The time vs. distance debate is an interesting one.

My father always asks me how far I rode or raced, and I'll tell him a time - 4 hours, or 35 minutes - and he always asks how many miles that was. I often don't know.

When I first started riding about five years ago, I focused solely on mileage. During that first year, I targeted 1,000 miles as my goal and struggled to get there. At the time, it seemed really far. This year, I've already got well over a thousand miles in. Heck, I put in about 450 miles just during the month of January, even when the weather was in the 20s.

At the same time, my training plans and most of my crits are now based on time. I know I need to do an hour and a half on the trainer tonight. My next crit is 45 minutes. So time is what I tend to focus on more. It doesn't matter whether I do 10 miles or 35 miles during that hour and a half period on the trainer, so long as I complete the workout and intervals as planned. So, my perspective on riding and training has changed.

As for my personal goals for the year, I reached it -- I catted up to a 4. I guess I need to set a new goal, like move up to a 3.