oilman_15106

Today I met the final 2007 cycling goal I set. With a 41 mile hot and windy ride I broke 3,500 miles for 2007. Not planned but I was excited to add the mileage to my journal. Other 2 goals were a bit less quantative: Improve my hill climbing ability. Finish a 60+ mile ride without boinking(bonking?). Have not been defeated by a W. Pa hill this year and finished my first century so those items are also in the books for 2007. (2006 was another story - many a hill did me in and the 2 60+ mile rides I did were disasters)

So, now what? Stop riding until 2008? Revise the 2007 mileage goal upward? Already thinking about how to improve for 2008.

Digital Gee

If I were you, I'd stay off that bike until New Year's Day. If you don't, imagine how high the bar will be in 2008 to do better than 2007!

Seriously -- congratulations on what is already an outstanding year for you. Way to go!

Tom Bombadil

Party Time!!

BSLeVan

It seem that new goals are indeed in order. Nice work.

soma5

Awesome! That is really inspiring! Are you now planning to ride through the winter? Good goals might be to keep your fitness level up to where you can start doing some serious riding as soon as it gets nice out again.

My own plan, having come back to riding on July 1 this year, is to accumulate enough "base miles" over the winter to start doing some real training in the spring, similar to what I did 15 years ago although perhaps of somewhat less intensity... I feel I need something like 1500 to 2000 miles before I can start the training. I've got only 622 miles so far and my strength has come back much better than my endurance.

-soma5

jppe

Stay on the bike but you might think about doing rides just for the mental enjoyment..........and doing things to keep your weight from ballooning until you get back to more serious riding next year.

DnvrFox

Keep riding and let me borrow your extra miles!

Beverly

Yep, it's time to start thinking about the 2008 goals.

Why not concentrate on keeping the fitness level over the winter months? You could also extend the 3500 to 4000 for the year There's always satisfaction in exceeding goals.

Neil_B

In Western PA, that means one thing: Primanti Brothers sandwich time!

Neil_B

First,. congratulations.

Now, for new goals, how about aiming for an improved time on your centuries next year?

tsl

Being single, I'd gladly stop mid-ride for a boink. Hell, I'd gladly ride for the specific purpose of getting to a boink. Bonking, however, is certainly best to avoid. Glad you got past it.

I'm at 3100 miles on a 4000 mile goal. We've been shorthanded at work the last eight weeks which cut mightily into my available riding time. Came up 40% short on my August goal, and to date, am 25% short on September. The long-term forecast says decent weather should hold through mid-November, so maybe I'll have a chance to make them up.

On the other hand, the overtime is paying for the new bike. So I guess it balances out in the end.

zacster

Set a different goal for 2008. My goal for 2007 was to exceed 20mph on my regular Prospect Park loops, something I had been unable to do at my normal brisk pace. By mid-summer I had done that and felt like I was a much better and faster rider because of it.

I'm already thinking my goal for 2008 is to break 21mph and then take up racing to see if I can at least hang with the pack. There is a beginners race that uses the same Prospect Park loop. At 52 I'm still a beginner.

howsteepisit

Forget the goals and enjoy some stressfree riding?

stapfam

There are still 3 months of 2007 to find another target to hit. I hit my 2007 goal of climbing the basket hill on the higher geared new bike early in September- so I have to think of another goal aswell. Unfortunately there are steeper hills in my area so Don't watch this space. I think I'll just go for an impromptu long ride on a day where the weather is right and I feel OK. Easier than going up these hills.

SaiKaiTai

Gotta go with the two main thoughts I see here:

Relax and just ride. Riding, in and of itself, should be pleasurable. Smell the roses. You do know there are roses out there, right? I mean you haven't just blindly pedaled past them, have you?

And then set some new goals if that's what you need for motivation next year.

Fantastic work.

BluesDawg

Good work! Now, hide the journal, take the computer off your bike and just ride (at least for the rest of the year).

Terrierman

Ever considered taking on world peace, or maybe global warming??? Great job.

Terrierman

Most of the time I can't even get one post to take....

oilman_15106

or Universal Health Insurance? Thanks for the kind words. The general perception is that I rode like h**l to reach my mileage goal. Not really true, plenty of rides smelling whatever the road had to offer, even if it was dead. Speaking of the dead rattlesnake(2.5feet) I saw on Sunday's ride which was in Arizona! Glad it was a gonner.

Staying in shape is a given over the winter and not really a goal. Going to try to quanitify better hill climbing for '08 and better average speed. Any ideas on how to do this would be appreciated.

TrekDen

Kind of late to be jumping in here, but a sure fired method for better climbing is climbing. Find a hill, and in Western PA, that shouldn't be a problem. Start at the bottom, go to the top, turn around, descend back to the bottom, and repeat. It's kind of a boring drill, but hill repeats will make you a better climber. I used them to get ready for Pedal Pittsburgh a couple years back. I had basically no riding in before the mid-May ride, but I knew I could ride the flat sections without much prep work. The hills by the zoo going up to the reservoir rest stop worried me though. With two weeks left before the ride I decided to give hill repeats a try. I took two days of each week, and just rode up, and down the hill right outside my front door. The first week I repeated the 3/4 mile hill three times in a row, and the second week I repeated it four times (actually did it 5 times the last day). That little bit of effort made the hills by the zoo seem like a slight nuisance instead of a dreaded, get winded, get off the bike, and push it to the top type of day for me.

Hill repeats are your friend,

Denny

tsl

Actually, I'm kinda glad for the thread resurrection. Gave me a chance to read what I posted before.

As it turns out, the weather was nice through mid-November and I not only caught up, I made my goal on T-day. Without a nice metric or two on the schedule, I doubt I'll make it, but I set my challenge goal to 4,000 plus tax. That's 8% here in Monroe County, so I'm pushing for 4,320 by New Year's.

Ken Brown

My favourite line from the old Moonlighting show was when Maddy criticized David for referring to the act of procreation as "boinking".