dieselgoat

I didn't see another forum I could post this in so I'll just post it here. I'm not bragging. I just like to recap my cycling adventures/events and thought someone may enjoy it. Some of it may be unfamiliar to you since I live in Georgia. Here it is anyway:

A co-worker once asked, “Coach, what did you do this weekend?”
I told him that I rode my bike 150 miles.
With a perplexed look on his face, he asked, “On purpose? Was your truck torn up?”

I get all kinds of crazy comments from my non-cycling friends.

“Did you hear about that cyclist getting killed in [insert city]? “Doesn’t that scare you?”
“Not any more than hearing about a fatal car crash,” I usually reply.

Even some of my cycling friends questioned my sanity when they found out I was trying for 12,000 miles this year. Understandably, since I swore after last year’s 10,000 that I wouldn’t do that again. Well, I didn’t lie. I said I wasn’t gonna do 10K again.

I actually didn’t decide to shoot for 12K until spring. The unusually warm winter allowed me to get out to a great start. By mid-March, I already had 1,200 to 1,300 more miles than at that point the previous year. It was a no-brainer, especially for someone who doesn’t have much of a brain to begin with.

It’s sort of like when you are doing a really tough ride like Mt. Mitchell and the whole time you’re telling yourself ‘I’ll never do this again. A few days after the pain goes away, you’re already planning for next year.

I’ve always liked setting goals. Not just in cycling. It gives me something to work towards. I guess some folks might think that kind of mileage should not be a big deal for someone with no kids/grandkids, and after all, I’m a teacher. I’ve got the “whole summer off.”

I agree, teachers have a lot of time off, but it ain’t exactly the whole summer anymore. And regardless, I’ve still got to pedal the bike. I don’t want a parade or a street named after me. It just ain’t as easy as just having the time to do it.

It was and always has been a love-hate relationship while trying to ride that kind of mileage. Fortunately, the love is about 90% of the time. There were plenty of days once the time changed that I didn't want to come home, change clothes, and jump on a bike. After all, I had a nice cushion of mileage built up. I hit 10K in late September and 11K in late October. But I just wanted to get it over with, honestly. My body was hurting.

I had two different streaks going during this year. Hurricane Irma broke a string of 90 days in a row. After one day off (Sept.11), I started a new one and got it up to 75 days in a row before I hit 12K.

I’ve been very fortunate with my health. Other than an IT band issue and a saddle sore or two, I haven’t had much to worry about, except some very sore muscles from time to time.

The weather has also been great this year. As I already mentioned, winter was warmer than usual. Spring was great, with not too much rain, and summer, although it was hot at times, never really got miserable for a long period. I got caught in the rain about a half dozen times. Once, in an absolute monsoon, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Fall has been great too. In 2016, I rode in the misting rain during November and December more times than I care to recall. I didn’t hit 10K last year till December.

I had lots of memorable rides in ‘17. The hardest was easily the Cheaha Ultra course that I did, solo, about a week after the official ride. I had planned on doing the Ultra on the actual day of the ride, but as of 12 hours before the start the forecast called for a 90% chance of thunderstorms. I tapped out. Naturally, it didn’t rain a damn drop in Jacksonville, Alabama that day. Too much of a chance for me to take, especially since the last time I did that ride, it was in the rain. Some of those descents on wet asphalt scared the living hell out of me. Didn’t want to push my luck again.

I grossly underestimated the difficulty of doing this ride without any support. I had plenty of water and food.I just didn’t have the adrenaline flowing that having other riders around me would have produced. I was not motivated on the climbs with no one around. I made it, but it was not easy.

All in all of the 328 days so far this year, as of this writing, I have ridden 302 of them. I have had just one day off in the last 165 days, so my ass (literally) is tired. There have been very few KOM attempts lately.

Since I started riding in 2005, I have learned a lot of lessons. Here are a few of them:

1. It’s a blessing to have a spouse that also rides.
2. A smart man will list the one above at number one.
3. There is no such thing as a day without wind.
4. It’s great to not only have a bike shop in this town, but also one that promotes cycling in the community the way Golden’s does.
5 .There are a lot of drivers that are not very fond of cyclists.
6. On the other hand, a lot of cyclists won’t get out of the middle of the road.
7. 80% of drivers tolerate cyclists. 10% are actually courteous, and the other 10% are just @$$holes.
8.We’re blessed to have such good roads to ride on around here.
9. It ain’t the chariot, it’s the horse
10. You can’t out ride a bad diet. (I weigh 10 more pounds now than last year despite riding 2,000 more miles)
11. November is a pretty darn good month.
12.There is no better way to see the countryside than on a bike.
13 .Everybody that comes up to me when I’m stopped at a convenience store either used to ride a bike or is going to get one soon.
14. Lots of people can get in a pace line and ride fast when it’s flat, but when the pavement tilts upwards, and you’re alone, it’s a whole different story.
15. My criteria for cold weather riding: At least 50 degrees, sun must be shining- the wind must be <15 m.p.h. Any two of these happen and it’s a go.

And finally-I’m a numbers guy so here are some numbers:

Total miles-12,023
Days ridden- 302 of 328 (39.8 miles/day)
Calories-802,841 (229 pounds of fat)
Feet climbed-757,449 (like climbing Mt. Everest 29 times)
Most miles in a month-1449-July

Thanks to all who rode with me and put up with my *****ing.
See ya on the road in ‘18, (and probably more in ‘17).

SethAZ 

Wow. Well done!

TheRef

Congrats. I’m tired after reading it.

I’m also a numbers guy, can you tell us how many tires, chains, etc did you go through? What kind of bike and equipment did you use? Did you keep a digital log or analog?

WalksOn2Wheels

Awesome post. #3 and #7 are the ones that hit home the most for me.

woodcraft

Congrats!

Bob Ross

Given that the year isn't over yet, I call BS on the "I'm not bragging" thing.

Don't worry, there's always a year-end mileage thread/pissing match on BF, and with over 12k miles you'll be afforded plenty of opportunities to brag there.






...unless some of them were on the trainer.

datlas 

Kudos

hobkirk

Thanks for sharing, both the data and your thoughts.
I'm impressed by an average of 63' ascent per mile. I consider anything over 50' to be hilly.
More data? How old are you?

This is my 7th year cycling. I did 4700 miles in 7 months the first year, but I decided I didn't want to dedicate that much time. And I had medical issues (2 cancers, 2 new joints). I think I've only broken 4K once since. I have a friend (also retired) who clocked 11K last year and will get 12K this year, so I knew what dedication this takes. And you aren't retired!

Congratulations.

TakingMyTime

I am not worthy.

GuitarBob

Chapeau!

Doctor Morbius

Congrats! Your July 2017 racked up more miles than I plan to during 5 months next summer.

raria

Damn you for confirming 10!

12000 miles and you put on 10 pounds!

dieselgoat

I rode 6 different bikes, so I didn't go through many tires, chains, etc. I've got a road bike (06 Trek 5200), a hybrid (Trek 7.3FX), a TT bike ('11 Trek Speed Concept), a SS/FG (State Bicycles), a cyclocross bike ('14 Trek Crossrip LTD) and another hybrid (Trek Zektor 2) which I recently sold.

I keep all my info on Garmin Connect/Strava

Name is Ronnie Sivell is you want to look it up.

dieselgoat

Whatever... and they were all outside miles.

dieselgoat

I live in west central Georgia. Not really "hilly" just never-ending rolling hills. "Hilly" is the mountains of north GA or over towards Mt. Cheaha in AL. The flattest ride I've around here is about 40 ft/mi, and that's just an out-and back up U.S. hwy 27. I will turn 55 next Monday.

DrIsotope

But boy will you next year, when everything wears out at once.

dieselgoat

When you ride that much, you stay hungry all the time (that's my excuse anyway)

10K is a lot of miles, too. I have asked my friends to do bodily harm to me should I mention either of those distances in 2018.

DrIsotope

I'm curious as to where the other 200,000ft of vertical are hiding. Strava shows the year total at 562,575ft, which is an impressive number in it's own right, but gives a much more sane 46ft/mi average for the year.

autonomy

Well done. Are you sure there's no local news story with the headline "Local man exceeds the distance of the average US driver - by bike"?

dieselgoat

Probably came from me miscalculating. I didn't even know where to find my climbing on Strava. I was just trying to quickly add it up from Garmin Connect.

dieselgoat

Not to my knowledge. Our local newspaper definitely needs something to fill up the pages.

dieselgoat

I believe the numbers, but it's hard for me to understand that I only did 46 ft/ mile. Most every ride I do averages out to well more than 50 ft. But I wasn't trying to climb, just trying to get the mileage.

dieselgoat

Now that I think about it, for the last several weeks, I have done a many rides (probably 40-50) straight up and back the highway near my house. It is a relatively flat 35-40 ft/mi.

raria

If you take your 802,000 calories burnt number and divide by 330 you get 2400 *extra* calories per day. Most of us are allowed 2400 calories per day to maintain our weight. To put on 10 pounds you must have been consuming more than 5000 calories a day! How did you find the time to eat all that AND ride AND have a job :-)

Well done by the way!

scott967

I'll be going over 4K today, so take that!

scott s.
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