There are a lot of people who will tell you that you should just go out and ride. Don’t worry about how fast you are going, or how far, they’ll say - just be in the moment, one with the bike.
I am not one of those people.
I can appreciate that perspective, and even envy it to some degree. But the need to measure and catalog data is embedded deep in my soul, as is the need to exceed it once it’s been analyzed. I know I’m not the only one.
That means I track all sorts of data about my riding, and like many others, I set goals around it. At the end of 2019 I found, with the help of Cyclemeter, that I had officially ridden 1722 miles. Being who I am, I set a goal based upon that number. A goal which, at the time, I thought might be too optimistic, but I am a fan of round numbers, so I targeted 2000 miles.
There’s been a lot of awful to 2020, but one of the few silver linings is that it has enhanced the opportunities for riding. I hit that 2000 mile mark in September.
Now there are two ways to look at this. The first is to appreciate that one has achieved the goal and to regard every remaining ride as a bonus - pressure off, one can just enjoy oneself for the rest of the year.
That’s what the people in that first group would do. Lucky Sons of... umm, fine people.
I am, of course, constitutionally unable to do that, so it means I had to set a new goal.
3000 miles seemed perfectly feasible at the end of October, when I rolled past 2500 miles. But then November happened.
The month has not been terribly cooperative. If you look at the pictures from my Black Friday Ride you’ll see steel gray skies throughout most (though I did get a reprieve towards the end of the day).
The gales of November did not come early, but they did come.
And, frankly, that was one of the nicest days in the month. I’ll ride in snow and wind, up to a point, and I’ll even ride in rain if visibility isn’t significantly impacted. But the month decided to deliver just that - its characteristic helping of cold November rain (apologies to Axl Rose).
So - what had been a series of 14-20 rides per month dropped to 10, with a commensurate decline in distance.
Now is the time, one might say, to decide what one really meant was not 3000, but rather 2750 - that’s a good, round number, isn’t it? Or how about 2800 - it’s got two zeros in it, and zeros are quite noticeably round, aren’t they?
That is certainly what a smart, well adjusted person would do. Right?
I’ll let you guess where I fall on that...