Pointless but entertaining challenges you've set yourself?

[Pebble]

I collect new roads and add them to my map - very very little if anything with 30 miles now.

[Cugel]

"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

Quite so. If there's a motive for the cycling other than serving the collection of some arbitrary statistic, then whatever made-up reason for doing that cycling might be referenced, the actual cycling isn't pointless. It's the usual human thing of seeking the physical and mental pleasures of working one's body through the real world.

What would be pointless cycling then? I once knew a woman who couldn't complete a bike ride unless the mileage was an exact round figure of some sort, usually that to the next highest 10-mile increment. If she went out and did 47.3 miles, she'd cycle round and round the streets local to her house until the mileage was 50.

"Why", I would ask. Various non-answers were given although one could discern quite readily that the probable answer was , "A touch of the obsessive-compulsives". I liked to tease by mentioning the kilometre equivalent, with it's often messy total.

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However, our OP is probably on that other spectrum in which physical-effort targets are (perhaps obsessively) set partly out of that masochistic streak well known amongst we cycling types. We like to make it "hard". There's the various glows it gives to set and achieve hard physical targets: endorphin; "nice when it stops"; "I did it!" and so forth. But, let's be honest .... many of us enjoy the "suffering" just because we can.

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These days I avoid setting targets, collecting data or otherwise interposing all sorts of extraneous obsessive-compulsive or pointless-descriptive stuff atween me and the bike ride. Perhaps it's second childhood coming on, as I seek to recreate the feelings I had when first riding out on my first proper bike, aged 11 - that sense of physical exertion/competence allied with the immersion in reality that being in a car, watching tele or otherwise having your experience highly mediated doesn't have and a bike ride does. And the adventure of encounters with the new.

Cugel

[boblo]

I admit to being a bit OCD and 'need' targets to ride to. I also run and try and contrive something with a bit of symmetry between the two.

Last year was a 26x26 matrix. 26 bike imperial centuries plus 26 running half marathons against a backdrop of 10k bike miles and 2k running miles - so 'a long one once a week'. It was a struggle to finish the halves as I was off running for 3 months with an achilles injury.

Went for the same this year with a stretch target of a bike century every week plus 26 half marathons again. I'm a bit behind on the running (again) as I lost 10 weeks to Covid but on schedule for the centuries. There's still 12 weeks to go though so still time to get back on track.

Next year? Hmmm, I haven't done a full marathon for a couple of years...

[Jon in Sweden]

Well my 500km challenge for the week is complete. It was a bit of a grind today, with the final 35km into a headwind, and the final 22km being rather hilly too.

A few days off and I'll have a think about what I could do next. There aren't really enough large hills around here to do an height metres challenge unless I switch to MTB.

Hmmm. In all likelihood, I've only got a few weeks left before I need to switch to winter (studded) tyres anyway. This first Swedish winter will be an eye opener for sure!

[crossy]

I’m pleased to see other people are as bad as me. I have all Town and Villages in Wiltshire, Edington numbers they’re on my signature, and I’ve just started on Wandrer that one is nice seeing a Lane or track and just seeing where it goes. I have one bike that I won’t have an E number for that’s my new to me Moulton APB I’ll use that to remind me of the fun and freedom cycling gives me.

[gazza_d]

What I ended up setting myself back in April or May was to see how long I could keep a streak of a ride over day going.
I've now managed a ride a day since March 17.

Most days have been ok, but it has been a challenge a few times due to other life pressures. I've managed at least. Mile or two though

I now want to see how long I can go before I'm stopped. Which I reckon will probably be when the cold icy weather arrives.

[Mick F]

I collect new roads and add them to my map - very very little if anything with 30 miles now.

Riding all the roads in Cornwall ....................... pointless but entertaining perhaps?
This is a pastiche of so far in 2020.

[Slowroad]

Does anyone know of a place called 'England', or 'Wales' or 'Scotland' - but all in the English Midlands? I can't get away much at the momet but it'd be fun to cycle to three countries in a couple of days...

[Nearholmer]

If you can find the others, you can easily add ‘Ireland’ as well, in the form of a small village near Biggleswade.

[crossy]

I’ve been to Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand in Wiltshire there’s a Canada but that’s just over the Wiltshire Border.

[jimlews]

Non cycling:
Not to step on the cracks in the pavement - for fear of crocodiles.
Cycling:
To see how many pointless but entertaining challenges I can avoid. So far 100% success.

[Mick F]

I've cycled to Egypt and to Barcelona.
Both in Cornwall!

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[Cugel]

Non cycling:
Not to step on the cracks in the pavement - for fear of crocodiles.
Cycling:
To see how many pointless but entertaining challenges I can avoid. So far 100% success.

[Nearholmer]

Based on the rather dystopian flavour of other threads, and taking Cugel’s “we’re all doomed” rallying cry to heart, my latest pointless but entertaining challenge is: to bother to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

[foxyrider]

Does anyone know of a place called 'England', or 'Wales' or 'Scotland' - but all in the English Midlands? I can't get away much at the momet but it'd be fun to cycle to three countries in a couple of days...

Wales is just outside of Sheffield right next to the M1 just south of J31

'Wales is a village and a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it borders to the south Derbyshire and is astride the M1 motorway.Wikipedia'