Tag Archives: mountain biking

#June100 Update and a Decent Ride

By 7 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , ,

First, The #June100 Update

Two weeks in, and I’m amazed.  Today is the 14th of June, so with 46.666% (recurring) of the month gone, the 30 members of the June100 have completed 94.7333% (recurring) of the mileage required.  Of course it’s an individual challenge, but those figures show how awesome some of you guys are.

12 people have already completed the 100 leisure miles.  Another 7 (making 19 out of 30 overall) are ahead of their pro-rata target and look like hitting the 100 miles by month end.  I’m sure a bunch of others will increase the mileage (including Rafe, who doesn’t even start until the 20th) and hit the target.

I take my hat off to you all.  You’re special.  And I don’t mean in a sunshine bus kind of way. 🙂

Saturday’s Ride

So far, all my rides for the #June100 have increased in length.  I suspect this won’t continue because I messed up that continuum on Saturday by doing a 2 hour ride.  It was great fun though.  I found myself with the afternoon free so I got changed, got the Fat Boy out of the shed and headed first to Castleton via Thornham Lane (or Thornham Old Road as it’s called now), before going to my favourite place in the world, Hollingworth Lake, along the canalside.  One quick lap o’t’Lake and then back home in time to pick up the kids.

It was a gorgeous day, so it was a gorgeous rise and with just over 20 miles under my belt I was well chuffed with myself.  I took just one rest stop to take a photo too, so I was very happy with my legs.

The other good news on Saturday was the arrival of my MTB slicks, which I’ll put on the week before Manchester to Blackpool, which is in 3 weeks.

You can check out the ride here:

Not a bad start.

By 68 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, ,

First of all – Thanks.

The #June100 challenge seems to have got off to good start.  Thanks to everyone who’s joined, plus those good good people who promoted the idea around their friends and across the information superhighway.  John Girvin, for example, and Carrie.  If I’ve missed you, I’m sorry, and thank you too.

One day in, we’ve got 3 leisure rides logged and over 39 leisure miles amassed.  There are also over 80 miles of commuting on the spreadsheet already.  I’ll blog proper weekly updates here, but if you’d like to join, see yesterday’s blog post and join today. 🙂

Last Night’s Ride

I pedalled out last night for a quick 45 minute 9 miler, interrupted by a 25 minute tea break.  I really need to put more milk in next time…

Conditions were a bit murky, but warm and I managed to average just over 12mph.  The route took me on offroad paths to Milnrow central, then along Wildhouse Lane to Hollingworth Lake before a lake circuit, cuppa break then down to the canal for the rest of the ride home along the towpath.

The ride was lovely, but I couldn’t fail to notice the smile-per-pedestrian ratio was very low last night.  I wonder if it was because I was travelling a bit faster than usual, or because I didn’t have N1S with me?  Either way, cheer up, trail walkers of Rochdale!  Needless to say, all the cyclists I passed were courteous as always – to me, anyway.

Here’s the route and mileage:

The #June100 Cycling Challenge — Is Go !

By 66 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , ,

What Is The June100 Cycling Challenge?

The #June100 is a fun cycling challenge.  It was conceived to motivate me to get on my bike more, since my furthest month so far this year is 53.3 miles over 6 rides in May.  It’s a shared challenge with aim of helping us all get fitter, faster, not fatter and on the bike when we don’t have to, more than we normally would.  It’s a simple way to record the leisure miles in the month of June 2010, with an initial target of 100 miles – that’s only 3.33 recurring miles per day!

Why Only Leisure Miles?

I know some of you cycle to work.  I doff my cap to you, I really do.  You’re heroes.  There … feel better now?  Goood.  But commuting doesn’t count here.

The #June100 Challenge is designed to get us all on our bikes for leisure more often.  Commuting is a fantastic benefit to the world, but get out and enjoy your leisure time a bit more on the bike – rides when the kids are in bed; rides with the kids; finding the long way home (yes you can claim non-commuting detours); crawling out of bed early on the days off… that’s what this is about.

And besides:   My Game – My Rules 😉

How Does It Work?  How Do I Join?

  1. Fill in the form on my last blog entry.
  2. I’ll send you an invitation to the Official June100 Spreadsheet on Google docs.
  3. Complete your mileage and let us know where we can check your rides to date – this might be your GPS tracking site, your own blog or something similar
  4. Don’t forget to save your changes – and don’t kill the spreadsheet!

So far, we’ve got 16 fools  (ahem) superstars who’ve pledged to join in the challenge.  It’s not too late though, retweet this blog article, tell your friends, get some more gullible idiots (ahem) heroes to join us!

How Will We Keep Each Other Going?

Of course I’ll post progress on this blog.  More regularly and haphazardly, though, there’s the #June100 hashtag on Twitter if you use it.

I’ve started a Twitter Group too, so put your twitter address in the comments below to join it, or send me a tweet with “#June100” in it to @phillconnell (you might have to request my friendship first, I’m quite picky about who I tweet with!).

What Now?

Just join up, get your kit on, get your bike out and ride!  Have fun everyone. 🙂

The #June100 Cycling Challenge – Join Us

By 50 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, ,

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together…

… as Hannibal (not Lecter, the one off’ve The A Team) said.  In my last blog post, I asked for ideas to motivate myself to get more cycling done.  Jon suggested that the two of us commit to riding 100 miles in June, since so far this year I’ve only done 117.

One day later, it’s amassed a bit of interest.  So much so that we’ve spawned a hashtag on Twitter, #June100, because the list of names didn’t leave any room to say anything.  June100 participant so far include:

The concept was to make sure I was ready for the Manchester to Blackpoolride on 4th July this year, but we’re spread acrossthe UK, so we won’t all be doing that ride.  The challenge is just a good way to cajole the lazy ones among us into achieving the mileage, and for those who’ll smash the target, it’ll be a good way to (metaphorically) beat their chests!

So far, the rules are thus:

  • 1st to 30th June 2010
  • Leisure miles only, no commute miles counted
  • All miles must be auditable, so GPS log, Garmin records, date-stamped photos of  bike computers or similar must be kept

A common area to log the miles will be provided. We’re working out the best – or most fun – way to do this at the moment.  Suggestions so far range from a simple spreadsheet on Google Docs to a bespoke website.

Update! – The spreadsheet is now LIVE at http://bit.ly/9S9NOu.  Input into the orange boxes and please don’t kill it.  I’ll try to back it up but just – please – dont kill it.

Are with us?  Let me know if you’re signing up.  Put your twitter address in the comment if you’re happy to share it, or just start to follow the #June100hashtag to keep in touch.  Of course you don’t have to use twitter to join in, we’ll keep it as simple as possible to participate.

p.s. This is why I cycle. Self-indulgent photo post but it’s my blog so I’m the boss.

Hollingworth Lake at Dusk

My Favourite Place As Night Falls

Pfffffft! Blame The Almighty.

By 11 commentsRides, Tat, ,

Ever Had One Of Those Days?

On Sunday I awoke from a short night’s sleep nursing a headache that I’d paid for.  I’m not one to complain about hangovers so I won’t: I’ve got better things to moan about today.

We went to Mass on Sunday morning.  It was parade day so off we went, and I even got mentioned (briefly) in the sermon.  It’s not a good thing.  The Vicar mentioned me because he needed an example of somebody he didn’t know in the Church!  At this point I should point out that I’m not actually C of E: I should really be in the Church on the other side of the road.  Anyway, my point is that a little Sunday Worship should really stand you in good stead for a good day, shouldn’t it?

Lost Tools

When we were at Gisburn the other weekend, I noticed that my tool pouch wasn’t on my bike.  I’d assumed that it was either in the shed or the car, but yesterday I checked and no; it was missing.  This is an important detail.  I made a mental note to buy a new one this week, before my son and I headed out for a quick ride before tea.

Lost Time

We’d got about 3 miles.  We were talking about how good the new surface on the canal towpath was.  It’s a combination of bitumen and pea gravel.  Some of the pea gravel has been split by the whacker (Technical Term: A “whacker” is a pneumatic device for squashing aggregate surfacing into place), leaving a number of fine rock shards.  You know what happens next don’t you?

Yep.  That unmistakable sound. “pffffffftt!“, followed by “Dad, you’ve got a flat.”  Bugger.

Lost Temper

Well, not quite.  At that moment, the rain subsided (did I mention that it had started raining as we’d set out? No? Well, it flippin’ had), the sun shone through and we were treated to a gorgeous rainbow as I grumpily dismounted and knelt down to extract the stone shard from my Racing Ralph.  This rainbow stopped me losing my rag, in addition to the puncture repair kit I’d already lost.

We resolved to walk it up to Hollingworth Lake for a cuppa, make a phone call and await our fair rescuers.  So that’s what we did.  I have to be brutally honest and say that it was nice to get out, clear the cobwebs and have an experience with my son.

I didn’t even mention the random guy with the “Always Rejoicing” badge who emerged from the pub at Hollingworth Lake to hug me, tell that he loved me and comment on my pot belly, did I?  Well, I’m not going to mention him, other than to say I wasn’t rejoicing with him, as I pushed my bike towards my tea and rescue stop.  The random, drunken, joyful idiot.

Anyone know which multi-tool and puncture kit I should buy?  It must have tools for a day’s trail riding and be small enough to strap to my headset.  Suggestions welcome. 🙂

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