My Strava 2014 Summary Video

My Strava 2014 Video: http://2014story.strava.com/video/163906

or if the link does not work here it is in all its glory:

Ignore the pathetic number of KoM though!

Target Exceeded

I have a personal target to cycle 5000 miles per year. That's about 100 miles/week. When I started cycling "properly" in 2010 (after getting back into it in 2009) I set a target of 4000 miles that I thought would be tough. However I achieved 5000 that year without really trying, so have kept the target at 5000/year since then. I achieved this distance in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and even got a few hundred extra through December as well. However in late 2012 and 2013 my wife was seriously ill so I did not make the 5000. I did a huge distance in the middle 6 months of 2013 but this did not make up for the slow start and to be honest I was exhausted by September and after this my priorities were elsewhere. 4700 miles or so was as good as it was going to be.

The start of 2014 saw poor weather and priorities still elsewhere and by the time the weather started to get better in March I'd decided that 4000 miles was a more practical and acceptable target for the year. However a set of circumstances came together and I did a lot of commuting to work in 2014 and these are a relatively easy 36 miles a day. As well as this the weather was pretty good for a lot of the year and I rode most weekends as well. By week 20 (April/May) I had done more than enough miles to get back on target for 5000/year and from then until the end of September I was able to keep turning the miles out with a mix of commuting and riding. We also had a few UK holidays when I was able to get some riding in which included a  week in the Lake District and the 2014 Ride London. I was pretty tired however by this time and a big ride at the very start of October saw the 5000 miles roll past. I then had a long weekend away for our 25th Wedding Anniversary and it was the first weekend I'd not ridden since March and a much needed break it was.

At this point I felt "mission accomplished" and that whilst I would not stop riding I could take it easy and any more miles would be a pleasant bonus. However a continuation of reasonable weather meant that I was still doing more miles that I realised and by the start of December 6000 miles was very possible. At this point I tried much harder, and with the benefit of some days holiday to burn before Christmas I was able to bank more miles in. By the last weekend before Christmas I had just over 100 miles to go, so I pushed on and finally, with a 50 mile ride on Boxing Day passed the 6000 mile mark. (In actual fact I'd passed it a few weeks before by the target is Strava miles and I have a 3rd bike that I don't record on Strava but barely does 1-200 miles per year).

Here's one of the graphs I generate with my Excel sheet :

And here's the source data (by month)

The green cells are where I have cycled more miles that the target requires (based on amortising the miles evenly over the whole year)

The other motivator was the Strava Grand Fondo challenges - the problem I had this year is that I missed the first 3 (Jan to Mar) but after than I got all of them up to Octobers and then felt motivated enough to push for the Nov & Dec ones - although the Dec one was about 10 miles too far in all honesty - after the miles I had done earlier in the year by the time Nov came around 60 miles was pretty close to my limit - especially when the weather is cold.

Interestingly (?) according to my Excel spreadsheet the split of miles between my Giant (commuting and bad weather riding and with mudguards) and my Scott (shiny summer bike) is this year is an almost 50:50 split within 100 miles or so. I think this reflects a lot more commuting miles and a reluctance to keep cleaning the Scott after winter rides - and the value of mudguards even if they are only Crud RoadRacers.

Here's the split of mileage between bikes:

I am ecstatic with 6000 miles - its a fantastic personal achievement. However it came at a bit of a price because by October I was pretty well exhausted and needed a rest. I think 5000 miles is a much sensible target given the time balance with the family. I consider commuting miles as "free" in terms of family commitment as I am out before anyone gets up anyway and back home only 30 minutes or so later at most. Next year, while I want to try for the 5000 again I'd like to try and push average speed up by 0.5mph or so which I think is a much tougher target

Here's the Strava data:

JLR Strava Club - Longest Ride w/e 21 December 2014

I wanted to get the Strava Grand Fondo 12 badge as this would mean that I achieved 9 of the 12 in 2014 - starting with the April one and getting them every month. It meant a long ride on Friday 19 Dec that I was not sure that I'd make.I had been feeling pretty tired again - it's been a long year both at home and at work and my mileage had been dropping off, as expected as the year end approached. The Friday was the first day of my holiday, the weather was dry and not too cold although the wind was strengthening. I decided to ride one of the routes to the North of Meriden which is about 75 miles and then add some distance on the way back. The problem with the Meriden routes is that there's only one way to get to the routes and that's to Meriden, and hence it means its often the same route back as well - so there's nearly 20 miles of "there and back" whatever else you do on the way out of Meriden.

Anyway I set off and felt reasonably good. I had a few energy bars and gels on the way. It was windier than I had expected and seemed to build as distance went on. The sun was out though and it was "warm enough". The turn back at about 40 miles was welcome although I was feeling quite tired by that point. My Giant is not a bad bike but it currently has the original Giant wheels with 25mm Gatorskins on for winter use and these are about 1.5kg heavier than the normal wheel/tyre set (Cole Rollens). The return leg was about keeping the pace sensible and making sure I got the distance in rather than any chasing of segments. The last 10 miles was hard as I was really tired, and I needed to do a couple of local roads to make sure I got the distance - 82.2 miles and the Grand Fondo was mine.

Here's the route http://www.strava.com/activities/230801673:

As an added bonus I also rode the furthest of the JLR Strava club:

And thanks to the great Veloviewer site I can see all my completed challenges for 2014 in all their glory:

In fact Veloviewer is so good that I paid the pittance of about £9.50 for a year - its about £60 for Strava Pro and I don't think that Strava matches the features - I certainly don't need to set a target in Strava to work towards it.

BBC (again) - Is Cycling the New Golf?

Basically - yes according to this article

The Average Cyclist - 2014

I came across a Cycling Weekly article discussing the results of an on-line survey they have carried out in 2014 - the full survey is here: Link

I thought it was interesting to see where I came in these results, so I have been through some of the answers and compared myself. Here we go

Q1 Male or Female

Male 90% Female 10 %

I am a male and given that its unusual that I see many women when out and about the result isn't really a surprise

Q2 How old are you?

Average age: 43 years and one month
10-15 years 0.6% 16-20 years 2.7% 21-25 years 4.6% 26-30 years 7.2% 31-35 years 8.0% 36-40 years 14.4% 41-45 years 18.5% 46-50 years 19.0% 51-55 years 13.0% 56-60 years 6.8% 61-65 years 2.7% 66-70 years 1.5% Over 70 years 1.0%

I am 49 so fall in right in the biggest group

Q3 How long have you been cycling?

Average length: 12 years and 9 months
0-1 years 10.3% 2-3 18.9% 3-4 10.3% 4-5 7.2% 5-6 5.4% 6-7 4.0% 8-9 4.2% 10-15 7.3% 16-20 4.6% 20-30 8.5% Over 30 years 19.1%

I was not quite sure what they meant here. I have "cycled" for over 40 years as a means of transport but I think they really mean "how long have you been cycling for pleasure, doing sportives etc etc) and in this case its just about 5 years. Though looking at the data I can't quite see how they get an average of 12 years.

Q4 How tall are you?

Average height: 5’10”
Over 6’8” 0.1% 6’8” 0.1% 6’7” 0.1% 6’6” 0.2% 6’5” 0.6% 6’4” 1.8% 6’3” 3.2% 6’2” 7% 6’1” 7.9% 6’0” 13.1% 5’11” 13.4% 5’10” 15% 5’9” 10.6% 5’8” 9.4% 5’7” 7.5% 5’6” 4.4% 5’5” 1.5% 5’4” 1.8% Under 5’4” 2.6%

I am 5'11" so just slightly over the average height

Q5 Do you hold a British Cycling racing licence?

No 84% Yes 16%

A strong no from me - not interested in racing - although I am am member of British Cycling (Ride Member) for the legal insurance

Q6 Do you own a power meter?

Yes 9% No 91%

Another strong no from me again - too expensive and not training for anything other than miles

Q7 How much do you weigh?

Average weight: 12st 3lb
Under 10 stone 8.7% 10-11 29.9% 12-13 39.3% 14-15 14.8% 16-17 4.4% 18-19 1.1% Over 19 stone 1.2%

I am just 11 stone so on the lighter side of he survey respondents - a good place to be I reckon

There were a lot more questions but I lost a bit of interest with some of them so here are a few of the more interesting ones

Q20 Who do you ride with?

A club 34.1% My friends 54.2% On my own 72.6%

I ride alone (and I count commuting in this) or with a friend

Q24 How many hours a week do you ride outdoors?

0 0.6% 1-2 4.8% 2-3 8.7% 3-4 12.3% 4-5 11.9% 5-6 16.0% 6-7 14.6% 8-9 11.8% 10-11 12.4% 12-13 3.7% 14-15 1.6% 15-20 1.8%

A pretty stupid question as for many people the real answer is "it depends".

Q26 Which cycling or fitness apps do you use?

None 15.5% Strava 68.1% Map my Ride 12.2% Edomondo 3.9% Training Peaks 5.0% MyFitnessPal 6.8% Garmin.Connect 41.1% Wahoo Fitness 1.6%

Not really a surprise - all the people I know who cycle and use a fitness app use Strava. Although I would strongly recommend using Veloviewer it uses your Strava data but does a lot more with it - its so good I even paid for the "PRO" version - it was only £9 or so so much better value than Strava Pro - I'm not that bothered with setting targets and more interested in the data analysis

BBC Plugs Strava and other Sport and Fitness Tracking Apps

Here's an article from the BBC about sport and fitness tracking apps: Link

Strava gets quite a big mention and is suggested to be currently in the vanguard of engaging and keeping users and using (and monetising) the data.

The Daily Mail does cycling article about a MAMILs

The Daily Mail - normally a bit of a cycling hating paper actually has done a slightly reasonable article. The links here: Daily Mail does MAMILs.

And thinking that this seemed familiar here's an article in the Daily Telegraph from July 2014 with a similar theme - I thought the Mail article rang a bell and sure enough it is similar (though not the same). I guess there's only so much that can be written about 40 something blokes riding bikes. The article is here: Daily Telegraph does MAMILS

 

More Daily Mash Magnificence

Here's another cycling related piece of Daily Mash Cycling related magnificence:

Here's the link: Daily Mash

Triathletes

Say no more:

A Ride from Gaydon

I was at The Heritage Motor Centre for a meeting today in the morning and had a 1/2 days holiday I had to use before the end of the year, so decided a short ride after the meeting was a good idea. So the Giant went in the car 1st thing and off I went afterwards.

It was a some of the route of the Rawlinson Bracket (see here and  here) but a lot shorter to make sure it fitted in to 2 hours or so.

Here's the route on Strava and here's a map view:

 Not too unpleasant a day given the time of year. Wind got up a bit at the end and there was a hint of rain in the air but it all held off.

29.5 miles. average speed 15.8mph and 1600ft of climbing. Its another 30 miles to a possible 6000 for the year. 

And as I have not done the roads around here that many times a nice handful of Strava PRs to boot as well.