But this year I thought it would be a good incentive to end the year on. My cumulative cycling distance had topped 10,000KM earlier in the month \u2013 a 2021 target that I gave myself once I\u2019d realised that my previous target of 5,000KM in a year was being easily met. (I have done by far<\/em> more cycling in 2021 than at any other time in my life.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real challenge for me was that doing the Festive 500 in a British winter meant that I\u2019d need to plan my riding times very carefully to maximise the daylight hours we get. With the winter solstice taking place on 21 December, I would be looking at around seven a half hours of daylight between a sunrise that happened just after 8:00, and a sunset that took place at about 15:45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was going to spend a fair bit of Christmas with my parents in North Norfolk. It\u2019s fine cycling country \u2013 even if it\u2019s mostly flat \u2013 with lots of quiet village roads to cycle along. The downside is that at this time of year the roads are very muddy with agricultural vehicles leaving lots of dirt and mud on the roads as they work the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather didn\u2019t look like it would help either. While this has not been a cold winter, it has been a wet and grey one. It\u2019s actually been a stupidly warm for late December \u2013 it was 13C on my final Festive 500 ride! But it also rained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days ago on BBC Breakfast, the weather presenter noted that London Heathrow had seen a total of 0.2 hours of sunshine across the previous 16 days. While I\u2019ve not been cycling around Heathrow, I have been cycling around south-eastern England, and that\u2019s certainly what it has felt like. Low grey clouds, and none of those fine, if cold, winter days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of the challenge, I did do some preparation by signing up to a specific training programme offered by Team EF Training<\/a>. For a fee, they gave you a tailored plan across six weeks, including a series of Zoom webinars and structured workouts offered via the Today\u2019s Plan platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In truth, I didn\u2019t get good value from this. I think I was overly ambitious about how many hours I could set aside for training \u2013 I\u2019d said 6-8 a week. But the plan they gave meant that I\u2019d need to be cycling nearly every day. The thing is that I don\u2019t like to solely cycle during the week, as I like to set aside some days to go for runs. While I could find time to do a run and a ride on the same day, neither would be optimal, and I\u2019m not training for triathlon or anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also found that it was nigh on impossible for me to do the supplied structured workouts out on the open road. I confess that Iv\u2019e never really gotten into that side of cycling and I think I was in the deep end far too quickly. I was able to do some of the workouts on my turbo trainer inside Zwift \u2013 where you have complete control of your environment, and don\u2019t have to worry about cars, traffic signals and so on. Trying to do short bursts of exertion on the road would require some longer flatter roads to train on. Hertfordshire and Essex aren\u2019t full of such roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also found Today\u2019s Plan quite a confusing platform. I\u2019m not a racing cyclist, trying to get up the Category ladder. And there is a bit of a learning curve to understanding these kinds of plans. I strongly suspect that platforms like Today\u2019s Plan are very much there to provide feedback to coaches from cyclists following their plan. Because the work I was doing was one-way \u2013 they gave us the plan, and we could follow (or not follow) the plans as we liked, there wasn\u2019t that two-way interaction that you\u2019d get if you really had a coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I probably should do more structured training \u2013 trying to improve my cadence would be useful. I tend to pedal slower but put through more power rather than faster less-powerful pedal strokes. My idea of getting up a hill is to get out of the saddle and attempt it all in the big ring rather than sitting down and spinning. Mind you, I don\u2019t have many long climbs that mean I can\u2019t do them entirely out of the saddle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the training was a little useful, but not massively. And I knew that because I am able to go for long rides now relatively easily, it was mostly going to be a question of finding the time to do the rides, and battling the rain. The distance shouldn\u2019t<\/em> be a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought that I\u2019d try to get some kilometres under my belt nice and early. While 500KM over 8 days means 62.5KM a day which seems pretty manageable, I knew that I wouldn\u2019t get a chance to cycle every day. So why not get ahead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, the weather on Christmas Eve looked OK-ish \u2013 at least for a bit. So I set out at 8:00 to get as much of the cycling done as early as possible. I was moving for about 4 hours, but the last hour turned out to be very wet. An early Christmas present to myself had been a Castelli Perfetto RoS cycling jacket. RoS stands for Rain or Shine, and the jacket is said to offer some level of rain protection making it a good winter all-rounder. It\u2019s an evolution of Castelli\u2019s famous Gabba jerseys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It stood up well, although my feet were soaking. I was wearing Endura Windchill overshoes. In truth, they don\u2019t claim to be waterproof, more windproof. But they were all I had with me. That evening saw me stuffing newspaper into my cycling shoes, and shoving them into the airing cupboard. Closer inspection to my shoes later on revealed that the air-vents in the soles of my shoes weren\u2019t helping matters. At the start of January, I took my hot-glue gun to those holes and filled them in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, I was out doing something else that would become very frequent over the week \u2013 washing my bike. My 2014 Giant Defy 0 remains my main bike, and it comes in that most helpful of winter colours \u2013 white. So it was out with sponges, water, degreaser and lubricant as I gave it clean ahead of the next ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t find time to get a ride in on Christmas day. I was cooking the meal, and while it wasn\u2019t anything too extravagant, I only got time to get a short run in between putting the turkey breast in the oven and getting the vegetables on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boxing Day was the next available day, and the weather in Norfolk was awful. It was raining hard all morning, and the only let-up looked to be in the middle of the day. I got an early lunch in and headed out at 13:00 for what would turn out to be a two hour or so ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inevitably the rain returned, and by the time I got back from my ride, having headed out along an inland route, and returning via coastal towns and villages like Blakeney and Cley, I had wet feet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d already ordered a pair of waterproof overshoes, but next day deliveries aren\u2019t easily available around Christmas time, quite understandably. There is a great local bike shop near my parents\u2019 house which I believe is owned by former British cyclocross rider Helen Wyman\u2019s parents. But it was closed for the Christmas break, so I had to deal with the internet for emergency waterproof overshoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My birthday, and I was up and out before 8:00 to do the longest ride I\u2019d done so far. While it wasn\u2019t raining at the start, I inevitably encountered rain along the way. It was yet another grey day. That is to say, there was no sign of the sun at all. I did at least encounter a few other cyclists along the route today, even managing to ride with one for a few kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s definitely harder doing something like the Festive 500 by yourself rather than going out with other riders. Today was a good example of that with the wind broadly behind me on the way out, but very much against me on the way back. I would also later discover that I had a slow puncture on my front tyre. While it didn\u2019t stop me \u2013 I only noticed the next morning \u2013 it would have certainly made those sticky British roads even stickier than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time I hit the coast around Holkham, there were many people out for their delayed Boxing Day walks, and car parks were full. In Wells-next-the-Sea I came across a parade of vintage tractors being driven in convoy by local farmers through the town centre. Clearly the place to be if you had an old Ferguson in your barn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rounded off the day by giving my bike another clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today was another horrible day for the weather. I didn\u2019t especially want to head straight out into the rain if I could possibly help it. On the other hand, I wanted to get at least some distance under my belt today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news was that my new waterproof Gripgrab overshoes arrived at lunchtime. Unusually, you put these on before<\/em> you put on your cycling shoes. At least these very much promised to be waterproof!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, at around 14:30 there was a bit of a break in the rain, and I decided to head out into the period of dry. Inevitably it started raining again within about 30 minutes, and the rest of my ride was in the rain. But the new overshoes kept my feet much dryer than before (I had yet to spot the really obvious air-vent holes in my shoes\u2019 sole!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I headed down the coast towards Bacton, where vast amounts of gas are brought ashore to keep British energy needs met. I\u2019d never actually seen the gasworks down there and while I wouldn\u2019t necessarily recommend it for a daytrip it was educational. When all our energy bills spike upwards later this spring, I shall think about that place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My late departure meant that I was inevitably riding as the sun set, and the last few kilometres were in darkness, mostly along tiny village roads. I had lights, but that kind of riding keeps you on your toes as you never know what the road surface will be like from moment to moment. I didn\u2019t want to be slipping on leaves or mud, or riding into flooded sections of lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inevitably I had to do both those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing that became apparent from this riding \u2013 there are a lot of drivers in Norfolk hitting a lot of animals. I saw multiple dead deer by the roadside, as well as smaller animals like pheasants. You always seem roadkill like that along British roads when you\u2019re out on your bike, but this was especially plentiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a bit of race between the endurance of the battery of my front light and the finish line, but I made it back safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I put off bike cleaning for another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of today was spent travelling back to London by train. So I didn\u2019t really have time to get a proper ride in. But I returned to a flat devoid of food, so an early evening trip to the supermarket was called for, and I did that by bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only a few kilometres, but every KM counts right now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did manage to clean my bike fairly thoroughly. I also replaced an inner tube on my front wheel. I\u2019d winged it the previous day with my slow puncture, just putting some more air into the tube rather than replacing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I woke to find that my puncture \u201crepair\u201d was no such thing. I\u2019d changed the tube but I\u2019d used a tube I\u2019d previously \u201crepaired\u201d and it turned out that my repair was no good. A fresh tube sorted that out (Note to self \u2013 order more inner tubes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had thought about whether I\u2019d knock off the final kilometres in one or two rides. In the end, the weather looked OK-ish, so one ride would do it. I planned a route that took in bits of Essex and Hertfordshire near me, encompassing much more climbing than I\u2019d done in Norfolk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather was a positively balmy 13C, and I probably went out wearing slightly too much clothing. I saw a few of cyclists out in shorts and that was a completely fair choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say that while it was warmer, there was no sign of the sun. Low clouds were to accompany me all day. And inevitably, it also rained again. My weather app had predicted just an 11% chance of rain. Well, those odds aren\u2019t low enough to avoid it altogether, and I got wet. Fortunately, it wasn\u2019t sustained enough to give me damp shoes. No more need to stuff newspaper in my shoes and put them in the airing cupboard as I\u2019d done after basically every ride in the Festive 500 thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wind was coming from the south today (the warm air coming up from the southern Atlantic) and that meant that I\u2019d face a fairly unavoidable headwind on my route back. But it wasn\u2019t too bad, and I gave it a lot of welly on the home stretch to finish off the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, I was pretty pleased with my results. It certainly wasn\u2019t an easy thing to do \u2013 not in a British winter. While it wasn\u2019t cold, and I didn\u2019t have to face snow or ice which could have been really problematic, I did get very wet. My clothing was generally good, with the exception of my footwear and also my gloves. I need to look out a proper pair of waterproof gloves now, since it\u2019s no fun trying to do up a zip with cold wet fingers that won\u2019t even hold the zipper properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The thing I didn\u2019t use as much as I\u2019d expected was my tea flask. I\u2019d bough a nice Elite flask that fits in a standard bike bottle cage and lets you carry hot drinks with you. I think perhaps I didn\u2019t want to stop too much in the wet and it really wasn\u2019t that cold that I needed tea out on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My tyres held up pretty well and I only had that one slow puncture. I was using 28mm Continental Four Seasons tyres which have been pretty puncture free all autumn and winter this year. I keep the pressure fairly low \u2013 70 PSI or so \u2013 which I think helps me avoid puncturing, but doesn\u2019t do anything for my speed. I\u2019d love to go 32mm tyres, but even those 28mm ones only just<\/em> fit my Giant which was designed before everyone worked out that fatter tyres were fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve just ordered some new brake pads because if there\u2019s one thing I did get through during the course of the Festive 500 it was rubber on my rim brakes. The pads were actually pretty new, having come with some new brake assemblies back in July. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever had to replace brake pads within four months of getting new ones before. But I\u2019ve worn them right down in a short amount of time \u2013 certainly in part a consequence of doing so many KMs this year. I guess that grit from the road gets into the pads and wears them down faster. My rims were filthy from this wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m also really getting through my cleaning supplies. As I type now, the bike needs yet another top to bottom clean as it\u2019s filthy again. I have a back mudguard, but again my Giant doesn\u2019t really take a front mudguard aside from Giant\u2019s own ones, no longer easily available to buy. In any case, the bike would still need that clean even with full mudguards. That\u2019s a job for tomorrow. But Muc Off are going to be doing well out of me as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, I had no real mechanical problems. My penultimate ride saw me get stuck in the small ring, but in the dry I was able to change the tension of the front derailleur cable and sort that out. I probably should check the chain for wear as well. But most components handled themselves well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I finished early enough to give me New Year\u2019s Eve off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n (I actually went for a run on New Year\u2019s Day, and then got in a 60ish KM ride on the 2nd<\/sup> and a nice long 150KM ride on the 3rd<\/sup>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t say with certainty that I\u2019ll do this again next year. Circumstances will determine whether I really can fit in all that riding again, but there definitely is a sense of achievement in completing it. And if you over-indulge in the eating and drinking over the Christmas period, then you can certainly burn off some of those calories by going out and doing that riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NB. I’m over here on Strava<\/a> if that sort of thing is interesting to you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride1-1024x771.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRide 1 \u2013 December 24 \u2013 110KM \u2013 Norfolk Broads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 110KM \u2013 22% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride1map.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRide 2 \u2013 December 26 \u2013 52KM \u2013 North Norfolk Coastal Ride<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 162KM \u2013 32% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride2map.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRide 3 \u2013 December 27 \u2013 134KM \u2013 Dereham and Wells-next-the-Sea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 296KM \u2013 59% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride3map.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/tractors-1024x771.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRide 4 \u2013 December 28 \u2013 57KM \u2013 Bacton and North Walsham<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 353KM \u2013 71% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride4map.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRide 5 \u2013 December 29 \u2013 11KM \u2013 Supermarket run<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 364KM \u2013 73% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ride 6 \u2013 December 30 \u2013 145KM \u2013 Essex and Herts Loop<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Total: 509KM \u2013 100% Complete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ride6map-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nSummary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n