seescore

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Here it is September now, and I’ve hardly ridden at all. To be brutally honest about it, I just haven’t felt like putting in the effort. Just thinking about pedalling makes me feel tired. It seems all I really want to do during the day now is nap or work at my computer. It may just be that I’m not getting enough sleep these days.

In my last post, I noted that I had 1904 miles to go to reach my goal of 2000 for 2007. Now, 1900 miles sounds like a lot, and it is, but if you break this up into smaller rides, it becomes much easier to see that it can be done. Example: my commute distance, one way, is 16 miles. If I commute 15 days each month, just one way, that’s 240 miles a month. At that rate, I can reach my goal in 8.3 months, or the middle of October. If I commute both ways, 15 days a month, I’ll be finished in 4 months, in June. The trick is not to concentrate on completing the 2000 miles, but rather getting on the bike as often as possible. Maintain a log of your rides. This will help you see that you are making progress during those times when you need a mental boost. I keep a database log in my PDA. For me, it’s fun to update the log. Over time, I can see that I’ve accomplished quite a bit. For example, since I started riding in 2004, I’ve done 108 rides for a total of 1895 miles. My original goal in 2004 was to go 1000 miles in a summer. As it turned out, I made it to 1400 and pulled off riding a century at the end of the season. When I look at what I’ve achieved so far, knowing that when I started my odometer read “0”, I see that I have what it takes to accomplish my new goal.

Just FYI, here are the data fields I capture in my riding log. This may be a bit overboard for some, but I happen to like looking at data (sad, I know : )).

Ride Number
Date
Start Time
End Time
Ride Duration
Break Duration
Average Speed
Start Location
End Location
Ride Group (for rides with local cycling groups)
Ride ID (for rides with specific names)
Distance
Odometer
Notes

I use a program called MobileDB, by Landmark (http://www.mobiledb.com) and a custom database I wrote. If you would like a copy of it, just drop me a note here.

As of 20070314, I’ve ridden 94.8 miles this year, including my first full commuting day last week (32.2 miles roundtrip). Only 1906 miles to go!