Tuesday, December 30, 2014

There was a time everyone had a blog. Me too. Pretty useless really beyond a little self-gratification. It took me a while to 'find' my blog and somehow reclaim and log back in. If nothing else I've found it pretty cool to look back and leaf through from the beginning. Starting a family. Buying houses. Buying dozens of bikes. Fascinating and eye-opening to the right audience. Namely me.

End of the year 2014. With one day to go I've reached a couple goals I only really considered sometime back in late August. With no racing on my schedule this year it becomes a bit of a struggle at times to find the motivation to go out and run or ride. It occurred to me the possibility of achieving something I've never done since I started running 5 years ago. I've averaged as much as 25+ miles a week running in a calendar year. I've averaged as much as 100+ miles a week riding in a calendar year. I've never averaged over 100 & 20 a week. 2013 was 80 & 25. So, I found my motivation to finish up 2014. On September 1st I was 1750 miles short of 5200 on the bike and 400 miles short of 1040 miles running. 4 months or 17.5 weeks to get it done. With one week in November spent in Florida without a bike and daylight hours drastically reduced from mid-October on I was more concerned about getting the bike miles. Throw in a healthy dose of a poor attention span and I had even more reservations. Longest ride I've done to that point was 38 miles.

Steadily I chipped away at it. No time to be tired. No time to be sick. Maintaining balance is key. My kids have come to expect their dad to be fun and cool and most importantly present. Spending time with the little brats is always a treat and I try to do as much as I can which is never enough.

On December 28th I pedaled my 5200th mile. Sweet. December 30th I ran my 1040th mile. Beautiful. In the process, as an unintended consequence, I also accumulated more hours in a calendar year on a bike or in my running shoes. All sorts of fun to celebrate. Still one day to go. 30f temps in the forecast for NYE. Who knows, maybe a ride. Maybe a run. Maybe nothing. W
hatever the case, it's safe to say this will be a high water mark. With a couple years of useless junk miles running & riding I could do more of the same at a diminished rate or I could throw in an adequate amount of high-intensity and do something racey in 2015. No idea.

So with that, Happy New Year to you all.
2014 PMC
2013 PMC