Back on Wednesday 14th April, and following some converations with friends about fitness goals, I set myself the challenge of travelling 100 miles before my holiday – in 45 days (see here: http://splodzblogz.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/100-mile-challenge-begins/).
And today, with two days still left to go before I head off on my break, I’ve done it! Yay!
It turned into a cycling challenge really – I did all 100 miles either on my mountain bike around where I live, or on our old broken exercise bike which just about stays together enough to use when the weather outside isn’t favourable.
Here it is – my last eight miles!
Some bike rides were short, others quite long, some took me out into the Lincolnshire countryside, others had me cursing the four walls I was stuck in – but each mile I did got me one little bit closer to my goal.
| Day | Date | Activity | Distance (miles) |
Time (hrs:min:sec) |
Ave Speed (mph) |
Total Distance |
| 1 | 14th April | Cycling | 4.5 | 00:25:53 | 10.43 | 4.5 |
| 2 | 15th April | 4.5 | ||||
| 3 | 16th April | Cycling | 5.24 | 00:28:10 | 11.15 | 9.74 |
| 4 | 17th April | 9.74 | ||||
| 5 | 18th April | Cycling | 7.25 | 00:39:40 | 10.96 | 16.99 |
| 6 | 19th April | 16.99 | ||||
| 7 | 20th April | 16.99 | ||||
| 8 | 21st April | Cycling | 3.54 | 00:20:40 | 10.28 | 20.53 |
| 9 | 22nd April | 20.53 | ||||
| 10 | 23rd April | 20.53 | ||||
| 11 | 24th April | Cycling | 7.7 | 00:45:44 | 10.1 | 28.23 |
| 12 | 25th April | 28.23 | ||||
| 13 | 26th April | Cycling | 7.34 | 00:40:43 | 10.82 | 35.57 |
| 14 | 27th April | 35.57 | ||||
| 15 | 28th April | 35.57 | ||||
| 16 | 29th April | 35.57 | ||||
| 17 | 30th April | 35.57 | ||||
| 18 | 1st May | Cycling | 7.76 | 00:38:14 | 12.17 | 43.33 |
| 19 | 2nd May | 43.33 | ||||
| 20 | 3rd May | 43.33 | ||||
| 21 | 4th May | Cycling | 3.37 | 00:20:56 | 9.65 | 46.7 |
| 22 | 5th May | 46.7 | ||||
| 23 | 6th May | 46.7 | ||||
| 24 | 7th May | Cycling | 15.79 | 01:39:26 | 9.53 | 62.49 |
| 25 | 8th May | 62.49 | ||||
| 26 | 9th May | 62.49 | ||||
| 27 | 10th May | 62.49 | ||||
| 28 | 11th May | 62.49 | ||||
| 29 | 12th May | Cycling | 3.75 | 00:21:11 | 10.61 | 66.24 |
| 30 | 13th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 31 | 14th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 32 | 15th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 33 | 16th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 34 | 17th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 35 | 18th May | 66.24 | ||||
| 36 | 19th May | Cycling | 5.06 | 00:20:00 | 15.18 | 71.3 |
| 37 | 20th May | Cycling | 13 | 00:53:04 | 14.7 | 84.3 |
| 38 | 21st May | 84.3 | ||||
| 39 | 22nd May | 84.3 | ||||
| 40 | 23rd May | 84.3 | ||||
| 41 | 24th May | Cycling | 7.7 | 00:41:00 | 11.27 | 92 |
| 42 | 25th May | 92 | ||||
| 43 | 26th May | Cycling | 8.1 | 00:33:37 | 14.3 | 100.1 |
You want some stats then?
Over the last 43 days I have cycled 100.1 miles in 8 hours, 48 minutes and 18 seconds – that’s an average pace of 11.51 miles an hour. My longest ride was 15.79 miles when I had a Friday off work, and my shortest was just 3.37 one evening when I didn’t have very long and the headwind was horrible. The fastest ride I did was on the exercise bike at just over 15 miles an hour – and that hurt!
I learnt quite a few things over the last 43 days too… let me summarise:
- Cycling is painful on the bum (ok I knew that already!) but that is made much better with a pair of proper cycling shorts which I gave in and bought about one week into my challenge. Fantastic things despite looking very strange!
- I get a pain in my chest if I do a bike ride into a strong headwind, which a lot of women find. The pain comes a couple of hours after I’ve finished the ride and lasts for a day or two. The first time it happened it was quite worrying but ok once I knew it was a common thing. I found relaxing my arms when cycling into a headwind helped.
- I like to think I’m motivated with exercise but I’m really not. This challenge was really tough for me to do as I’m a very lazy person who would much rather lay on the sofa and watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition than go out and exercise. I often had to really force myself to get on and do some miles, but this got easier as the days went by.
About two weeks ago I really felt like this challenge was impossible. I was lagging behind on my miles and thought about adding in some walking into the equasion (I’ve been on a couple of long walks in the last month which would have helped the total along). But I didn’t give in and instead gave it everything, going further when I did have time to get the bike out so the total increased quickly, and that was great motivation. Then when on Monday I saw I only needed eight more miles I knew that tonight I just had to get on and finish it in one last ride.
It feels great to meet my goal, even though it was only a silly little thing I set myself to try and get me to exercise more.
Maybe I should set myself another target when I come back from holiday?