2016 - The Year of the Bike

Congratulations to Al and Karen!

Due to other preparations and commitments, I stopped bike riding for the most part in mid-June. Did one group ride in late June, one 11.5 mile ride July 9th and two rides in early August for 27 miles total.

My other summer commitments were completed by the end of August, so I started riding again August 31st. I had gained a few pounds and was out of riding shape. Since then I’ve ridden every day, for 180 miles, 170 for the first 10 days September. The past week I did three back to back group rides of 20, 28, and 29 miles, usually I space 20+ mile rides 2 days apart.

I've ridden 1126 miles in 2016.

I’m taking today (Sunday the 11th) off as it’s very very windy, and my legs feel a bit weary (20+ mile group ride tomorrow). I have planned to ride an average of 10 miles a day for September, and even with today off I’m well above that pace. I did want to front-load the first half of the month with more miles to help to kick-start getting back into riding shape. Also there will be a few days later in the month that will interfere with riding and inevitably bad weather, so I’ve gotten in a lot of miles while I can without burning myself out.

Of course, the miles I’ve been doing are little compared to regular bike riders. But it’s still a lot for me since I went over 40 years without riding a bike, no exercise, and for a long time weighing about twice what I do now.

(edit - deleted Jpeg of mileage total, due to the updated one in the following message)

An update. When I started riding again after cutting way back in mid-June, I had set a goal for myself of an average of 10 miles a day for September, to reach 300 miles. Well, I reached the goal, and then some. Saturday the 24th, I did a 24 mile ride that brought my total to over 403 miles for September. Weather and scheduling issues won’t work well for riding much this week (I rode 1/10 mile Sunday before it started to rain!), though I’d like to get in another 47 miles by Friday.

Currently at 1361 miles for the year. In the video below, I thought I needed 23 miles to reach 400, later found out I only needed 21 miles (ride had begun as a planned 10-12 mile ride, but it was going so well I decided mid-ride try to reach 400 on that ride). Voice of Cyclemeter speaking the ride stats.

[video=youtube;nuWGiJ4OqAE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuWGiJ4OqAE[/video]


Late update - Ended with 430 miles for September. May have ridden a bit too much for my legs to handle. Took a 3-day break for the legs to get out of "zombie mode". Also some weather issues (started a ride on the 25th then rain began 30 seconds later!)

There is nothing like a milestone to urge you on!

Got our first joint ride in yesterday post Smilow. Went out for a loop of West Hartford that worked out to a smidge over 40 miles. This upcoming weekend we are planning to start on Saturday morning in Hopewell Junction, New York on the Duchess Rail Trail. We'll follow that to the Walkway Across The Hudson, and continue onto the Walkill Valley Trail to Kingston. Round trip should be about 75 miles.

With that one, if all goes as planned I will hit my objective for the year on 10/20/2016.

BTW, any locals are free to saddle up. Push off is about 9AM.

Down to two digits. Today I have less than 100 miles to go. Plan is to finish up my basic goal this Thursday on Karen's birthday.

H_Rocket said:

Down to two digits. Today I have less than 100 miles to go. Plan is to finish up my basic goal this Thursday on Karen's birthday.

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Tell Karen I said---
Happyyyy Birthhhdayyyy Toooo Youuuuuuuuu

I know,,
don't quit my day job... lol...

Teddy

So today I did it.

2016 in 2016


:headbang:

Way to go Al!

man, that's a serious accomplishment Al...
A big congrats for you for sure..
I bet Karen is plenty proud of you...
You can use this as a "Get out of Jail Free" card of sorts,,, lol...

Teddy

Congratulations, Al!

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations on your achievements!

If you enjoy riding, have a look at these for some inspired riding.
[video=youtube;K_7k3fnxPq0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7k3fnxPq0[/video]

[video=youtube;Z19zFlPah-o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o[/video]

I wish I was half as good as this guy...

I am more of a roadie than a stump jumper. That said, he is freaking amazing.

Thinking about a new goal for next year. A virtual Race Across America from Rocky Hill, CT to San Diego, CA. A hair over 3,000 miles.

Go big or go home...

Thinking about a new goal for next year. A virtual Race Across America from rocky Hill, CT to San Diego, CA. A hair over 3,000 miles.

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Nice! I commuted to work each day by bike up till about two years ago. That was about the same distance over the year (20km per day, five days a week). A couple of health issues have got in the way. I was SO fit back then. There was one 49degC (120F) day I didn't appreciate. Power had gone off so I had no aircon when I got home either...

Al is a roadie like Brumotti

[video=youtube;nYey3PI3gqM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYey3PI3gqM[/video]

Nice!

I probably made my last bike ride of 2016 on Wednesday.

Because Friday morning, I had hernia surgery. I am feeling fine, able to walk and such. A bit of pain but not bad so far.

But from my own google researching in bike forums, most indicate not riding for at least 4 weeks, preferably 6. In 4 weeks the weather will be really cold (Certainly the group rides will end in 2-3 weeks). Now, I could possibly do a bit of riding the end of December if weather allows. But as far as planning and goals, November 16th was my likely "end of the year" for riding.

On May 23rd, I wrote:

georgegassaway said:

My minimal goal for 2016 is 1000 miles, so that seems almost a sure thing. I can’t see doing 2000 miles unless I did no rocket stuff… and that’s not gonna happen. 1500 miles, a stretch.

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A few weeks ago, I kept trying to figure out some notable “likely attainable goal” I could try to reach before I stopped riding. In May, I thought 1000 miles was very likely, and maybe 1200. I thought that 1500 would not be possible, especially since I knew I’d not ride much if any for most of the summer due to preparing for NARAM and the WSMC. But thanks to that crazy 430 miles in September (which was too much though), I was able to reach 1500 miles several weeks ago. Well I could not hit 2016 miles, no way, not unless I cancelled the surgery and went south for the rest of the year. So I penciled in a notable historical year…… 1776. I hit THAT last week! So what else? Hmmm… didn’t think of any standout years in the early 1800’s, War of 1812 not exactly a great thing to use for a bike riding goal, and I felt like I could ride more than that if the weather allowed the planned group rides to be held. So I dropped years and tried to think of some other notable number in the low 1800 range, And then it occurred to me, 1830. Well, the number 1830 itself did not occur to me, I had to do some math to derive that number, after first guesstimating it might be a value that would work. So, 5 times 366 = 1830. Where 366 is the number of days in 2016, and 5 is miles.....

As in riding for an average of 5 miles a day for the year. So, I did not think of 1830, I was thinking what would 5 miles a day, every day for 2106, add up to. And that was it, a likely attainable goal number.

And I passed 1830 total miles on the last group ride Wednesday (23 miles), and ended up with 1839.06 miles for the year (realistically, I might have ridden another 20 miles or so as Map My Ride shaves off a bit in its GPX file conversions, only recently have I been manually correcting those errors). So, yeah it would have been possible I could have ridden over 2016 miles for the year, if not for the surgery and not being able to ride at all on some days the next 6 weeks (ice, snow, too windy in the cold, or plain WAY too cold). At least the weather was not too cold this fall, but it snowed Friday, and a group ride planned for Sunday (which of course I will miss in any case) might be called off as the high will be about 32 at ride start.

So, anyway, this is my “end of the riding season” report…. or at least probably end of riding for 2016 anyway. Though there was a photo that was taken by someone before the Wednesday ride that if I get a copy, I’ll post it later.

1839 miles ridden in 2016 - over 5 miles a day average.

- George Gassaway

I can't believe I hadn't noticed this topic before. I commute year-round, usually around 3300-3400 miles per year which is almost all of my miles. My ride is a 2010 Trek Allant with fenders, a rack, a dynamo, and lights and flashers fore and aft. So it weighs about a metric ton. Good outerwear, and studded tires and pogies in winter, make it tolerable in all but fresh unplowed snow. Hail to my fellow rocketeer/cyclists, and stay safe!

My bike is getting a Tubus rear rack and some panniers for overnighters. Need to get some roadie tires too. Loving it.

From yesterdays Free Bikes for Kids bicycle giveaway day

Nice work this year, everyone! I made it to 1620 miles on the new bike (bought late April), which puts me at about 1750 miles overall for the year. Next year I should make 2017, though.

I'll start the 2017 Year of the Bike thread next week sometime.

H_Rocket said:

I'll start the 2017 Year of the Bike thread next week sometime.

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Good to read that. I added 4 more miles about 2 weeks ago, total 1843 for the year (average over 5 miles per day).

Due to the broken arm, might not even ride for 4 months, have to use the sling. And given the consequences if I broke it again, I may need to go back to walking.

Ted Cochran said:

I can't believe I hadn't noticed this topic before. I commute year-round, usually around 3300-3400 miles per year which is almost all of my miles. My ride is a 2010 Trek Allant with fenders, a rack, a dynamo, and lights and flashers fore and aft. So it weighs about a metric ton. Good outerwear, and studded tires and pogies in winter, make it tolerable in all but fresh unplowed snow. Hail to my fellow rocketeer/cyclists, and stay safe!

Click to expand...

I commute year round, too, when I can. Studded tires, Dynohub and LED lights. 13 miles round trip. People think I'm crazy. No idea how many miles I rode this year, but it must have been around 2,000.