"Eddington Number"

[bluenotebob]

A little bit of progress..

As at 1st January this year, I needed 5 rides over 75km to get my Metric Eddington Number up to 75. I’ve done those rides now – so I’ve advanced my E Metric from 74 to 75. I need another 4 rides over 76km to get my E Metric from 75 to 76 (I hope to do that by end May/early June)… and a further 4 rides over 77km to get my E Metric up from 76 to 77 .. I hope to do that by end Sept/early Oct.

I only needed one ride over 51 miles to get my Imperial Eddington Number up to 51. I’ve done that – and I now need another 7 more rides over 52 miles to get the E Imperial up to 52. Again, I hope to have done those rides by end Sept/early Oct.

I think advancing my Metric Eddington Number up to 78 will have to wait until early 2025. Likewise, it might not be until next year before I get my Imperial Eddington Number up to 53 … but I can make a lot of progress towards both these targets over the coming months.

 

[UphillSlowly]

My targets (of which there are many):
👉🏼 increase Lifetime Eddington from 53 to 57 (12 rides of 57 miles needed)

I am now on 55 miles

👉🏼 increase Lifetime Metric Eddington from 74 km to 81 km (13 rides of 81 km needed)

And 77 km
After three months of riding so far this year. Entering the metric century monthly challenge has helped! 😄

 

[Norry1]

I am now on 55 miles

And 77 km
After three months of riding so far this year. Entering the metric century monthly challenge has helped! 😄

I haven't entered this, but I've done at least one each month so far, maybe I should sign up as a late entrant

 

[UphillSlowly]

I haven't entered this, but I've done at least one each month so far, maybe I should sign up as a late entrant

 

[Donger]

I am now on 55 miles

And 77 km
After three months of riding so far this year. Entering the metric century monthly challenge has helped! 😄

Nice one. You are right about the Challenge. A long term aim is essential if you are going to get your Eddington Number up, and it really helps to set a target several years ahead and to throw in as many rides as you can that are even longer than your targeted Eddington distance.

I used the Challenge as a long term target, figuring that if I entered it for 5 years, that would account for at least 60 rides of 62 miles (100km), so all I had to do to hit an Eddington of 62 was to do the Challenge and throw in a couple of spare qualifying rides.

In my case I got there in the end, but almost all of my long distance rides were of 62-70 miles, and I ended up with an Eddington of 63 that I am very unlikely to ever improve upon. I converted almost all of my 50+ milers into 62 mile (100km) rides, but rarely converted 62+ milers into bigger rides to build towards a higher Eddington Number. I'm not sure these stats will line up correctly on everyone's screens, but I have always kept a Word doc record of my longer rides to keep a track of my Eddington. (Part of it pasted below).

Miles: 50 …. 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 … 100

Occasions: 100…. 93 92 91 76 53 42 36 34 25 22 18 … 2

You will see that while I have ridden 63 miles or more on 76 occasions, I have only hit 64 miles or more on 53 rides. It is quite nice to see that I've hit 50 miles 100 times now, and done a couple of 100 milers, but it is a real shame that I've only hit the 100km mark (62 miles) on 91 occasions. A pity to fall 9 rides short of a Metric Eddington of 100, but I gave it a good go. I have stopped trying now, aiming for quality of rides rather than distance, though I am still entering the Half Century a Month Challenge to make me keep going.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Nice one. You are right about the Challenge. A long term aim is essential if you are going to get your Eddington Number up, and it really helps to set a target several years ahead and to throw in as many rides as you can that are even longer than your targeted Eddington distance.

This is so true. So many of my imperial centuries were 100 miles on the dot, with not many "even longer" ones. This means that to get from 100 to 102 I'd need something like 25 102 mile rides. I forget the exact number.

But I've never been someone who can ride 100 miles with ease. My utterly knackered former self at the end of a ride would not have taken kindly to the suggestion that I ride a few extra miles for the sake of future Eddingtons.

You have to just face it, when you hit the wall that's it.