc: 9.5 miles
Total: 151.5 miles (5056 feet climbed)
66.5 miles more than last March, despite a holiday meaning ten days off the bike.
Total so far for 2008: 710 miles
* average of 5.9 miles per day - on course for 2148 miles for the year
* 27% more than this time last year
First proper length ride on the Solitude with the bigger proper 29er tyres, though still mainly on the road. It looks loads better (though still very odd) with the 2.2″ tyres filling out the frame and forks properly. The Kenda Nevegals don’t roll as well as the narrower tyres I had on before but they’re ok and should be lots better off-road, but I think something like Small Block 8s might suit my riding better.
I used a bike path and bridleway shortcut to get out to Hurworth and then joined the Sustrans W2W route’s spur towards Whitby (map (I rode home too, obviously)). I’m considering doing Darlington to Whitby and back as a long ride in the summer, so it was nice to get to try some more of the route. I just rode out for 90 minutes, then turned around and rode back.
It could be a nice route, although not through the prettiest of areas, but the pouring rain and freezing cold temperatures took the edge off a little.
I got home soaked, filthy and freezing. Great.
Distance: 38 miles (61 km)
Climbing: 1300 feet
Surface: On- and off-road (only a couple of hundred metres off-road)
Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Weather: Wet and cold
Bike: Solitude Singlespeed (34:18, with 2.2″ tyres)
* 950 miles in the car
* 8 nights
* 14 eggs laid by our 3 chickens while we were away (they started laying on Tuesday)
* 1 bottle of whisky drank
* 0 miles ridden on a bike
A great time had by all, in a beautiful place.
Proper rides: o miles
Commuting: 91 miles (13 days riding to work and back)
Business: 67.5 miles (5 trips to work via Hurworth)
Misc: 13.5 miles
Total: 172 miles (5607 feet (1 709m) climbed)
Two miles more than last March, but no ‘proper’ rides!
Total so far for 2008: 558.5 miles
* average of 6.1 miles per day - on course for 2246 miles for the year
* 34% more than this time last year
Proper rides: 54 miles (Darlo-Hamsterley-Darlo)
Commuting: 81.5 miles (12 days riding to work/Hurworth and back)
Business: 39.5 miles (3 trips to work via Hurworth)
Misc: 9.5 miles
Total: 184 miles (9490 feet (2 892m) climbed)
Seventy miles more than last February, helped by only missing one day off work and my Darlo-Hamsterley-Darlo ride.
Total so far for 2008: 386 miles
* average of 193 miles per month - on course for 2319 miles for the year
* average of 6.44 miles per day - on course for 2358 miles for the year
* 55% more than this time last year - on course for 2650 miles for the year
I’m off work ill. Let’s just say that I’m not farting with confidence…
Consequently, I am very bored. So, I took some photos of my bike and stuck them on Singletrack.
Gusty winds and ’sticky’ trails made for slow going and even downhills hard work. I decided to give up on trying to complete the full 50km.
Distance: 54 miles (87 km)
Climbing: 4948 feet
Surface: On- and off-road (20 miles on, 14 miles off, 20 miles on)
Time: 7 hours
Weather: Windy and wet under-tyre
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:16, with 2.1″ tyres)
I only realised how close I was to getting 100km on the ride once I mapped the route. If I’d known, I’d have found another13km, as I’d half-intended to try to do a metric century every month this year. Maybe I need a GPS, or a cheap bike computer? Oh well, 200 miles for this month is within reach, if I can find an extra 10.5 miles I the next week, so doing at least 200 miles every month can be my new half-assed target for the year.
I’m off work next week, which means no little-and-often bike riding. It does, however, give me a chance to go out for a longer ride. I’m planning on riding to Hamsterley and doing 50km on the fireroads (Hamsterley Hill Rush) and then riding back again.
It’s 114km all in and took me 8 hours when I did it in October 2006 (I missed out a 7km loop), so it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes next week.
I’m hoping to get the big tryres on the Solitude this weekend so I should be doing it on that, although the brakes had siezed a little after not being ridden for a couple of months so I might be on the Inbred.
I’m on track for another 200 mile month, and also for beating last year’s total for January to March, if I do this ride, but I’ll need a second ride next week to make sure.
Update: Thursday is Hamsterley day
In the whole of January and February last year I rode 246 miles. So far this year, I have ridden 262. That means, on Friday last week I passed last year’s total for January and February, 3 weeks earlier than least year.
Looking at the numbers (yes, there’s a spreadsheet), it should be possible for me to beat last year’s combined January, February and March riding total before the end of February…
(I’m currently averaging 6.2 miles (9.98 km) per day , compared to the average for 2007 of 4.6 miles (7.4 km) per day.)
Update: An extra 2.5 miles on the way home, to pick up a teddy bear. Really.
I’m going to have to add Ben Saunders‘ site to my feed reader. I had it bookmarked on my old laptop and it was one of the sites I checked weekly.
There are so many things just from the last few posts that I wanted to link to, or requote here.
“We are richer now, but more overworked, more deeply in thrall to the addictions of getting and spending. We have more possessions, and they tyrannise us. Each new mod con must be shopped for, maintained, insured, upgraded; each new thing must be stored, kept track of, kept secure, tidied; and the whole package is paid for in overwork, time-poverty, round-the-clock availability and round-the-clock insecurity.
We have more, and we have less. In such a world, freedom is both more precious and more elusive than ever. And one of the few surefire ways of liberating ourselves from the tyranny of the consumer society is to put ourselves beyond its reach.”
[quoted in Ben Saunders: Thought for the year]
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