Festive 500

420km done. Came down with a cold yesterday so now no chance. Bugger.

I won’t complete it but I didn’t expect to, my main aim was to hit my 6000 mile target for the year which I passed this morning.

Cut it a bit fine but I was off the bike the whole of October recovering from knee surgery, plus a load of other crap happened this year.

I’ve done 395km, plus I’ll do another 32km later today. Had I not been in work it would have been easily doable with the reasonable weather.

Got no where near .

Hurt my back and crashed when i did get out to ride .

Will try again next year .

Well done to everyone for their efforts .

Happy New Year .

Finished it this morning with a 65km ride on the SS road bike out into the Cheshire lanes with a coffee stop in Alderley Edge. Really lovely morning but it’s forecast to rain later so I’m glad I got it done.

515km total. I did think about adding in an additional 10-15km loop towards the end but I’m happy with what I’ve done.
6 rides, average 53 miles each. Longest was 85, shortest was just over 30.

420km done

that was my total last night. Brutal commute in this morning (winds way more than the 15mph BBC said, I was chewing my bars doing 12mph, and it hailed FFS). Commute home this evening then a 20-30 mile ride tonight with MC testing her new Gabba should bag mine.

Healing vibes to pete and anyone else who’s been injured out of it.

Done, failed (as mentioned above) but now sofa bound for the rest of the Year 😆

It was firkin hard day out. Nice rattle into the Downs, up and over them, got to the top of my course and headed back…into 35knts wind. Brutal. You all know how hard that is, well every turn and open lane brought strong gusts and plummeting speeds. Damn the Downs. For all their inherent beauty they are a cruel master when its windy. Climbs into gusts on two occasions almost brought me to tears, no kidding. I’ve of strong spirit me, today almost brought out the break in my character.
I’ll recover, bikes cleaned and dried, kit in the washing machine, plans for next weekend already made.

Damn them bike things, damn the wind, damn the climbs. 😆

Happy New Year to you all. May 2016 bring you all your chosen goals in abundance.

😀

30km left, the commute home is 26km, it is pissing it down… MTFU and add 4km or go out later and ride round the block a couple of times…

This is the first year I’ve finished it! Last 70km today on a windy Box Hill loop. 504km total. Well done everyone for the efforts, the wind certainly made it hard even when it wasn’t raining…

15 mile commmute, dumped rucksack grabbed another bottle then straight out for a 25 mile ride. Freezing cold, windy, raining and “waterproof” shoes filled with water so did the whole thing with feet in ice baths (at least mesh summer shoes let the water out…). 513km done.

Heading out for first ride of new year shortly when munqe chick gets home from work, struggling to find any dry kit to wear!

Completed it Thursday with a 75km ride into the dales, sunny but windy, now for a few days off!

Got over 900km this year. Quite pleased really considering I was working most days and I still managed to have a day off to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family, albeit not on Christmas day. Quite pleased it’s over with though. The ride out on Christmas day was gruesome in typically Festive 500 fashion. The extended commutes I could have best done without but they helped pump up the mileage a bit. In general though for this time of year in England I think the weather conditions have been pretty kind to us cyclists. I wouldn’t have completed the 500km if the roads had been covered in ice. Off road it’s really difficult to cover that type of distance with all the gloopy mud. I’m now gonna begin fattening up for the cold snap that’s to come 🙂

On the third year of trying I managed to complete it AND stay out of hospital. Mostly it was very wet and windy with even a non-raining Boxing Day finding me riding through floods fork crown deep.
Work this week meant evening rides. Still, all wrapped up.
Well done to all else who had a go, completer or not.

Made it to 502km on Tuesday and have been focusing on beer and cake since then.

It was good overall, got me out riding to places I’d never been in rank weather. Marital harmony was improved over the holidays by me being in a better mood. I did very early starts to minimise family disruption.

The highlight was a daft ride up to Pitlochry in the dark to try and make the last train home. It was the night all the flooding hit so fairly moist.