(Updated 1 Nov 2020)
Firstly under no circumstances is the post ignoring or dismissing the seriousness of the CoVid19 Pandemic which, at the time of writing, is far from over and looks if we are entering a second wave at least as significant as the first wave back in March 2020
Fortunately so far my self and my family seem to have got through with minimal major disruption and health impact which is a huge bonus
I've also been fortunate to have been in continuous employment, almost as normal for the duration so far although with some pretty small changes in the scheme of things
Just before the lock down started we had moved to start putting some people on furlough and getting those that could to work from home. We also moved those remaining on site to a double day shift pattern. The result was that we could maintain a level of Social Distancing whilst working to keep some key product development running to meet key milestones.
The outcome for me was that I was working and running my team as normal but on a shift pattern of 6.00 to 13.45 (early shift) and 14.00 to 21.45 (late shift). These were also modified shift patterns to avoid conflict at the normal shift changeover. I have worked shifts a number of years ago and would rather not have been doing them as it's hard work, and disruptive to sleep patterns if nothing else. What I wanted to take from that earlier experience was that I did not get up and "wait to go to work" on the late shift, and did not get home from the early shift and fall asleep, meaning I was unable to go to sleep in the evening for the early start.
Fortunately the UK Government allowed one session of "individual daily exercise". The exact definition of what that meant in terms of duration and distance from home was not fully clear, but I saw it as I could ride my bike, on my own and as long as I avoided other people I would meet the requirements. Whilst I rode for more than an hour I did tend to keep closer to home that I would normally by choosing routes than looped around my house or rode out and back several time like spokes of a wheel. I certainly reduced the number of rides that went more than 15-20 miles from my house, conscious that if there were any issues it would mean that my wife had a longer (and probably what would be classed as non-essential) journey to rescue me if needed. Fortunately that didn't happen, and I started taken an extra inner tube "just in case.
So as a result of the shift pattern, desire to not sit at home, and good weather I started riding for 1-2 hours per day. This was made more attractive because there was almost no traffic. I have ridden some closed sportives and at times it was like riding on closed roads
Shortly this became a habit and without really realising it I was racking up significant mileage. I was also riding on new roads and finding new places to ride that I'd never seen before in 1o years of riding in the area
The following are some of the changes that I saw, in no particular order:
- My average weekly mileage rose to 220-250/week
- I completed the Strava 1250km/month, Climbing challenge and Grand Fondo 3 chalenges months in a row (I had only completed all 3 in a month once before)
- Despite the high mileage the altitude gain was relatively low as I was staying closer to home and the "bigger" climbs are further away than I was riding
- I had to change the chains on my Giant and Scott about 6 months earlier than expected
- I needed to buy some more cycling shorts (as I was wearing the ones I had so often and the laundry couldn't keep up)
- I rode 11 consecutive days in a row in June
- Typically I rode for 24-25 days every month in April-June
- By the beginning of September I had achieved my 5000 mile "target" and by the beginning of October I'd already done more miles that all other years bar one
- My average speed is higher on both my "good" bikes in 2020 vs 2019
- I have only ridden (commuted) to work about 4 times in total this year (vs. probably 30-40 normally)
- It was difficult to get spare parts for bikes such was demand
- The spare parts that were available were a lot more expensive that normal
- I have never seen so many cyclists on the road before (outside of a Sportive)
- My average speed increased by 0.2mph on both the Scott and the Giant
- The Velo Midlands was cancelled with no refund - robbing b******s, I won't be doing any of their events again
- We had to cancel (defer for a year) the cycling holiday to the French Alps. I wanted to go this year at least as it would be the last year of everything thing being "normal" before we leave the EU at the end of 2020
- I had to join Strava Premium as the changes made to the free version removed quite a few things I liked (like segments). Although this was not CoVid related to be fair.
- Now that I'm a Premium Strava member I have used the Live Segment feature on my Garmin, and it has surprisingly made a difference. On segment
- I used more Contact lenses than I have ever used before in a given period. I saw that I could now recycle both the plastic cases (which I did anyway) but also the foil covers. So I've been keeping them ready to recycle next time I go to the opticians:
Used Contact Lens holder mountain:
Here are some images and data showing what I have cycle this year so far:
