2011: End of Year Status Report

Well its snowing today in Southern Illinois, and last nights rain is going to make any attempt at a mountain bike ride today foolish, so it looks like a good time to write my end of the year post.  My awards week covered a lot of my end of the year thoughts but I didn’t spend as much time on myself so here we go.

I think I got around the top 500 miles this year in summer when I do a majority of my riding.

Right now according to bikejoural.com I have accumulated 4339 miles in 136 rides. I know that number is not correct because I didn’t log a single ride after Oct 7th.  Last night I tried to fill in from memory what I missed, but I’m sure there are several rides unaccounted for in there.  This doesn’t include 100s of trainer miles.  I logged 1056 miles on my Nashbar Touring Bike, 2807 on my CAAD 9,  287 on my Bandersnatch and 120 on my Trek Fuel EX.

Why did I quit logging miles?  I just kind of lost interest in worrying about it.  I wanted to get 4500 miles this year, I got 4400 last year, but around October I realized I didn’t really care how many miles I got.   

I have been keeping my miles on Bikejournal.com for about 4 years and in that time the website hasn’t changed at all except to limit the amount of data fields a free user can employ.  Don’t get me wrong its a great deal for free, and for 20 dollars a year you can keep much more detailed records and get all sorts of reports, but I think there are better options out there.  The biggest drawback is that you have to manually enter your data, which is a lot of work if you have a lot of data.  This will be my last year on Bikejournal.com  Next year I’m on Strava.

As you can see I rode off the scale on GOBA last year, but this chart is missing about half my rides and includes trainer rides and jogging.

In February this year I began using a Polar Heart Rate meter and it’s software with the intent to train and collect data to measure my results.  It was interesting and gave me some good feedback.  I like the Heart Rate Zone chart which let me slowly build up time and intensity then taper off a bit for GOBA. 

Unfortanitly the Polar unit and software have  some major drawbacks.  The screen is on the smallish side and the buttons are hard to manipulate while riding.  For that reason I never took off my old computer.  Since I already had a computer on my bike I found I prefered not to mess with the Polar unless I really cared what my heart rate was so I only used it about half the rides I took. 

This chart shows some handy data from the Polar software but includes alot of stuff that isn't cycling.

The Polar can automatically download the data from the watch to my computer but it uses infrared which means you don’t have to plug it up, but it also means it takes several minutes to download its memory to the software and several times the download has failed.  It lacks GPS capabilities and the software has no online component. 

I really regret not getting a Garmin Edge unit when I bought the Polar, especially now that I’ve found Strava.com.  More on Strava on another day.  I’ll be upgrading to a Garmin soon this year.

So looking back at 2010’s end of year post I set some goals for myself, lets see how I did.

• I’d like to weigh 220 or less by May 1st. That gives me 4 months to lose about 25 pounds. Should be a piece of cake.

Didn’t even get close

• I’d like to ride the 3 state 3 mountain challenge, which is on May 1st, do the 100 mile option and complete it before it gets dark.

Rode the 90 mile option since the 100 mile route was closed for tornado damage, got in well before dark.

• I’d like to ride a little more miles than I did this year, maybe 4500.

Maybe, but about the same.

• I’d like to keep up with Jason one day while riding GOBA

Almost, I rode about 40 miles with him then had a hellatious cramp. 

• I’d like to do a self supported touring ride with Shauna on my touring bike next year.

Nope, did one overnight camping ride by myself.

• I’d like to keep up the blog, do a better job proof reading it, and do a little more to promote it.

Sort of, I kept up with it, but never really promoted it.

• I’d like to branch out, read more blogs and make more connections with other bloggers.

Sort of, need to do more.

So if you  check out my answers there technically I never completely fulfilled one goal.  Shucks.

Some things that I did do, this year,

• I rode a sub six-hour century, a hilly one I might add. 
• I went to many more charity and organized rides then I ever have before.
• I rode over a 20 mph average on more than one occasion.
• I hit my lowest weight since I was like 13, 229, but it has since crept up thanks to the holidays.

So I’m happy with this year and look forward to another year of riding and blogging.  Thanks for coming with me.