As we work into the last part of the summer, my mind starts to turn to the few group cycling events that I participate in.
Inevitably, as I do that, I look at my stats in Cyclemeter, and realize that my average distance for the year is lower than the total average for the year before, and then scroll the actual rides to find that the longest ride I’ve taken for the year was just shy of 37 miles in length.
“Yeah”, I think, “but that was just a few days ago, right?”
Then I reluctantly look at the date: July 4th. So nearly a month ago, with everything in-between shorter in length.
The thing is that the group rides I’m looking at run in the 55-65 mile range for two of them. I also just learned about a ride called the Hilly Hundred which, for reasons I cannot entirely explain, has me intrigued. This ride appears to be a affair involving two consecutive days of 50-mile loops through the hills of central Indiana. It’s close enough to home to be reasonable for me to consider. But I gotta start riding further if I’m going to even be able to seriously think about it.
And I realize, as I look at this, that this happens to me virtually every year. I give strong consideration, at the beginning of the summer, to the need to build distance. I confidently assure myself that I will begin to do so in the very near future, probably within the next week or so.
And then, of course, it’s suddenly August.
Two of the three rides are in September, with the third in early October. So clearly it’s time to stop dilly-dallying (sorry - that’s the sort of harsh language we learn here in the Midwest) and get to work.
I spent the first part of this morning laying out a route that is a variation one that I made for this same purpose last summer. Unfortunately, the original version ended up taking me more than a mile along a very busy Route 52 because of the lying lies of Google maps. Well, the lying lies and my failure to check ahead of time.
So I needed to vary the route to avoid that particular concern. What I’ve laid out for today should come in right around 43 miles. That’s not quite as far as I’ll need to be at ahead of the rides next month, and definitely not enough for the Hilly Hundred, but it’s a step up from the 37-mile ride, and it should be a route I can build out to longer distances as well.
Now there’s nothing left to do but start pedaling…