2010 Retrospective
Friday, December 31st, 20102010 was a great year for me, cycling-wise … in many ways, my best year ever.
General
I’ll talk about the goals I set at the beginning of the year in a minute. I did pretty well overall, but most of the best stuff that happened this year wasn’t directly connected to a goal.
Most importantly, people. I rode with others more often this year. I rode with Bill a couple more times, and I started riding with Tim and David, when we are able to connect for a ride. I rode with my other friend Dave when I could, but we didn’t get to ride as much this year. I also did some club rides, although I found that most people in the club have a much different riding mindset than I do.
I also rode my first centuries this year, and got more interested in long-distance cycling. I didn’t pursue this as much, later in the year, but it’s something I’m definitely still interested in.
Probably the best two rides of the year were the two days of riding in Big South Fork with Tim and David. (Part 1 | Part 2)
I also got significantly better at riding in various inclement weather conditions, especially snow, ice, and night riding.
I didn’t do a lot of mountain biking this year, but I did ride my mountain bike a lot in the snow, and on gravel roads.
Goals
Here are the cycling goals I set last year, and how I did:
- Ride 3,000 miles.
I far exceeded my expectations, and rode 5,007 miles. In fact, I just hit 5,000 miles on the very last day of the year. Pretty exciting way to wrap up the year! - Ride a century (100 miles in one ride).
I rode five century+ rides, including the 160-mile Ride Across INdiana. - Do at least three overnight bike camping trips (S24Os).
I didn’t do any bicycle camping at all this year. - Do at least one longer bicycle tour, two nights or longer.
I didn’t do a tour. - Ride my bicycle in at least two states other than Indiana.
I rode in four new states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. - Explore new roads and trails.
I did. - Continue 100% bicycle commuting.
Not quite 100%, but close. Occasionally I will have to drive; mainly if there is a car problem, I drive the car to the shop, ride my bike to work, and ride back to pick up the car. Also, I drove for a couple of weeks after my foot surgery.
Basically, I exceeded my goals in every way, except that I didn’t do any loaded bike camping this year. For whatever reason, I never really felt the urge this year. Next year, I hope to do better. I’ve enjoyed bike camping every time I’ve done it, so I’m not quite sure why I didn’t go this year.
More miles than ever before
There are two main reasons for my huge mileage increase over previous years (my previous record was 3586.5 miles, back in 2007):
- I moved further away from work, but continued to commute each day.
- I bought a road bike, which allowed me to rack up miles faster, and made longer rides more doable.
Mileage Breakdown
- Road: 2753.45
- Commute: 2010.28
- Mixed terrain: 758.98
- Mountain: 210.91
Bikes
- Surly Long Haul Trucker: 2911.23
- Bianchi Imola: 1540.80
- Fuji Tahoe 29 Comp: 337.84
- Miyata Street Runner: 217.50