Sunday 31 December 2006

2006 Biking

I've only started 'logging' all of my riding for the last few months, but I figured out the other day that I'd done abour 1700 miles this year. Of these, about 1000 were getting to work and getting to places for work, all of them done on my singlespeed Kona on 32:16 and at a decent pace. I didn't do that many other rides, really:

* a couple of local on-/off-road rides (Local road/off road New Years Day ride and On-and off-road through Bolam, Bishop Auckland, Middridge and Aycliffe again) in January, on my own on the Inbred
* Swaledale - Moresdale Road and Fremington Quarry in February, my first ride with the Hamsterley Trailblazers, on the Inbred
* A HTB Sunday ride round Hamsterley (Riding in a winter wonderland) in March, on the Inbred
* A local booze cruise (HTB Booze Cruise) in April, with the HTB group, on the ss Kona
* SSUK 2006 at Hamsterley, in June. I rode there and back, as well as doing the race, for which I won the Spirit of Singlespeed prize, a custom bike frame from Solitude Cycles, all on the ss Kona
* June saw me do 65 miles on the road, riding from Darlington to Barnard Castle to Hamsterley to Darlington on the ss Kona (my first metric century ride - 100km)
* In July, I rode from Darlington to Hamsterley then did a HTB group ride and got soaked on a solo local ride, both on the Inbred
* In August, I rode the 80 miles from Darlington to Tan Hill and Back on the road and did a local guided ride, both on the Inbred
* In September, I completed my first century ride, The Hell O' The North, on the Inbred, and came in sixth in The Great Milk Stout Ride 2006 (pictures), on the ss Kona
* In October, I rode from home to Hamsterley, rode the 50km Hamsterley Hill Rush and then rode home again, on the ss Kona
* November and December saw no biking, other than to (and for) work, all on the ss Kona

So, only 14 non-work rides all year, but averaging 50 miles per ride.

2006 saw my first metric and imperial century rides, both over hilly routes. The Hell O' The North was both the longest ride I've done and the hardest; the weather was the worst anyone could remember for that ride, with an awful headwind for the first 60 or 70 miles - I did the last 40 miles faster than the first 40, I think. Considering my preparation was almost nil, I think I did ok, but want to do it faster next year.

All in, a pretty good year. I did a few 'firsts' and made some new biking friends. I carried on commuting by bike and discovered that I like long bikes rides and I like singlespeed bikes. In fact, I like long bike rides on singlespeed bikes.

3 comments:

Sam said...

Your post inspired me to start recording my miles. I don't ride anywhere close to what you do, but I certainly have ridden more in 2006 that I did in prior years. And I plan on riding more this year.

mactually » Blog Archive » 1661 miles said...

[...] n extra ride sometime before the end of the year. I need to do an extra 24 miles to match my guestimated total of 1700 miles for 2006. This entry was posted on Frida [...]

mactually » Blog Archive » 2007 Biking said...

[...] er than for getting to and from work. 1684 miles for the year, which is about the same as last year. Somehow, I did 14 non-work rides again too! * In January I took the gears off my bike and went on a l [...]