We achieved our goal. A 40-year-old, nerdy asthmatic chick can ride 4,000 miles in a year.
Here are the final stats:
Unloaded Miles for 2016: 1373 miles
Loaded Miles (Kms) for 2016: 2776 miles (4468 kms)
Total Miles for 2016: 4149 miles
We rode through the wettest five-month period on record and through the normal months of heat. So I’m happy with the total. I’m most proud that 2/3 of those miles were on overnight or weekend rides with a bit of a load.
I think, if I were to do it again, I would concentrate less on miles and more on a mix of things. I could have done more miles if I’d done less hills. I could have done more miles if they’d all been unloaded, etc. So if I were to set a yearly goal again I would set a minimum number of miles for loaded and unloaded, and a minimum number of nights in the tent and a minimum number of feet of total climbing. This might better reflect the effort required rather than a straight mileage total.
Or I might just say I want to ride a certain number of new roads each week. This was an informal goal for me this year – to continue the effort to ride a portion of every minor road possible within 150 km from home. This has actually been the most satisfying goal to pursue and has led me to try a bunch of roads I might otherwise ignore. This goal is the most interesting, too. You can see a black marker line on all of the roads I’ve done in the past 18 months on the map below.
There won’t be any riding goals next year. It’s looking to be a pretty crazy year with a lot going on. You can rest assured, though, that I’ll be exploring new roads as much as possible and doing overnights as frequently as I can, too. Cycling keeps me stable and happy and I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Thanks for coming along for the ride. May 2017 be a year of tailwinds and speedy roads for you!