Eddington Number (Cycling)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington

The Eddington Number is defined as E, the number of days a cyclist has cycled more than E miles

For example an Eddington Number of 70 would imply that a cyclist has cycled more than 70 miles in a day on 70 occasions. Achieving a high Eddington number is difficult since moving from, say, 70 to 75 will probably require more than five new long distance rides since any rides shorter than 75 miles will no longer be included in the reckoning.

I keep a Bike Rides Diary, but I haven’t always done so. I had the wrack my brains to remember the longer rides I’d done in my cycling career.

I remembered the rides to Brighton and back when I was in the RN stationed near Gosport, I remembered the tour that me and a school friend did in North Wales in ’68, I remembered the long rides I’ve done in USA for charity in ’86, and also when I did a mini-tour of Tasmania in ’88. I’d ridden JOGLE in ’94 and LEJOG and Back in ’06, then a Grand Tour in ’08 – all these had to be vectored in.

Since then, I’m a Garmin Edge owner and have a program on my computer to keep a record of every pedal stroke, so I had to do a little research through my notes from ‘before’ to add to the recent to come up with a reliable figure for my personal E Number as per today/now.

Sadly, the weather was awful for October and November, so my ambitions to extend my E Number went for a burton, but next year is nearly here and spring is just round the corner. My ambition will be met, I’m sure of it.

By now, all you readers out there are wondering what your own personal E Number is, and also wondering what my E Number is too! Remember, this Number is a Lifetime Number. It is yours and reflects your own personal achievement. You may be kicking yourself that every time you ride a bike you do 45 miles and always knew you could go further. You are sitting there with E45, knowing that you have to ride 46 more rides of 46 miles to get to E46!

I want to get to E80 by the end of 2010, and I’m sitting here at E69. I have ridden over 80 miles 50 times in my life, so I have to squeeze in 30 more 80 mile rides to attain E80.

Can I do it?

Can you do it?

What is your E Number?