Turf Zone – CampHill
Well, that was a nice surprise, albeit an expected one. I run the Turf app on the mobile phone and see my points total has increased overnight to 101,500 from the 98,700 when I last looked yesterday evening. Oh, the joys of accruing +249 Points Per Hour. Worth its weight in gold. That’s 2800 points and not a pedal turned. Marvellous! But wait, where’s the Roundpointer-100k medal. It’s not showing up in the medal bar. It should be the purple one. Ah, thinking about this, I read somewhere that I might need to take another zone for the medal to appear. Okay, will be doing that later. Fingers crossed.
Roundpointer-100k – This medal is awarded when taking 100,000 points in a single round.
Now, onwards. I’ve been looking at how I’m best going to achieve all those cherished Roundpointer medals I so much desire. Yes, a bit silly I know to desire something that actually isn’t real and only exists as pixels on a screen or 1’s and 0’s in a SQL computer database on a hard drive hidden away in a secret high security data centre. But I don’t care, its good exercise, and golly good fun as well.
My first thoughts were about strategy and planning but I’ve pushed all that aside and now follow the simple mantras of get out there, take zones and try harder. However, I’m sure there are other aspects of this challenge I can at least consider. One of them is fitness. I like to think I’m reasonably fit but I can only manage about 4-6 hours on the bike before I run out of steam. Is that good or bad? No way do I think I can do the 12 hours plus of turfage that Fearglas or Drylaw13 can manage. Or can I? In fact, I’ve never tried, so perhaps I can if I set my mind to it. I’m certainly not interested in joining a gym or paying a personal trainer. Guess I should just do what Yoda says, “Do… or do not. There is no try.”
The topic of weight is something I’ve been looking at, both my own and my bikes. I’m happy with my own weight, currently standing around 70 kg, which, if you look at the online medical stats, seems about right for my age, build and height and hasn’t really changed much since I left school. I’ve also looked at all my bikes with an aim of reducing weight and did so by changing them to single speed and removing/replacing a few components. I have reverted some items back to those of old, namely tyres and inner tubes, handlebars and frame bags, etc. But overall, all bikes are still lighter weight than before. And I just love single speed. It’s just so simple, neat and, well, possibly a state of mind as well.
Another possibility to help me get those high end Roundpointer medals would be to purchase an e-bike. What better way to get in some serious turfage than with the power-assistance of an e-bike. In fact, I’m been looking at one this morning, the Ribble Gravel ALe. They even have one model available from stock and it could be mine within a week or so, delivered right to the front door. Estimated power assisted range is stated at 60 miles, and an additional battery will add another 40 miles or so.
However, two issues are holding me back. One is space in the shed to store the bike – I already have three bikes and three kick scooters and it’s only an 8 x 12 shed. Okay, a minor issue at that. The other is that I cannot help thinking that using an e-bike for turfing is cheating. If I was to go out there and take a million points while riding an e-bike I don’t think I’d be very happy with myself. Daft, I know, but that just me. Still, all being said, I’m so very, very tempting to buy one regardless. Argh!
Anyway, food for thought and time to get back to the real world and follow those mantras above. Today it was another trip to Newtongrange, mainly because I still held the majority of the zones here in my local patch. Keeping my fingers crossed that someone might pop into Bonnyrigg/Eskbank/Dalkeith and take a few zones, please. That aside, it only took a few zones before the pop for the Roundpointer-100k medal appeared on the phone. Nice one and another in the bag. But now the really hard work begins.
Next medal is the Roundpointer-250k and it does not take a Maths degree to work out I need another 150,000 points for that one. Actually, as I post this, I’m sitting at 117,000 so not quite so far to go. Still, going to take a few sessions on the bike to whittle that points gap down. In other words, get out there, take zones and try harder. Back soon.
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