2009 Resolution
Saturday, January 31st, 2009My 2008 new years resolution was to ride my bike to work 50 times. I made it, but just barely, making it to 50 in the second week of December. Fifty trips between Monrovia and Pasadena is about 1,000 miles. That’s not a ton of riding in a year, but it’s a whole lot more than I usually do, and it was 50 fewer car trips to and from the office. So I’m quite pleased with how that went.
There was one drawback, though. I never really felt like riding on the weekend or just around town or whatever, because it “wouldn’t count” in some odd, self-imposed way. This is a crying shame, considering both that I live in Southern California where the whether is perfect for cycling 99 days out of 100 and that cycling just for the fun of it is damn fun.
For 2009, I’ve set a similar goal but without the silly “It has to be going to/from work” provision. I’d like to ride at least 2,000 miles before the end of the year. That’s still not a crazy amount of riding — I’d hit that if I just rode to work twice a week — but it’s still a pretty good amount for me, and it’s realistic even if I have to take a few weeks off for whatever reason.
Here’s where I’m at so far:
January Miles: 212.66
Percentage of monthly goal: 128%
Percentage of annual goal: 11%
Of note is that there was almost a week where I was completely out of commission due to a ruined wheel. Something that will probably help me a lot is getting on the ball as far as maintenance is concerned. (Also finishing the Bridgestone so I’ll have something else to ride the next time I do something horrible to my commuter.)
Along similar lines, Stephanie and I have signed up to do the Livestrong Challenge ride in Austin this October. Briefly, this is a charity ride put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research, screening and survivor programs. We’re signed up to do the 90 mile ride, which is more than either of us have ever ridden at a go. It should be fun working up to that.
Shameless plug: as with any charity sort of ride, there’s a fund raising component. If you like what the LAF does and want to support their efforts by way of sponsoring us on this ride, you can donate via the interwebs. Here’s a link to my donation page, and here’s Stephanie’s.
