Playing In Traffic: (And I would Bike) 7,000 Miles

C R A Z Y.

In 2017 I set a personal best for miles biked in a year, 4,700 miles. In 2018 I smashed that by riding 6500 miles. For 2019 I set my sights on 7,000 miles. Today I hit that mark with three weeks left in the year. Whew!

It's been an interesting year with a lot of "garbage miles". Breaking it down into monthly and weekly goals was a real lesson -- it was better to do lots of mid range days rather than mega event miles that would pull me off the road for recovery. Speaking of recovery I became militant about getting enough sleep. I made sure I had the opportunity for at least eight hours of sleep a night. During big mileage pushes I also threw in some naps on the weekends. Recovery was where it was at.

I still did a lot of events, the Midnight Marathon Ride, The CRW Spring Century (100 miles in freezing rain), Outriders, the Farm to Fork Fondo in Vermont, Blazing Saddles, Ride for Angels, The Harbor to the Bay, and the CRW's Cranberry Harvest Century. I got to ride with friends and family. I spent a lot of time alone in the saddle just thinking about things. The heart of the effort was my 30 mile a day round trip bike commute. Taking a non cycling vacation for two weeks in August was really tough to work around. For a couple weeks I woke up early and did some extra miles before work!

Doing this was all about consistency and piling on miles. Honestly, it's a dumb goal in a lot of ways. Turning 50 I guess this is my red convertable. I am NOT planning on exceeding this mark next year. In fact, my plan is to do 10% less. That might just happen naturally with a bad winter. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun even if at times I was at risk of turning cycling into a job.

7,000 miles. Feels good to have accomplished a tough, if whacky, goal.