I’m very satisfied with with how things went cycling in 2008. I met most of my goals and I’m okay with those I didn’t meet. I really expanded my riding and am finally beginning to no longer feel like a beginner.
2008 Goals
I set a mileage goal of 4,750 with a challenge goal of 5,200. I passed the 4,750 mark on November 2 and the 5,200 mark on December 23.
I ended the year with 5,269.4 miles under the wheels.
Of those, 884.7, or 16.8% were on Yellow Bike. The rest, 4,385.8 were on the Portland.
Commuting and errands racked-up 2,919.82 miles or 55.4% of the total. Those figures aren’t quite as precise as others since I frequently extend commutes for leisure and training purposes, and I’ll sometimes stop at the store or something on the way home from a leisure ride.
Group rides accounted for 1,170.24 miles or 22.2% of the total. While it’s about a hundred miles more than last year, percentage-wise, that’s less than 2007, primarily due to work. I subbed every chance I could get this year and most of those shifts interfered with the Monday Night Small Ring Ride, the Tuesday Night Urban Assault Ride or the Wednesday night club rides out of Mendon Ponds Park.
Goals I missed
Learn how to bunny hop and how to do a wheelie. I had planned on using the Giant for this. After it was stolen, well, I didn’t want to wreck either of my other bikes in the attempt. But, there’s a spot I ride regularly where I have trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground. I don’t count those as wheelies though.
Volunteer at the bike mission. I chickened out. Again, I’d planned on using the Giant for this. It’s in a very, very bad part of town and they’ve had dozens of bikes stolen there. I didn’t want my road bikes to be among the casualties. Plus the parts I was going to donate were stolen with the Giant.
No Crashes. I took the studded snow tires off a day too early and crashed on ice on March 22.
Rankings
In other rankings on BikeJournal, I was
Worldwide
719 of 8,082 (8.9%) all riders
619 of 6,132 (10.1%) all male riders
245 of 1,885 (13.0%) all riders age 50–59
213 of 1,495 (14.2%) all male riders age 50–59
USA
628 of 7,288 (8.6%) USA riders
542 of 5,482 (9.9%) USA male riders
223 of 1,781 (12.5%) USA riders age 50–59
196 of 1,407 (13.9%) USA male riders age 50–59
New York State
16 of 210 (7.6%) NYS riders
15 of 161 (9.3%) NYS male riders
9 of 50 (18.0%) NYS riders age 50–59
9 of 38 (23.7%) NYS male riders age 50–59
I finished 3 of 82 (3.7%) on the Commuter Cycling Century with 221 days commuting. (Rankings Chart) I was bested by a guy in Australia with 251 days (we all think he works too much) and a guy from the middle-Atlantic region with 226.
On the other hand, the only way I could have had more commuting days is to have had more work days. I scored 100% in that regard.
Nine of us broke the 200 days mark, which works out to 50 four-day weeks. It’s about commitment more than anything.
It’s not just a guy thing or a southern, warm-weather thing either. Among those logging 200+ commuting days were a woman from Alberta with 201 and a woman from Illinois with 200. Just missing, a woman from Minnesota logged 199 days, a guy in Pennsylvania 191 days, and a guy from Manitoba 186 days.
It’s these folks who I think of as my peer group.
Over on the Car-Free Week Challenge, I placed 1 of 15. This is a much, much harder challenge than you may think. Even I managed only 37 weeks (71%) car-free. Any ride in any car kills your week, and in 15 weeks (three weeks in December alone) I accepted rides in cars. My bad.
Finally, I finished 2 of 9 among Rochester Bicycling Club members who log at BikeJournal. Hndlebar beat me by nearly 2,000 miles.
I didn’t even make the club rankings reported in the December newsletter. They listed only those who rode 400 miles or more on official club rides. But next year, the RBC Daytimer rides will count towards club miles. That’ll change things.
By the numbers
I use a spreadsheet to make and then chart my mileage goals. I break them out by month. I find it’s easier to work towards 12 monthly goals.
Here’s how it turned out:
| | Goal | Actual | ± |
| | Month | mi/day | Cume | Month | mi/day | Cume | Month | Cume |
| Jan | 250 | 8.06 | 250 | 297.50 | 9.60 | 297.50 | 47.50 | 47.50 |
| Feb | 200 | 6.90 | 450 | 227.76 | 7.85 | 525.26 | 27.76 | 75.26 |
| Mar | 350 | 11.29 | 800 | 252.04 | 8.13 | 777.30 | –97.96 | –22.70 |
| Apr | 450 | 15.00 | 1250 | 526.69 | 17.56 | 1303.99 | 76.69 | 53.99 |
| May | 550 | 17.74 | 1800 | 482.54 | 15.57 | 1786.53 | –67.46 | –13.47 |
| Jun | 550 | 18.33 | 2350 | 589.56 | 19.65 | 2376.09 | 39.56 | 26.09 |
| Jul | 550 | 17.74 | 2900 | 755.26 | 24.36 | 3131.35 | 205.26 | 231.35 |
| Aug | 550 | 17.74 | 3450 | 629.57 | 20.31 | 3760.92 | 79.57 | 310.92 |
| Sep | 450 | 15.00 | 3900 | 518.67 | 17.29 | 4279.59 | 68.67 | 379.59 |
| Oct | 400 | 12.90 | 4300 | 448.43 | 14.47 | 4728.02 | 48.43 | 428.02 |
| Nov | 250 | 8.33 | 4550 | 282.08 | 9.40 | 5010.10 | 32.08 | 460.10 |
| Dec | 200 | 6.45 | 4750 | 259.30 | 8.36 | 5269.40 | 59.30 | 519.40 |
| | 4750 | 12.98 | | 5269.40 | 14.40 | | 519.40 | |
Intangibles
As I said before, this year I began to no longer feel like a beginner. There are some who see me as a seasoned veteran, but I disagree. There are many things I haven’t yet done, and many things where I could use some experience and polish. After all, it was only my third year and I have only 13,000 miles under my wheels.
If there was a theme this year, it was climbing. Once I got a cyclometer with an altimeter I re-learned exactly how flat my usual haunts are. My two usual training hills are only 88 and 152 feet. Between hndlebar taking me out way south of the city, and my own rides to hill country I did all right.
The very first mountain I ever climbed was Mt. Evans. At 14,130 feet it’s the highest paved road in North America, and I suspect, in the entire hemisphere. Go big or stay home, I guess.
Since we started at 10,000 feet and change, Evans placed only sixth in total elevation gain rides. Five others, including BikeJournal’s mountainous Epic Century bested it. On the other hand, the Evans ride was 28 miles for the round trip, where the others took many more miles to rack up their elevation gains.
The trip out west was quite an experience too. I can’t quite say what was my favorite part of it, or even what’s the most memorable. To do so seems to devalue the other things.
I guess the important thing is that I enjoyed it so much that I’ll be returning next year. And I have trip and touring plans for the two years after that.
Even around town, though, I reached new comfort levels. I suppose I could look it up, but without doing so, I can’t count the number of times I turned commutes into much longer rides. Once upon a time my long loop to work was 12½ miles. Now it’s just a few feet shy of 20. Once upon a time if I did that once a week that was good. Now I feel like I’m wearing a groove in the Canalway from it.
I’ve become much more comfortable road riding. I’ve always ridden vehicularly—that is as a vehicle. But it sometimes felt awkward. Around town I used to pour over maps and make a strategy before heading out. Now I just wing it.
And of course hills no longer intimidate me.