Originally Posted by
jboyd
I felt I was missing out, so I went to the bike shop and bought the best wireless computer I could afford, and started charting my rides on a spreadsheet at home. Time, Temp, Dist., Ride Time, Avg speed & fastest speed and route. This became an obsession for 3 years in a row, but each year had its own focus.
[...]
I found my biking nirvana. For me it is riding without people, in areas that others would never take a conventional bike. My hours may be spent at 7mph on a fast day, but my smile factor is so off the chart this year compared to the past three.
You mean you weren't tracking the Smile Factor (TM) as a column in your spreadsheet?
It's good you found your cycling nirvana. That's the
real goal, and you passed the test. You also learned
why it's the goal; if you aren't having fun, it's a chore, and after you wind up dreading it, you'll start looking for excuses. There's nothing worse than not wanting to do something you're passionate about, because of the particular way you're going about it. Keep that smile on your face!
But you might want to hold on to the bike computer. It's really nice to have an odometer, and to know your speed.
Finally, I'm shocked that you went to the effort of tracking this manually in a spreadsheet. That's a Hurculean effort you went to! If you ever have a reason to want a table with all that data in the future, though, consider getting a GPS ( it doesn't have to be bike specific, and can even clip to your belt ) which can export the data into your computer, and this can be accumulated into a free database. It sounds like you won't ever want this kind of info again ... but if the need crops up at some point, I wanted to suggest a less time-consuming way to go about it.