Set me a challenge for 2015

[jeremyc]

Hello all. Long time PHer, newbie to this part of the forums so be gentle.

I cycle to try and keep fit. My ancient mountain bike is an exercise machine that I can jump on whenever is convenient for me to go for a ride.

This year I set myself an arbitrary mileage target in an effort to maintain an incentive to keep riding. And promptly reached the target by 1st June. Today I passed the revised (doubled) target.

So what suggestions do you have for targets or challenges I can set myself for next year? Key requirements are:
- Needs to be low overhead. I don't want to have to travel or require special equipment before exercising.
- Ideally have to be able to participate at times I choose (sometimes at short notice). Though I'm open to suggestions for organised or group events.
- A new skill or challenge would be fun.

I've considered venturing into the world of single speeders, or maybe a road bike, but either probably needs to be in conjunction with an interesting challenge.

Over to you, the experts.

[jeremyc]

Fastpedeller said:

Are you THE JeremyC off of Top Gear???

Of course.

Is it THAT obvious?

[jeremyc]

Dammit said:

http://www.frafjordtilfjell.com/hoved.php?sprak=en...

Looks great.

But fails the "don't want to have to travel to ride" criteria.

Also not that practical for a year-round activity.

[jeremyc]

agentnomad said:

Ride the Etape du Dales in May 2015

rhinochopig said:

C2C in a day. Less than 100 miles at its narrowist point.

I appreciate all of these single event opportunities that are being suggested (and there are many similar out there), but what I'm more looking for are ideas for a continuous challenge.

How can I measure progress throughout the year against a goal/target/challenge that will motivate me to jump on the bike when it's snowing/wet/freezing cold?

My simple mileage target for this year ended up being a sufficient 'stretch' goal that I pretty much had to get out for a lengthy ride two or three times a week, every week.

[jeremyc]

Can you get unicycle mountain bikes?

Maybe I should ride the same distance next year on one wheel.

[jeremyc]

ALawson said:

What were you initial and then doubled targets?

2,014 miles (in 2014, geddit?) subsequently doubled to to 4,028.

I've maintained between 230 and 530 miles a month all year.

Oh, and I'm an Endomondo man rather than Strava.

[jeremyc]

pablo said:

Go racing, aim to be Cat 3 by year end?

Now y'see I've no idea what that means - the Cat 3 bit; I know what racing is.

pablo said:

Looks like you are SE based so how about starting a new discipline at the track at Lee Valley Velopark

Nice idea, but I want low overhead exercise, not something that demands I drag myself by car to (preumably on a regular basis). Believe it or not all of my cycling has been within about a 10 mile radius of my house; I've simply been able to jump on the bike at home and go on circular rides.

[jeremyc]

bulldog5046 said:

On an old mountain bike? wow. Great effort!

Thanks - a 20 year old mountain bike at that.

bulldog5046 said:

You sound a bit like me. I tend to just wake up and decide I'm going out on the bike.

Bingo! You've understood exactly what makes it work for me: I can choose to go out at any time when it suits me.

[jeremyc]

louiebaby said:

Morning Jeremy, long time!

I'm coming to the end of the year, like everyone, and just about on course to become a cycling spaceman. That's riding into space in a year, or 100 km of vertical gain.

By the way, pleae feel free to pop down to Devon for a ride any time, I enjoyed our last one!

You might have recognised where I took my inspiration for the target setting from. Albeit it turned out to be about half as difficult as I needed.

Good work on the spaceman effort - I'm nowhere near that for the year (my back-of-fag-packet calculations say I've probably ascended 40Km or so).

Love to visit at some stage for a ride - somehow we need to stop deepening that mountain bike wide rut that has been worn around the perimeter of Richmond Park.

[jeremyc]

louiebaby said:

I'd like to see Jeremy get a new cyclocross bike the amount of power he puts out that is absorbed by his rickety old MTB is quite impressive for his age!

Oi! I Resemble that remark.

And leave my lovely bike out of this - it's a classic dontchaknow.

Besides, surely the less efficient my bike is the fitter I'll get in the shortest distance ridden, right? And that, after all, is my goal (not distance nor speed).

[jeremyc]

louiebaby said:

Masochist.

There is enjoyment to be had from how you exercise. Plus, for the same amount of effort, you'd see twice as much scenery.

Not if I'm cycling in circles.

I'd just see the same scenery more times ...

[jeremyc]

Mr Will said:

jeremyc said:

Besides, surely the less efficient my bike is the fitter I'll get in the shortest distance ridden, right? And that, after all, is my goal (not distance nor speed).

Rule #10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster.

You'll cover more ground in an hour but an hour's exercise is an hour's exercise. Unless you are riding a fixed distance (rather than a fixed time) the fitness benefits will be much the same but you'll have more options for routes and destinations.

Y'see this year I have been riding fixed distances. As I've plateaued in the time taken to ride them so I've upped my 'benchmark' ride distance.

I discovered that it's a risky business chasing quicker times once you reach a reasonable level of fitness: it became apparent that environmental factors were having a greater impact on my time than my fitness (amount of traffic, number of red lights, degree of idiocy of people/dogs/mothers with prams in the park etc.) so I started to take more and more risks to improve - overtakes, jumping into gaps in traffic, crossing roads and so on. This is A Bad Thing.

Hence my decision to set targets on distance alone once this level was reached. I still monitor times, but I'm not chasing PBs as an indicator of my fitness.

[jeremyc]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I thought I'd update the thread as today I picked up my 2015 challenge.



This year will mostly be about fixed wheel, single speed cycling on the road.

And for those interested, 2014 ended up at 4,562 miles on my cranky old mountain bike.

[jeremyc]

Fastpedeller said:

Looks good - Is it Ali or Steel version?

Aluminium, with carbon fibre forks.

Details here.

[jeremyc]

A quick update on The Challenge half way through the year.

I've just passed my 2,000th mile, all in one, fixed gear.

I'm loving it, and still getting stronger/faster/fitter.

Freewheelin's Cheatin'.

[jeremyc]

louiebaby said:

Oh dear, I'm 300 miles behind you.

Good work!

50,300ft climbed so far. And worse still, descended.

[jeremyc]

Quarterly Challenge update time.

So far this calendar year 4,020 miles and 100,196 ft ascended (and descended again).

By my calculations that's about 1,018,722 revolutions of the crank.



Freewheelin's Cheatin'

[jeremyc]

louiebaby said:

I take it you're aiming for 6,000 miles?

More like 5,500 I think.

[jeremyc]

Challenge update: I've now ridden more miles this year to date than the whole of last calendar year. 4,579 so far.

I don't know whether this counts as a significant achievement since last year's miles were on a cranky, heavy old mountain bike over all manner of terrain, albeit with the benefit of gears. This year has been solely on road with a much lighter machine, but only with a single fixed gear.

Freewheelin's Cheatin'

Edited by jeremyc on Saturday 31st October 21:07

[jeremyc]

Passed 5,000 miles for the year today.

Shorter days and work/life getting in the way of cycling are making it harder, but hopefully 5,500 miles by the end of the year is still possible.

Freewheelin's Cheatin'