2013 Bike Achievements. What's yours?

harksy

My Year on the Bike 2013.
Target for the year 6,213 mile/10,000km

The Numbers..

Distance 7,155.1 mi/ 11,515 Km = 19.6 miles per day
Time 457h 0m = 1 1/4 hours average per day
Elev Gain 337,500 ft = 63 Vertical Miles
Rides 187 =3.5 rides per week

Challenges Completed

5th May Tour of the Glens 200kms & 8,000ft of climbing (my 1st 200)
19th May Glengesh & Ardara tour 92mile & 6,000ft
14th-16th June Cork to Derry Charity Cycle 300mile in 3 days
18th August Inishowen 100 104mile 7,500feet of climbing
22nd September Torr Head Challenge. Toughest climb in Northern Ireland

Spurred on by my MFT Virtual Peleton and Captain TBY!
Thanks to you all
Happy New Year Guys & Keep 'er lit in 2014

Alan

TheBigYin

2013... it's been a tough year - after 18 months of working on lots of long steady distance stuff to get the weight down, my direction shifted a little to getting better quality mileage in. By and large, I seemed to get there, with a few exceptions...

Plan was to keep the distance target from 2012 - i.e. 10,000km but wherever possible make that 10,000km of OUTSIDE riding.

Anyway, here goes

Distance - 11,162.36km (6,935 miles)
Time - 20d19h23m46s
Elevation - 92,786m (57.6 miles)
Rides - 240

Longest ride - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/301009726 - 135.5km on a cold and windy day in april
Hilliest ride - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297725842 - 1396m on a mentally windy day, riding around what felt like every hill within a 20 mile radius of my home.

2013 was also the year when I revisited something I swore I'd never do again - I rode a couple of 10 mile Time Trials. Nothing "organised", but on a "proper" course as used by my LBC (local bike club) - 27m22s on a course that's best described as a "sporting" rather than a "fast" route was a pleasant surprise - especially on a "normal" roadbike rather than anything low-profile or aero. http://app.strava.com/activities/84829926

As for the goal of actually getting fitter - there's a slight anomaly in the figures - you'd probably expect the average speed of my rides to have increased, but actually the average speed DROPPED slightly from 2012's 23.2kph to 2013's 22.9kph. However, that's actually partly because the harder sessions of riding meant that I had to ride a greater proportion of very low intensity recovery sessions. In other words, the fast sessions got faster, but the slow sessions got even slower! Probably a better metric of my improvement would be found in the geekier realms of power and FTP numbers. My final FTP test of 2012 had me turning out 182w. By the end of 2013 I'd bumped that to 262w, a pretty staggering 44% improvement!

As for 2014 - well - it's all a little "up in the air" to be honest - pretty major changes to my personal situation last year mean that it's difficult to have a static plan for the entire year. I know it sounds a little aimless and directionless but here's what I'm hoping for...

1) I'm going back to trying to lose that last 15kg, hopefully without impacting on my power development
2) If I'm not working a "day job" then I'm going to shoot for a similar overall ride distance as 2012 and 2013
3) I'm definitely going to try and get more variety into my riding - at least once a month, I'd like to get a ride in that's NOT starting and finishing at the back door of my house - even if it means putting the bike in the car and driving somewhere (which frankly seems a little silly, unless of course it's to Italy/France/Belgium of course!)
4) (and I can't believe I'm typing this!) I'm going to try and get under 27 minutes for a 10, on the course detailed above. I must be mental!
5) I'm going to make every effort to enjoy every single ride I get to do.