Pointless but entertaining challenges you've set yourself?

[Jon in Sweden]

This week I have set myself the challenge of cycling 500km.

I once did 303 miles (487.5km) in a week when I was 15 and training quite hard. So given that I had a bit of spare time this week and the weather forecast wasn't too bad, I thought why not?

I'm 355km in, and I'll manage the remaining 145km fairly comfortably over the weekend. I'm only 5 1/2 months back into cycling after 17 years off, and the most I've done is 305km in a week this year.

I'm rather tired, eating like a horse, farting like a cow and sleeping like a log. What's surprising though is that I'm not getting any slower over the course of the week and that my HR actually seems to be reducing for the same average speeds (about 28-29.5kph generally).

What needless but fun challenges have you guys set yourselves on the bike?

[a.twiddler]

Well I expect I'm not going to set myself any monster mileage challenges at my age but for years I've occasionally tried such things as ...how many miles can I travel while not having to put my feet down? How many miles without braking? A lot easier to do trackstands on a diamond frame than a recumbent, but much more rewarding to use anticipation and a bit of psychology on the recumbent (as in, what is this other road user likely to do, and will seeing me on this unusual bike change that likely behaviour?) surprising how many road users smile and give way or wave you on, avoiding you having to stop, without any actual effort on your part.

All this while being prepared to maintain safety by stopping if necessary. Of course, you could cheat by riding a trike but that leads to other things. You really can do a whole journey without putting your feet down, and as for the braking thing...I do have a trike now but tend to use 2 wheels most of the time.

[Mick F]

My challenges have been bridges.
Over the River Tamar - 23 of them.
Over the A30 Exeter to LE - 79 of them (soon to be 80 as they're building a new one, so that needs a visit)
Over the A38 Exeter to Bodmin - 61 of them.

An idea I had was to ride over all the bridges of the Tamar Valley Line. There are 33 of them, and I've done most, but some are on private land, and some from one field of cows, to another field of cows! ................. I missed out those, so the task is impossible ............ sadly.

[Mick F]

PS:
I'd forgotten to add that I've been to every CofE parish church in Cornwall. 226 of them.

[axel_knutt]

When I was a kid I decided to see if I could ride between the double yellow lines without touching them. Bowling along, staring down between my legs, there was a sudden clunk and I found myself on the roof of a parked car. Fortunately the occupants of the car were too embarrassed at being parked on a yellow line to ask how I got there.

When I was a walker I used to be a peak bagger, so after I switched to cycling I decided to see if I could stay at all the youth hostels in the handbook. It's easy at the start when nearly every hostel is a new one, but gets harder and harder as the remaining ones get fewer and further in between, and they keep closing them and opening new ones. I've done 205, but 94 of those are now closed, and the last time I counted there were about 39 I haven't done.

[PH]

When i used to commute, I'd play various games to relive the boredom, not putting a foot down, keeping the average speed or time at a set figure, longest freewheel...
Leisure cycling I sometimes set myself weekly or monthly goals, Mileage/speed/time/climbing. Then there's the challenges others have set, BCQ, Audax points, Cathedrals, Festive 500, and various others. I like the feeling of a shared experience, even if the riding is mostly solo.
That might sound like I spend all my riding ticking things off and chasing goals, but most of it is because I need to be somewhere, followed by I just feel like being out on a bike.

[Stradageek]

Long term is this one. Cycle you age in miles every birthday, OK at 66, suspect problems in my late 80's.

My favourite was from two cyclists who saw how long they could cycle blindfolded across a dried salt lake bed in the Andes with just the other cyclist to keep them in approximately the right direction. They managed 45mins.

[Postboxer]

Kind of stalled at mine - to visit as many golden postboxes from the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, either walking or cycling from home. I haven't even done all the reasonably nearby ones yet.

I have also considered calculating my Eddington Number then setting myself the challenge of advancing it by at least one per year, with the ultimate target of getting it to 100.

A simpler plan I have is to plot a nice route circling around the outside of the M60, around Manchester, but trying to make it a nice route, away from too much of the hustle and bustle.

[Grandad]

Long term is this one. Cycle you age in miles every birthday, OK at 66, suspect problems in my late 80's

Having a December birthday I switched to kms well before that

[Psamathe]

"Pointless" is a difficult thing. In many respects I regard 10 miles/day as "Pointless" but at the same time if a daft meaningless number encourages you to get out cycling than maybe not so pointless.

A "Pointless" local ride round local lanes you know so well you can cycle with your eyes shut can become not so pointless if you get home feeling happier or healthier, etc.

Ian

[Jon in Sweden]

I really enjoying the responses here!

The blindfolded cycling and double yellow line misfortunes particularly made me chuckle!

Another 73km today has me up to 426.3km for the week. An easy 75-80km tomorrow will see the 500km done.

[TrevA]

My wife and I did the Rapha Festive 500 one year, that was pretty pointless. Riding 500km over 8 days between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve in usually awful weather. We were pretty lucky with the weather as it was quite windy but unseasonably mild when we did it. We managed to complete it, but basically had to ignore the rest of our family over the Christmas holidays, so we’ve never done it again.

[foxyrider]

I have to admit to being a sucker for 'challenges', i sign up for all the Garmin/Strava challenges, i'm currently seeing how long i can keep up walking or cycling every day - my last day off was December 25th 2020!

One of the biggest challenges i set myself was to complete the Oetztaler Radmarathon back in 2016, all 252km with 5500m of climbing, i so wanted the finishers jersey and i used it for bragging rights a few times afterwards! I've done the likes of using road markings as chicane markers, seeing if i could clear speed humps (mostly yes but the others on the club runs weren't so keen on that )

Most of my challenges relate to metres climbed or distance travelled - i'm currently chasing a 5th consecutive 10,000 mile year, but there are others that are more relaxing, current challenges in progress include visiting all the windmills left in Somerset (according to the Windmill Society i've got just one more to visit), riding all the roads in South Gloucestershire (doesn't include motorways of course but does include bridleways, so far i'm at 62% of the total 2122km - i use Wanderer to keep tabs). Previous examples are all of the Lincolnshire monastic sites, Yorkshire windmills as well as number of high passes on a single holiday trip, ditto ferries, islands, prehistoric sites and so on.

Any 'live' challenges can influence where i ride but sometimes, like today, it was just great to be out there, i did do some new roads and scored some segment PB's along the way but they were, if you like, incidental rather than looked for.

[Jon in Sweden]

My wife and I did the Rapha Festive 500 one year, that was pretty pointless. Riding 500km over 8 days between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve in usually awful weather. We were pretty lucky with the weather as it was quite windy but unseasonably mild when we did it. We managed to complete it, but basically had to ignore the rest of our family over the Christmas holidays, so we’ve never done it again.

That's a big commitment, especially with the limited daylight hours.

I have to admit to being a sucker for 'challenges', i sign up for all the Garmin/Strava challenges, i'm currently seeing how long i can keep up walking or cycling every day - my last day off was December 25th 2020!

One of the biggest challenges i set myself was to complete the Oetztaler Radmarathon back in 2016, all 252km with 5500m of climbing, i so wanted the finishers jersey and i used it for bragging rights a few times afterwards! I've done the likes of using road markings as chicane markers, seeing if i could clear speed humps (mostly yes but the others on the club runs weren't so keen on that )

Most of my challenges relate to metres climbed or distance travelled - i'm currently chasing a 5th consecutive 10,000 mile year, but there are others that are more relaxing, current challenges in progress include visiting all the windmills left in Somerset (according to the Windmill Society i've got just one more to visit), riding all the roads in South Gloucestershire (doesn't include motorways of course but does include bridleways, so far i'm at 62% of the total 2122km - i use Wanderer to keep tabs). Previous examples are all of the Lincolnshire monastic sites, Yorkshire windmills as well as number of high passes on a single holiday trip, ditto ferries, islands, prehistoric sites and so on.

Any 'live' challenges can influence where i ride but sometimes, like today, it was just great to be out there, i did do some new roads and scored some segment PB's along the way but they were, if you like, incidental rather than looked for.

I feel like I'm putting in some decent kilometres, but 10,000 miles/16,000km is another level. I like the idea of checking off the sorts of things you're checking off too.

When we were still in Devon, I enjoyed finding the steepest hills and climbing them. There aren't any steep hills here (14% is the steepest I've found so far) but the cycling is lovely.

My brother in law is coming to visit later in the month. He lives 235km away, and I'm very tempted to cycle over to his just to get a lift back. It will be the furthest I've ever cycled in a day if I do it.

[Postboxer]

On Facebook these days there seems to be several walking/running/cycling/fitness challenges for charity each month, I have thought about trying to do all of them, just for my own fitness, if I could manage any of them, I wouldn't collect for the charities though, I think friends and family would get a bit annoyed if I was asking them for money two or three or four times a month. It would just be a way of being given different challenges each month.
There was one to swim the same distance as the English Channel, I looked at it but decided against trying as post Covid, with the limited pool times, it would have been tricky to get enough time in the pool.
There is one coming up to do 3000 press ups in November, I was pondering if it's easier to set an alarm for every 5 minutes and do one each time it goes off throughout the day, or whether this would be just as hard as doing 100 in one session. I think either way I would struggle as there would be no time to recover between days, particularly without training for it before November.
I have also thought about the challenge of walking/running a marathon or cycling 100 miles between dropping the kids at school and picking them up, which would be easier after half term as they are making the school day 20 minutes longer. The problem is the risk of being stranded far from school, I would probably have to try it on a day when my wife is around for cover, but that somehow removes the challenge a little.