Each year Strava makes users a movie and I’ve been watching on Facebook as friends share them. As a group my friends sharing their Strava videos ride a lot. The slackers are riding about 5000 km in a year and the keeners upwards of 15,000.
Here’s my Year in Sport. It also tells you handy things like how many QOMs I got, 2! Also, I got 84 new PRs. It tells you that David was my most frequent riding partner, followed by Sarah. The longest ride I did was on the bike rally, 130 km. And the ride I did with the most other people on it was New York’s 5 Boro Bike Tour. Of course.
But the stat that’s depressing me is how many kms I rode. This year I didn’t crack 3000. Wow. That’s not very much riding. In past years I’ve had a goal of 5000 km. While I haven’t always made it, I’ve come close
But this year there was no going south for bike camp in March and no cycling holidays either. I missed lots of the weekday rides in London due to my sabbatical in Toronto.
I did make most of the bike rally training rides and the rally itself of course. I even wrote about what it was like to do the bike rally without enough training.
I wasn’t as prepared as I had been in past years. In other years I’d ridden in Arizona, in Manitoulin, or gone to bike camp in South Carolina. In other years, I’d trained with a cycling coach doing weekly interval drills, speed work, and fast rides. This year I’d done none of those things.
Yes, I’d gone lots of training rides but in past years I’d found the bike rally pretty easy. I overshot the mark in terms of training. I arrived at camp in pretty good shape, not too tired, and easily ready to ride the next day. That’s the difference between being able to do it and having it be super enjoyable. Not this year. I knew I could do the distance but that’s about it. It was hot and hard and the days were long. This year I had to work at taking care of myself, eating well and sleeping as much as I could. I was often in bed at 9 pm missing out on social stuff because I knew I needed my rest.
I survived the bike rally. After many years of riding, I had lots of bike fitness in the bank. After the rally there was no Three Port Tour and no Halton Gran Fondo. Instead, there were canoe trips and some biking and boating weekends.
The year, well, it was what it was. But I have goals for 2018 and they involve riding a lot more. My goal for 2018 is to ride 4000 km. You heard it here first.
How about you? Do you set yearly mileage goals? If you’re a cyclist, what are they? How do you feel when you don’t make them?
