Three 30-minute rides each week of the year Challenge 2025 [NB Starts 30/12/24!]

[ColinJ]

Do a minimum of three outdoor rides per week for each week of the year. Indoor rides do not qualify.

Each ride to last a minimum of 30 minutes. It’s preferable that each of the three rides takes place on a different day of the week – but that’s not mandatory (two rides on the same day will qualify – but they must be distinctly separate rides.)

Try and post in this thread at least once a week if you can – ride details to include week#, ride#, day, length of time on the bike – plus a ride description (if you want). Photos welcome!

Week 1 starts on Monday 30th December 2024 and runs to Sunday 5th January 2025. Each week will run from Monday to Sunday (so Week 2 will be 6th January to 12th January – and Week 52 from 22nd December to 28th December).

Start by posting your Week 1 rides below … and good luck!

PS Obviously, the aim is to do the full 52 weeks, but if for some reason you can't, please carry on and complete as many weeks as you can, then come back next year and try to at least beat that number. I anticipated missing a few weeks in 2023 so I kept a count of my successful weeks, thinking it would end up as something like 49/52 by year end. I did actually manage to finish on 52/52 by riding in drizzle on December 31st!

 

[ColinJ]

I am adding this comment in a separate post, so as to keep the opening post simple...

At first glance, this might not seem like much of a challenge, since the rides can be short and many of us probably ride 3+ times a week most weeks anyway. The important word here is MOST! The idea of the challenge is to encourage consistency, not athletic prowess. I think it is one of the best challenges on CycleChat.

I used to go off the boil completely for the 3 or 4 winter months, sometimes not touching any of my bikes for weeks or even the entire winter! The challenge kept me riding regularly in 2023 and 2024. There were a few weeks here and there when I felt a bit rough, but I managed to find enough time and energy to do my 3 x 30 minutes without knocking myself up. (Obviously, if you get a serious illness like a bad dose of Covid or the 'flu, then be sensible and rest instead of riding!). For me, it is now 104 weeks of doing a minimum of 3 rides a week and in 2024 that amounted to around 6 hours a week of cycling.

I don't use Strava (etc) and found the 3 x 30 thread a handy alternative place to log all of my rides. You may too.

***MORE RIDERS WANTED THIS YEAR - WE GOT LONESOME IN 2024! ***

 

[steveindenmark]

Yes sign me up for this please. 😁

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

I'd like to give this a try as well please.

 

[Saluki]

I will try this year. Work and life got in the way for most of 2024. I have been losing the love of riding of late and want to try and rekindle it.

 

[bluenotebob]

I’ve “done” week 1 of 2025 – one 68-minute ride yesterday (with my neighbour’s lad – details + photo in the ‘Your Ride Today’ thread) plus two more rides today – 70 mins before lunch then another 45-minute ride afterwards. Both wet and windy rides .. the temperature’s finally going up now as the wind strengthens.

Posting this to close off my 2024 rides .. I cycled 13,311km (8271 miles) in total over the year. More info in the ‘2024 miles’ thread.

I’ll post details of the rest of this week’s rides later in the week.

Bonne Année !

 

[FrothNinja]

Bit wet out glad to have the first 2 rides of 2025 done before the year starts

 

[ColinJ]

Bit wet out glad to have the first 2 rides of 2025 done before the year starts

Well done.

I took advantage of some unexpectedly decent conditions yesterday to go and meet a friend at a cafe in Heptonstall. For those of you who don't know it... It is up a tough climb from Hebden Bridge. Unfortunately, it turned out that the cafe was not open. In fact, the whole village appeared to be closed for the day - the pubs were shut too!

We decided to reconvene at a cafe in Hebden Bridge. My pal would take 15 minutes to stroll down to that so I did a demon descent to the valley and quickly got some extra distance in to Mytholmroyd and back.

We had a good chat at the cafe then I rode back to Tod on the A646, which is still closed for repairs. That is 8 times past the roadworks in less than a week. It really is a complex task - broken road upon broken sewer upon broken second sewer pipe upon broken culvert! There are tankers sucking the sewerage out of the hole while men are working down there, and then ferrying it to the treatment works nearer Tod. The latest forecast is that the road will reopen in a week's time but it would not surprise me if it took longer. It is a real headache for anyone who wants to drive that way. No problem for cyclists though - we can use about 30 metres of pavement to get through.

It wasn't a long ride - only 26 km - but it was a lumpy one with over 400 m of ascent. A good way to finish the old calender year and start the new 3-a-week year!

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

I've also done two, gave it a miss today, very wet and blowing a gale. All good so far.

 

[ColinJ]

It looks like I will be going past those roadworks twice again tomorrow!

The forecast is that there will be a gusting chilly wind, but it will be dry with sunny spells. I had already planned a ride but just got invited out on a scenic walk from Hebden Bridge, which I quite fancy...

I will get a couple of 30 minute rides in there-and-back, which will be my minimum quota for the week covered. I can then squeeze more rides in later in the week as long as bad weather doesn't stop me.

 

[FrothNinja]

Got my third in this arvo - actually fluked a dry pseudo-sunny half hour or so.
Missed a number of distance targets last year due to work etc. Trying to do 7 rides this week and get off to a good start.

 

[steveindenmark]

Sunshine in Denmark at last.
Week 1/1

 

[FrothNinja]

Amazing weather - if icy - this morning.
Thought an imperial half was on the books.
Did some essential tasks for work thinking I would wag off the rest of the day and catch up later.
However....phone call for two hours, couple of other jobs and afore I knew it, t'were after the lunching hour.
None the less stepped outside with intentions of riding until darkish. Within a foot or so Jack Frost had persuaded me to finish down grading from an imperial half century to an imperial half hour.
In spite of the cold inspiring this choice, my brain decided to ignore the chance of black ice and told me to go hard to keep warm. Luckily there were no slips of fate and I actually stayed out nearly-ish 40 mins. Averaged a surprising - for me - 18.31mph (max 23.38mph).
Would have stuck it out for the full hour, albeit at a slower pace, but I was getting very warm except for my feet, which 10 mins after getting back, have no warmed up to the point that I can feel my toes.
Really must try and find my missing overshoe, or some thicker socks.
Cooling off the rest of me with a bottle of St Feuillien.
Weather still glorious, almost tempted to head out into the gloamin'....

 

[bluenotebob]

Jack Frost had persuaded me to finish down grading from an imperial half century to an imperial half hour.

That's very funny !

But on a serious note, if you're confident of doing an imperial half century in January (providing the weather allows), why not go a bit further and do a metric century?

I'm praying for a decent weather opportunity to get a 100+km ride in this month - and if I can do one in February too, then I don't see why I can't do one every month this year. It will probably mean evening/night rides in July + August because of the heat, but that's OK.

I've been buying really thick socks recently - they make a lot of difference on the bike in winter. All I really need now are some thin inner gloves and I'll be OK when it's really cold.

 

[ColinJ]

It was hovering around freezing point here today - slightly above freezing in the sunshine when sheltered from the wind, slightly below in the wind when out of the sunshine!

I've been buying really thick socks recently - they make a lot of difference on the bike in winter.

I got some thick socks for Christmas. I wore them with thin socks underneath for today's ride/walk/ride. That combination worked well. My cycling shoes and walking boots are a fairly loose fit so there was room for the extra sock thickness.

All I really need now are some thin inner gloves and I'll be OK when it's really cold.

I wore my Aldi ski gloves today. They were fine on the walk but I could have done with a little more insulation on the rides to offset the extra wind chill factor. I have some silk glove liners somewhere which would fit under the ski gloves and make a big difference. I will have to have a look for them later.

[PS Actually... I have some fairly thin polyester/wool gloves which I just tried under the Aldi gloves. They should be okay for the 30-45 minute rides that I would do on very cold days like today. My hands might start to feel a bit constricted after an hour or so but I don't want to do long rides in freezing conditions anyway. I will still look for the silk liners, or buy some more if I can't find them.]

I really didn't want to feel the cold on or off the bike so I wore my Endura trousers with thermal long johns underneath. That combination worked really well. My bottom half didn't feel cold or overheat.

There was ice and/or slush in places, so care was needed. I hadn't taken into account the fact that the road between Tod and Hebden Bridge wouldn't have been completely gritted because of the roadworks. Most of it had been, but there were some stretches that looked dicey. I avoided most of the ice but was alarmed a couple of times to hear ice that I had not spotted crunching below my wheels!

When out on the walk we came across a steep lane which was completely covered in ice for a few hundred metres. We walked down the narrow grass verge to avoid coming a cropper. Further down we encountered 3 riders on e-mountain bikes climbing towards us. I don't think that any of them had studded tyres so they would have had problems on the icy stretch above - walking down the edge of a steep icy lane is a lot easier than pushing a heavy bike up it!

So... that's rides #2 and #3 done for this week and anything else will be a bonus. Friday and Saturday look like being sunny, but cold, with ice around - I hope to nip out up and down the valleys on gritted roads. Sunday looks like being really horrid (very wet AND very cold) so I will give that a miss!