2009: Promises… Kept

[ornoth_cycling]

Today is the last day of my 2008-2009 cycling year, so it’s time for a recap. Fortunately, much of what I’d say in my annual report was covered in my 2009 Pan-Mass Challenge Ride Report, which relates everything up to and including the PMC. So I’ll just go over what’s happened since then.

The first thing that must be mentioned is that I’ve been without my main bike, the Plastic Bullet, for two months while waiting for my bike shop to repair my crankset, which they actually first looked at on July 6th. It’s still not fixed, and you can expect a long diatribe about this travesty once the story is complete.

That means my last thousand miles have been on my 30-pound Bike Friday folder. Although it’s done an admirable job and even got me through this year’s Flattest Century with Jay and Paul (photos), it has really blunted my enthusiasm to be out on the road.

That covers the past two months. Now a quick assessment of the year.

In 2008-2009, I put 4,000 miles on the road, plus about 500 miles on the indoor trainer, which is about twice what I achieved in 2007-2008 and 2006-2007 (charts). I notched five century rides: Flattest, Climb to the Clouds, PMC day one, plus two unorganized solos. I set new mileage records for each of the four primary training months: April, May, June, and July. By all accounts, 2008-2009 was one of my best years.

And now that the year is over, I’m really looking forward to the off-season. While I’ll continue to ride a little throughout the autumn, I’ve achieved all my goals and am not going to push myself. I’m done riding hard and long, and will use the next four months to rest up and renew my utterly depleted desire to be on the bike. As I say, I’m looking forward to the break.

Of course, I’m also looking forward to the 2009-2010 year. Even though training time is still six months away, I’ve given some thought to setting my goals for next year. The most obvious one is to complete my 10th Pan-Mass Challenge. If I make Heavy Hitter again next year, it would be my fifth year in a row, and I’d also break $60,000 lifetime fundraising, giving me an average annual contribution of $6,000.

I’d also like to make it a special challenge this year by truly going pan-Mass, starting from the New York State border on Friday. So on top of the usual 190 miles over two days, that means I’d have an additional 95-mile ride the day before the PMC. We’ll see if that’s possible, as my ability to train will depend highly on my employment situation.

My other goal is more of a logistical challenge than a physical one: hauling a bike out to the Bay Area and participating in the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage, which includes stops at Spirit Rock, Sae Taw Win, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and Abhayagiri Monastery. It sounds like quite an adventure, and a good primary trip for next year.

But I’ve got a good nine months to rest up and then train for next year’s PMC, and right now that rest sounds awfully good to me. Can somebody schedule my wakeup call for the first of May?