2005 in Review

[ornoth_cycling]

I’ve always measured my cycling year from mid-October to mid-October. Half of the reason why I do that is because autumn is the logical end of the season for serious riding. The other part is because that was the time of year that I purchased my hybrid and started tracking my riding.

In my last post I mentioned in passing how ironic it was that I wound up purchasing my new Roubaix at the exact same time of year as I’d purchased the Devinci. Well, in my excitement about my new bike, I completely forgot to write up a summary of this year’s season, so that’s what this post is about. I won’t belabor it, though.

This year I rode 3,200 miles, or 8.75 miles every day. That brings my total distance over the past five years to 15,400 miles, with virtually all of that on the Devinci.

In addition, this is the time of year when the fundraising for my annual Pan-Mass Challenge ride winds up. In 2005 I raised $3,865, which brings my five-year total fundraising for cancer research, treatment, and prevention to $16,065.

There weren’t a lot of significant accomplishments this year beyond my mileage and fundraising goals. I rode the CRW’s New Years ride, and in March I made a moderately long trek down to Norwell for a kayak show. In June, my new job got me started commuting again, which was both good and bad: good because it meant I got miles every day, but bad because it wasn’t a lot of miles or very good training. Finally, I realized a longstanding dream of taking the train up to Portland, Maine and riding from Portland to Augusta (and back).

The year also included a lot of back pain, seat troubles, and frustrations with bike shops. But despite some setbacks, overall it was a pretty good year.

I suppose I should also look forward to next year, as well. The new bike will certainly produce a few changes. I’d like to do some other big rides. I hope I can begin my season with the first one or two rides in the Boston Brevet Series, which features increasing distances of 124, 186, 248, and 372 miles. I’d also like to do either the CRW Cape in a Day or the Outriders ride, which usually take place the same weekend and are in the 130-mile range. And there’ll be another PMC, and by this time next year my fundraising and my overall mileage should both be around 19,000.

But for now, it’s officially the off season. I plan on taking it easy for a while, commuting and maybe taking the new bike out for a real spin whenever time and weather permit. But I don’t need to worry about training again until February or March, when I need to get serious if I plan to do the 124-mile May 6th brevet!