A Year on the Road -- Looking Back and Motivating to go Forward

Selfie just after completing 5,000 miles

At the end of a year it can be useful and satisfying to take a look back. Road biking is my fitness activity and my principal recreation. In the past year I . . .

• rode 5,116 miles (my most ever) 
• rode 343 hours ( an average of almost an hour a day)
• climbed 341,341 feet (about 1,000 feet of climbing an hour)

The only other time I have completed 5,000 miles in a year was way back in 2005, when I was newly retired and eager for the good life.

Distance is one measure I use to judge myself in cycling, but time trials are more meaningful. My time trial route in Hand Cove covers 31.2 hilly miles, including the slog up Woods Point and the savage little Cemetery Hill. I consider anything over 16 mph a decent time trial and anything over 17 mph to merit a two-beer lunch. I managed to grind out ten rides in the 16-17 mph range and 7 rides worthy of a two-beer celebration. I averaged 17.8 mph during my fastest time trial of the year. These are good numbers, but not great. In 2009, for example, I had twenty-three time trials averaging over 17 mph and during three of those I averaged over 18 mph. It may be that I'm getting old, but I prefer to believe that I was concentrating on distance this past year. In 2009 my year-end total was just 4,400 miles (about 15% fewer than this year).

Strava allows one to keep track of times on various segments of a route (usually climbs), and 2014 -- not 2015 -- was my big year for setting personal records on the climbs in my area. Still, this past year was not without accomplishments. I logged my third-fastest time up Cemetery Hill (3/20), my third-fastest time up Hand Cove Landing (3/20), and my second-fastest time up Woods Point (12/19). Given how often I climb those hills, anything close to a personal record is a source of smug satisfaction. My longest climb of the year was the 3.1 mile heart-stopper to the top of Bearwallow Mountain south of Asheville, NC. That was definitely a challenge, but nothing like the the 16.7 miles (3,527 vertical feet) of the climb from Mineral Store to Lassen Peak in 2013.

My greatest personal achievement of the year, however, was in finally working up the courage to ride all the way around Norfork Lake. This was a solo ride of 102 miles with 7,900 feet of climbing.

Map and profile of RAN (Ride Around Norfork)

That ride took me 8 hours (7 hours, 10 minutes of moving time) and traversed some of the loveliest blacktop in the area.

In the Jeep at sunrise on the way to start RAN

Matney Mountain

Quarry Landing on Norfork Lake

Nobody ever knows what the new year will bring, but I'd certainly be satisfied if in my cycling it is a rerun of 2015. But I may need a little motivation, so I'll conclude with a few quotes to keep me going:

• "Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will." -Gandhi
• "Fitness is not about being better than someone else, it's about being better than you used to be."
• "Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -Earl Nightingale
• "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm possible!' " -Audrey Hepburn
• "Things work out the best for those who make the best of how things work out." -John Wooden
• "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." -Albert Einstein