Review of 2014

Summary:

I cycled significantly more miles this year than last year. I rode on 162 days averaging 45 miles on those days. Of the 7307 mile total, only 530 were done of fixed this year but that did include the 136 mile epic jaunt around SE Leicestershire and Rutland. This was my hardest ride of the year. I rode more than 100 miles on 12 of those days, with my longest two being 194 miles and 252 miles.

Commuting wise I more than doubled my commitment from 924 to 2282 miles which means I rode the 56 miles to work and back approximately 41 times.

I rode two tours, a 384 mile three day mini-tour around eastern Brittany (B&B), and a short week in Holland (camping) with number 2 son.

The three consecutive 100+ mile days in France was a bit of a PBP test, although my legs were sore each evening I felt quite happy after a few early morning miles to push on for another long day. This was in third place in my highlights of the year. In second place was La Bataille de Normandie 400, at 252 miles my longest day’s riding to date, and another step in the build up to this year’s PBP. In top spot however, was not distance related being a mere 62 miles, but was my climb of the Pico de Veletta in Spain, the highest road in Europe.

My Eddington Number is now 65, not the progress that I had hoped for and failing to achieve my target of 70. Because of the large number of rides of 66-68 miles I have, I will need another 17 rides of 70 miles or more to hit E=70.

Targets for 2015:

I didn’t really set any target for 2014, just creating them as the year went on. For this year, however, I will attempt the following:

1. The big one – complete the Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP).
2. Qualify for the PBP, which means doing my first 600km ride, I have entered the Windsor-Chester-Windsor. My back up plan is the Normandy 600 on the last qualifying weekend (i.e. last chance saloon).
3. Ride at least 10% of Steve Abraham‘s 2015 miles as he attempts the annual mileage record of 75,065 miles. Now 7,507 miles in 2015 shouldn’t be too difficult for me but Steve is actually scheduling a significant bettering of the record so I will probably need to be near 8,500 miles in total.
4. Improve my aerobic threshold, and hence speed. This I will measure by way of short distance TT times, so I will be looking to hit 26’30” for a 10 and 1:08 for a 25.