Mileage

I love the attached graphic. The comparison of my year on year totals. Really enjoy looking back to see how I stack up year on year. 2014 was always going to be a big year for me, I cycled to Barcelona that June and it was EPIC. Around 950 miles. Beautiful weather, decent roads, stunning scenery. I'd do it all again tomorrow if only I could.

When I returned from Barca (no, I didn't ride back), the month after the event was fairly non eventful when it comes to mileage. That's when I decided to go for 10,000 miles for the year. I'd trained hard for the event, done a couple of big months prior to the 'Grand Depart' and ended up with a few 1000 mile months and anyhow, I still had to commute to work and back for the rest of the year so I may as well have a new target right.

Need a good target, I remember downloading an App and counting down from over 200 days until the moment I left for Barca. Loved that. Shame it was over so quick.

So the target became 10,000 miles. To be fair, I was single at the time, so it helped that I had nothing better to do, literally.


Not really sure of the benefit of adding 2011 but whatever, progress is progress right!

But once you've completed that target, what next? I'm not single anymore (yay), I've got a 4 month old baby (yay). It's been easy this year to drop miles. Miles I'd have been bothered about in years gone by but due to the new arrival, I'm just not. Priorities right.

But where is the ceiling, if you can do 10,000 then why not 12,000 or 15,000 but what's the point, where does it stop?

It's all about getting to and from work for me now. Its still the best part of my work routine. I freaking LOVE my commute. Always will, I enjoy every element of it, Even in the worst conditions. It can be quite gratifying arriving at work, knowing your work out is what got you there. No need to feel guilty for missing a gym session or eating junk. September, when the kids go back, the roads are crap, I love cycling past all the miserable faces creating traffic, sitting alone in their cars, queue after queue. Nah you can keep that thanks.

As a family we own one car. I feel guilty if I take that car and it sits at work for 8 hours when the wife could be using it to take our son out. Weekend riding is a thing of the past, for the most part. So when I think about it, I'm fairly content with my 6608 miles total to date. Well I'm not but it will do.

Ow, having said all that, I have the 'Devils Punch sportive' coming up this weekend. Doing it with a pal, think we'll be doing the short 50 miler, just because its October and neither of us can be bothered to ride any further!