Time for an update on my Adventures in Cycling, I think. Mainly because I completed the Hethersett 30/60 (er, the 30 rather than the 60) at the weekend. Firstly, my stats. I’m not doing as well as last year. My Enormous Geek Cycling Spreadsheet of Awesome Numbers tracks my miles and cross-checks it against how I was doing at this time last year, and the sums say that at the moment, I’m 51 miles down. Thankfully, that’s redeemable and with …
With 2012 at an end, and 2013 begun, it’s time to look back at how my cycling/game spending hybrid challenge went. Surprisingly well, as it turned out. My original plan was to cycle 900 miles in the year, to cover my expected game expenditure at a rate of one pound for every mile cycled. Hence the name “Pound-a-Mile”. I hit this early, and extended the target to 1000 miles, and then again to 1250. As of the 31st December, I’d …
So, it’s time for an update, I think. How do you think things have gone? Well, a lot of things have happened. Most importantly, I bought a new bike. Oh yes. Even though my Apollo Highway hybrid was still under a year old, I was fed up with the shocking build quality and after a snapped chain, snapped axle, bent wheel, twisted cogs, and it never, ever, changing gears smoothly enough regardless of how much they were adjusted, cleaned, and …
I love Endomondo, but one thing it doesn’t do is let you export routes you’ve created and use them in other applications and things like Google Earth and Google Maps. Sure, you can export workouts as both tcx and gpx files, but that means you need to have actually cycled the route first before you can export it. In my route planning, I like to create the rough route in Endomondo, then stick that in Google Maps and look for nearby …
I’ve not done an update on this for a while, but since I hit a milestone last night I thought I should. Yesterday I passed the 500 miles cycled so far this year mark! OK, so I managed 200 miles in the first month, then took 3.5 times that long to go just 1.5 times that far, but bear with me and my excuses. Firstly, I have tried to go out – honest. Nearly every week I’ve at least gone out …
When I started this, I really didn’t think I’d manage 200 miles in a year. Not without a struggle, anyway. Yet somehow, I’ve hit 200 miles in just my first month. 207.87 miles, to be more precise. Not only that, but I’ve also forced myself to cycle every day so far this year. OK, so one of those days was on an exercise bike due to my inner tube literally EXPLODING and I didn’t have a spare, but still. And …
Last night was cold and dark and cold. And dark. But mainly cold. So cold that the roads had started to freeze over while I was out on the bike, making junctions and corners much slower than normal and I generally just had to be more careful. However, despite all this, I took my “miles cycled to date this year” figure to just over 100 miles. That’s 103 miles in 17 days – and yes, I’ve managed a bike ride …
So, I’ve had 8 days of the Pound-a-Mile challenge. My legs hurt. In a good way, though. I think. In those 8 days, I have already blown my required 17.5 miles-a-week average out of the water, cycling over 50 miles. OK, that’s 8 days not 7, but still. It was 40 on the 7th day anyway. And you know what? I’ve enjoyed it. Sure, I’ve not enjoyed the oh-god-its-2-degrees-outside, 25-mph-winds-WHATness of last week, but after a couple of miles on each …
In previous years, I’ve attempted to curb my game spending and encourage myself to actually complete games I have by gradually reducing the amount of money I’m allowed to spend on them. These were known as the £25, £20 and £18 Rules. Last year, I kept to the £18 Rule – meaning I’ve currently missed out on Mario 3D Land, Skyrim and Batman Arkham City, as they’re not cheap enough (yet) for me to buy. That isn’t a problem though, …