Orny's Cycling Journal

It was the most of times; it was the least of times. My 2023 cycling year was very noteworthy, but in ways that were mostly peripherally related to riding my bike.

Welcome to the new hometown!

On the downside, I began the year off the bike for two months due to our move from Pittsburgh to Austin and subsequent discovery of a fatal crack in my beloved primary bike of the past ten years. Then I lost another month in September for a warranty replacement of the rear wheel on my new, successor bike. I only completed one century – my fewest since 2007 – and vomited right after finishing it. Throw in a couple frustrating flat tires, the challenge of navigating a new town, and the harsh reality of turning sixty years old. 2023 provided a litany of disappointments, and my Fitness and distance numbers reflected it.

But there were a lot of major high points, too. I got a brand new bike that I love, at a steal of a discount! I replaced my old, frail bike GPS with Garmin’s newest model, which has tons of cool new features and reliable battery life! I enjoyed meeting local cyclists and exploring my new hometown of Austin, and even got to bike on a Formula One race track! At my first Livestrong century, my old grammar school friend Scott came down from New Hampshire; it was also my first event as an official member of Team Kermit, and I got to ride with several old and new Pan-Mass Challenge friends who had flown in from Boston!

From an athletic standpoint, 2023 wasn’t a superlative year, but a decent one. And I’m pleased by all the memorable stuff that did happen.

My Original 2023 Goals

At this time last year, my bike and all my cycling gear was locked away in a moving van in an unknown location somewhere between Pittsburgh and Austin, while Inna and I spent our last couple days in Pennsylvania at her mother’s apartment.

Therefore I had no idea what cycling in Austin would be like, or even what our lives would look like when we got there. So it made no sense setting any specific goals for 2023. The new year was going to be imperfect, but that meant that whatever I did achieve would be gravy.

However, I did list four general themes that I thought would be foremost. They were:

Moving and Orienting in Austin

I knew this year’s biggest change would be finding my niche in a new city, and I did okay, as outlined in my Austin On-Ramp blogpost. However, I still need to put more energy into this, in every category of knowledge. I explored a few group rides, but there are several more that I haven’t. I’m familiar with a few bike shops, but still haven’t found “the one”. I’ve done a couple big event rides, but nowhere near as many as usual. Similar to my move to Pittsburgh in 2015, I’ve leveraged Strava’s Flyby feature and other riders to find some good routes for solo riding, but my options are still extremely limited. So orienting myself and finding my crew is still a work-in-progress.

All smiles on a scorching Friday Truancy group ride

Showing off the new 2023 Æthos

Celebrating another XP-filled Tour of Watopia on Zwift

Another looming concern with the move was coping with the Texas heat, and the summer of 2023 delivered, with no less than 78 days above 37°C (100°F). I continued to ride through it, but limited myself to short rides first thing in the morning… Except for the Friday Truancy group ride, which – despite being the most congenial group ride I found – was often a challenging mid-afternoon scorcher!

I knew I couldn’t commit to riding 10,000 kilometers this year, but thought I might be good for 8,000 KM – the same as last year – which I surpassed. In actuality, I rode at an 11,000 KM per year pace for nine months of the year, but couldn’t ride at all for the other three.

Amusingly, in last year’s writeup I mused that “I might go and buy myself a new steed”. That happened unexpectedly at the start of the year, right after the move, when a local shop discovered a crack in my old bike’s frame. More about that below, where I talk about the year’s purchases.

18th Pan-Mass Challenge and $125,000

I kinda knew that I wouldn’t be able to do a remote PMC ride this year. I had no idea what I could use for a route, what the August heat would be like, whether I’d have the time to do the required fundraising, or if I’d be in physical shape for 300 KM over two days. So I bagged it, and rode a lesser substitute: joining the PMC’s visiting Team Kermit to ride Austin’s Livestrong Challenge in September. Goal deferred; I’ll reconsider this in 2024.

Zwift Level 60

I also didn’t know how much I’d use the smart trainer in Austin, but I did rack up 3,400 indoor KM, which was was more than 2022. Although it can be prohibitively hot or cold to ride in our uninsulated and unheated garage, Zwift incentivized me by creating new roads and moving the Tour of Watopia from March to October. And in December I completed my fifth year on their platform.

I advanced from Level 53 to Level 58 on my slow and painful trudge toward Zwift’s pinnacle: Level 60. Then, with a month left to the year and 85% of the way through Level 58, Zwift moved the goalposts. On one hand, they made it easier to reach Level 60 by reducing the amount of XP needed to level up by about 75 percent. But at the same time, they made it harder to reach the top XP level by tacking on forty new levels, from 61 to 100!

The easier leveling let me zip through Level 59 and reach Level 60 in a matter of days, even finishing the year on Level 62. Although I achieved my goal of reaching Level 60, it’s just not as satisfying because Zwift made the last couple steps much easier to achieve.

Health and Turning 60

On the other hand, no one made the “Turning 60 years old” achievement any easier. I definitely checked that one off, and my flagging on-bike performance showed it, as I discussed in this blogpo.

Fortunately, my time in the saddle wasn’t limited by my health. A heart monitor investigating my cardiac palpitations produced a mostly clear result, with the interesting side-note of registering a sleeping low heart rate as low as 37 BPM! Otherwise there were the usual inconveniences: threw my back out, saddle sores, saddle abrasion, and the joys of colonoscopy prep.

The biggest health question I faced was how to manage heat and hydration in order to avoid problems like I experienced on September’s Livestrong century ride. Before moving to Texas, I could easily do a century without paying much attention to that equation, but now it’s something I really need to solve.

Charts

This year I made my Fitness charts a little wider, and added red vertical lines denoting significant dates. These make it a little easier to see major changes and some context for why they happened.

Let’s begin by comparing 2023 to previous years.

There’s really three things to note here. First, due to the move, I started 2023 at my lowest level of Fitness (as measured by CTL) since January 2017. Second, 2023 continued a clear trend of decreasing Fitness highs from my recent peak in 2021. As any stock analyst will tell you, a sequence of lower highs and lower lows makes for an unhappy trendline.

And finally, my level of Fitness in 2023 was quite similar to 2018, which was my last year without an indoor trainer; a year that was hampered by tons of travel, record-setting rain, plus malaise and fatigue following the intensely challenging Dirty Dozen ride the preceding fall.

That comparison to 2018 is extremely apt. If you count by Fitness or long rides or number of hours on the bike, 2023 was my worst year since 2018.

So let’s take a closer look at how 2023 unfolded in detail:

The year breaks down into five distinct periods: down, up, flat, down, and up; all of it swerving above and below the grey line that represents my average Fitness level throughout the year.

I didn’t ride at all in January, while we were still unpacking from our move. In February, I brought my beloved, ten year old bike to the shop for a major overhaul, only to learn that there was a crack in the frame. I put a few miles on my old folding bike while I waited for Specialized to decide whether I was eligible for their Assisted Replacement Policy, and then procure and assemble my new steed. After more than two months off the bike, my Fitness was at a six-year low, way behind where I’d normally be.

Then the “up” phase. When I finally received my new Specialized Æthos, I rode every day for two months straight, as shown by my steadily increasing Fitness in March and April. When my consecutive rides streak ended on May 1th, I was well ahead of my usual training, and at my peak Fitness for the whole year.

I rode regularly during the summer months from May into September, but coped with the Texas summer by only doing short rides, early in the morning, and focusing on the cheeky goal of being the rider who did the most ascents (within 90 days) of the notorious Ladera Norte climb. With no major events and low riding volume, my Fitness plateaued just below my seasonal average. Summer ended with a secondary Fitness peak in September following the Livestrong Challenge, my only imperial century of the year.

But my planned autumnal riding came to a screeching halt when I discovered that during the Livestrong ride, a rock strike had broken my carbon fiber rear wheel rim. I spent the next month off the bike completely, my Fitness plummeting again while I waited for Specialized to get me a warranty replacement.

Once that was fixed, I was back where I’d been in March: spending most of the fourth quarter recovering the Fitness I’d lost during my hiatus. But similar June’s recovery, I ended the year at a tertiary Fitness peak, well ahead of my wintertime average, and that will carry over into the nascent 2024 season.

In the end, it was a year dominated by stops and starts, but I still accrued a respectable 8,250 KM of riding.

The Centuries

I rode with Team Kermit at the Livestrong Challenge

Ornoth limping across the finish line

Pæthos at autumnal Lake Austin

But it was a terrible year in terms of long rides. Between bike repair woes, lack of fitness, unfamiliarity with the area, and prohibitive Texas heat, I only attempted one imperial century in 2023. That’s the fewest I’ve done in sixteen years, since 2007.

In fact, I only did seven rides over 100 KM (62 miles): four Zwift fondos on the indoor trainer, a ride down to the Veloway and back, the Fire Ant metric, and my one century, which was:

9/10: Livestrong Challenge

While I only did one – and suffered tremendously, vomiting shortly after finishing – at least it was noteworthy. It was:

• My first and only century of 2023
• My first imperial century in 11 months
• My first century in Texas
• My first century on my new bike: Pæthos
• My first century with my new Garmin Edge 840 Solar bike GPS
• My first event as an official member of Team Kermit
• My first Livestrong ride

Noteworthy Purchases

In contrast, 2023 was an incredibly productive year for the “procurement department”. With so many new toys, I’ll try to keep it brief…

Topping the list is my new bike: Pæthos, a Specialized Æthos that Specialized gave me an unexpectedly generous discount on. It’s been a very worthy addition, carrying on the performance endurance lineage that my previously-favored Roubaix model abandoned when it went all comfort/gravel/gimmicky. I’m slowly transitioning my kit to match its understated “Chameleon Oil Tint / Flake Silver” (aka black & white) design. My only complaint was the short-lived carbon wheels, which Spesh replaced after the rear wheel broke on its first century ride. Otherwise it’s been a complete delight. In-depth review here.

With a new bike came a handful of new accessories. Hearing rumors of fragility, I picked up a spare seatpost clamp and derailleur hanger in case of breakage. Frustration with flat tires led me to pick up a bunch of spare inner tubes, a CO2 dispenser, and a new Lezyne mini-pump. The latter frees up the bottle cage mount that my old frame pump occupied, so I have finally added a second bottle cage, which will be handy for long rides in the Texas heat. Also a handful of plastic disc brake spacers.

There’s been lots of regular gear replacement as well, including a new Garmin HRM-Dual heart rate monitor, and two new pairs of Craft bibshorts. The new bike needed to be supplied with 28mm Conti GP5000 tires, and a new set of name tag stickers (this time in white, to match Specialized’s own logo decals).

After the bike, another huge development was upgrading my bike GPS head unit from my decrepit old Garmin Edge 820 to the long-awaited new Edge 840 Solar. It too has been an absolute delight, so it also warranted its own separate in-depth review. Since that writeup, Garmin has added the ability for the head unit to display images and photos in incoming text messages.

In addition to new daily-wear bibshorts, I gained a couple other bits of new kit. A jersey from the Buddhist Bike Pilgrimage: a ride I completed back in 2012. And a 2023 Livestrong Challenge jersey, which I earned for surpassing $500 in fundraising. And my very own 2023 Team Kermit jersey and bibshorts. The team uniform even included my very own Kermit the Frog stuffed doll for mounting on my helmet: a traditional (but decidedly non-aerodynamic) part of the team kit.

My most recent purchase was an Ekrin Bantam cordless massage gun, which has been delightful to use, but its effectiveness and safety are still under evaluation.

And finally, the most notable addition to my indoor pain cave was Zwift’s Play controllers. These mount to your handlebars and offer lots of shortcut buttons for in-game actions. But the most useful function they provide is the ability to steer, allowing you to position your avatar in or out of the draft or take an optimal line through corners.

Big sky fulla giant Ornoths at the Fire Ant Tour

Bike night at the Circuit of the Americas

Red Bud Isle (more green than red, akshually)

Additional Highlights

Naturally, moving to a new city produced a lot of new experiences. I rode a challenging Fire Ant 100k up in Gatesville. I got to ride on Austin’s dedicated cycling circuit, the Veloway. I spent two evenings “zooming” around the Circuit of the Americas: Austin’s Formula One grand prix track. I joined more than a dozen Friday Truancy group rides. And it was great hosting old and new New England friends on Team Kermit rides in the lead-up to the Livestrong Challenge.

Flats – and a non-functioning frame pump – were a problem this year. I had to call a Lyft rideshare to get home after a quadruple snakebite on Blue Bluff, and also walked to The Peddler for repairs after taking a screw on 51st in Mueller. Hence all the new flat-repair equipment mentioned above.

I’m tempted to list out the two dozen Strava “Local Legend” achievements I earned by being the person who rode a segment more than anyone else in a 90-day period, but that’d be a waste. I’ll just mention the two biggies: becoming LCL on Austin’s infamous Ladera Norte climb, and the Friday Truancy ride’s spiker up the Arpdale to Cedarview Kicker.

In terms of Zwift highlights, the indoor training simulator released several enhancements. You can now capture short videos of your ride and share them directly to Strava. They added their new Climbing Portal, the Scotland world, the southern coastal road in Watopia, and introduced the Zwift Play controllers and the Repack Rush steering challenge. As mentioned above, they moved the popular double-XP Tour of Watopia to the fall, and introduced some major (and frankly asinine) changes to the XP system when they unveiled new levels 61 to 100. And there are rumors of more changes in the works.

Blogposts

• 2/10: Clowning Around In Austin (riding the folding bike post-move)
• 3/7: The Pæthos Æxpert (a brand new bike!)
• 5/4: Jalapeno Ketchup (spring catch-up post)
• 5/10: VC Sniper! (name decal vendor recc)
• 6/15: Fire Ant Cookout (first Texas 100k event)
• 7/5: Austin On-Ramp (first impressions of riding in Austin)
• 8/6: Legend on the Ladera (Ladera Norte Local Legend)
• 9/19: The Edge of the Sun (new Garmin Edge 840 Solar GPS review)
• 9/21: It's Not Easy Being Green in the Face (Livestrong Challenge & century ride report)
• 11/4: The Aging Cyclist (cycling as a sixty year old)
• 12/3: ‘Tis the Season (autumnal catch-up post)
• 12/31: 2023: Austin City Limits (my year in review: you’re reading it!)

Goals for 2024

Ornoth’s 2023 cycling calendar/log

My 2023 Strava Year in Sport summary

I knew that 2023 was going to be a chaotic year. Looking forward to 2024, I don’t know if I can plan on it being much better. I’m still learning about Austin and what is gonna work for me here, so most of my goals remain pretty vague.

More 100k and Century Rides

For various reasons, I haven’t done as many event rides as I hoped, so next year I’d like to do more. There’ll probably be another Livestrong ride, and I’m hoping to do the two-day Texas MS Ride in April, and possibly a repeat of the Fire Ant metric. Instead of limiting myself primarily to 100-mile events, as I’ve done previously, I’m thinking of signing up for more 100-kilometer rides, which seem more prevalent and feasible for a sixty year old riding in Texas heat.

Find My Group Ride Niche

I just don’t fit anywhere in Austin’s group ride scene, which is mostly divided between flat-out hammerfests for active racers, and short, plodding social rides for non-athletes. I’m hoping someday I’ll find a ride that splits the difference, much like Pittsburgh’s Team Decaf ride or Boston’s old Quad Cycles rides. There’s got to be more mid-tier endurance and charity riders like me in this area; but where are they?

A Big Pan-Mass Challenge

2024 is kind of a big year for both me and the PMC. It will be the organization’s 45th ride, and they will celebrate surpassing the immense and impressive $1 billion fundraising threshold. For myself, it would be my 18th ride, and bring my own fundraising to over $125,000. And it’d be my first PMC as a sixty year old.

I’m committed to ride, but still stumped by what it will look like. A 300 KM solo ride in August heat doesn’t sound very feasible. I’d consider returning to Boston for the in-person ride, but that’s impossibly expensive, between airfare, hotels, car rental, and transporting my bike. Plus the $6,000+ fundraising minimum is far beyond my current ability, and I’ll have to personally cover any shortfall. I could extend my Livestrong Challenge weekend riding while fundraising for the PMC instead of the Livestrong Foundation… But that’d be in October, rather than on the traditional PMC weekend in August.

There’s just no good option, but the decision needs to be made now, as the traditional PMC route will sell out before the end of January. I wish there was a better choice.

Conclusion

So 2023 was a mixed bag. I turned sixty, said goodbye to my beloved primary bike, was off the bike for three months, skipped the PMC, and only attempted one imperial century. But I also had fun exploring my new town, rode with Team Kermit, got a snazzy new bike, new GPS, a cordless massager, and lots more.

After less than a year, my settling into the Austin scene is far from complete, so that process will be ongoing. I’m looking forward to finding more people, places, and events to enjoy in 2024. Stay tuned to hear how it goes!

Judged against other years, my 2021 cycling season wasn’t bad. It was a refreshing return to a rough approximation of normality after the Covid-19 pandemic mostly cancelled the 2020 season.

In 2021, I enjoyed my first group rides, first centuries, and first major organized event in two years. I also achieved a new record level of fitness, reached Zwift’s maximum experience level, rode my 100th lifetime century, and completed my 16th Pan-Mass Challenge.

Summarized that way, it’s actually a hard year to beat! But I’ve got plenty more to say about it…

Modeling the 2021 PMC jersey in downtown Pittsburgh.

The first post-Covid Team Decaf group ride

Ornoth & Phil overlooking the Ohio River during the Three-State century.

I completed 42 stages of Zwift's Tour of Watopia.

Banner for achieving Level 50 in Zwift.

Celebrated completing another Pan-Mass Challenge, backed by my 16 PMC jerseys.

My Original 2021 Goals

A year ago, in the midst of the pandemic and with vaccines just starting to be manufactured, my goals for 2021 were only guesses. However, my predictions were pretty accurate.

Normality

I wanted to be comfortable stopping at convenience stores, so I could resume longer rides than I could on a single water bottle. Following my vaccinations in May, I finished a metric century on June 12th (writeup), and many more long rides thereafter.

I also longed to resume attending group rides, and did my first weekly Team Decaf ride on June 1 (writeup). Over the summer I’d join 14 of their 17 rides.

I wanted to return to my normal major events and century rides. However, most organizers shortened or cancelled their events. And after foregoing one century due to rain, I completed my first big event in two years on September 12: the PMTCC Three-State Century (writeup).

I also addressed my imbalance between indoor and outdoor riding. In 2020, 81% of my total 6,043 miles happened indoors. In 2021, I rode 6,215 miles (10,000 kilometers), and only 56% were on the trainer: a much healthier balance!

Zwift Level 50

After 2½ years, my biggest achievement to chase on Zwift was the game’s top experience level. In April I rode 42 (!) stages of the Tour of Watopia (since it offers double XP) and achieved Level 50 on April 27th, simultaneously setting an all-time fitness record (writeup).

But the cost for riding 860 miles in one month was a case of achilles tendonitis that kept me off the bike for the month of May. Oopsie!

Another Virtual PMC?

After riding all winter with several Pan-Mass Challenge luminaries on Zwift, I rode a second remote PMC, mimicking the distance and climbing of the traditional route. And happily rode outdoors instead of on the trainer!

Although different from the mass participation rides back in Massachusetts, I still enjoyed it, and raised 60% more for cancer research than last year. After 16 PMCs, my lifetime fundraising for Dana-Farber stands at $119,000! (writeup)

And my PMC fulfilled another of my annual goals:

My 100th Century+ Ride

This was the highlight of my year. I wanted to mark this achievement on a major organized ride, however that wasn’t possible. But even though I rode alone, finishing my lifetime 100th century+ on PMC weekend made it special. Read more toward the bottom of my PMC writeup.

Toronto Epic Tour Redux?

My registration for this 2020 ride – planned as a Herd cycling club gathering – was deferred to 2021, but with travel still inadvisable, I took the 50% refund they offered.

Which was fine; the 2021 Epic Tour was held on the same day as the PMTCC Three-State Century, which I rode instead, marking my first major event in two years.

Charts

This year’s fitness charts include a couple significant changes.

First: the static charts you see below are now available on a dynamic Fitness Charts page on my cycling website. They’re automatically updated after every ride to reflect my training throughout the year.

Second: the vertical scale changed on these charts to accommodate my new record fitness. For five years, my CTL (chronic training load) fit onto a vertical axis that ran from 0 to 100, but it now goes to 125, making everything look a little flatter than my previous summaries.

Let’s see what the charts say about my year:

This 11-year view shows that 2021 was incredibly similar to 2020. Let’s break down the similarities.

Both years began with steady winter training, ramping up to an early peak. In both years those were new fitness records.

However, in both years my fitness then fell quite substantially, dropping back to my long-term average at the end of May.

Over the summers, I maintained my level of fitness. My CTL followed a repeating up-and-down sawtooth pattern as I alternately trained hard, then tapered before major events, then completed a big ride, and recovered afterward. That pattern repeats all summer long.

As usual, my fitness tailed off in the autumn and I took time to recharge before another winter of indoor training.

Those are the similarities between 2020 and 2021. Zooming into this year’s chart in detail highlights some of the differences.

In 2020 I reached max fitness in January, whereas this year I timed my buildup a lot better, not peaking until the end of April.

The bad news: this year I lost as much fitness in the single month of May as I lost over four months in 2020, as tendonitis kept me from riding. That’s how I wound up back at the same point on June 1st.

However, another difference is that my fitness throughout this year was about 5% higher than 2020.

Which brings me back to that new fitness record, with my CTL reaching 103.97. Although it has no specific significance, breaking 100 CTL was a long-anticipated achievement, which only happened after my 860-mile blitz in April to reach Level 50 in Zwift.

But the biggest difference this year was how many centuries I completed. After doing 11 indoor centuries in 2020, this year I only did 4 (but three were outdoors)! So let’s talk about:

Riding with PMC President Jarrett Collins in the weekly Zwift group ride.

Proudly showing off the new in-game PMC jersey in Zwift.

Sunrise on the castle climb in Zwift's new Japan-themed world.

Enjoying the view from a rooftop ride in Zwift's new Neokyo expansion.

The Centuries

Starting with the unadorned list:

• 3/21: Zwift fondo+
  Early season indoor trainer ride, and my 98th century.
• 7/15: Butler solo century
  My first outdoor century in nearly two years! Century #99.
• 8/7: Solo PMC Day 1
  My 16th Pan-Mass Challenge and 100th ride of 100+ miles!
• 9/12: PMTCC 3-State Century
  My first big organized event in two years! And yeah, century #101.

There are several reasons why I completed only four rides beyond 100 miles.

After doing 11 of them in 2020, I was sick and tired of indoor centuries, so I only did one of those. Solo centuries didn’t excite me, so I completed my PMC ride, plus one other. And Covid limited me to one major event.

I wasn’t motivated to push myself hard, following an intense two years that included 24 centuries (12 indoor/12 outdoor) and 12,600 total miles. After all that, I needed a relaxed year.

But it could also be… aging. Having another year on the odometer, my tolerance for high-intensity efforts is waning. Of course, I’ll continue fighting it, but I don’t relish the effort, since we know how that story inevitably ends.

Additional Highlights

Since indoor riding made up half my mileage, I’ll share a couple noteworthy developments on Zwift.

I began the year as a regular on weekly Pan-Mass Challenge group rides on Zwift that were led by Jarrett Collins, the newly-named PMC President. Those were suspended over the summer, but resumed in November.

To everyone’s delight, Jarrett got Zwift to approve an in-game PMC jersey that riders can unlock for their avatars to wear. The design honors the red tee shirts from the first Pan-Mass Challenge, in 1980. It quickly replaced the Zwift “Level 50” jersey I’d previously preferred!

Zwift also released a major new world called Makuri Islands. The fictionalized version of Japan was released in two phases: “Yumezi” features rural Japanese villages and countryside, and “Neokyo” is a neon-lit urban analogue to Tokyo. Both were well-received, but everyone’s holding their breath, hoping that a Mt. Fuji-like climb will materialize.

In the real world, health issues remained top-of-mind. May was torpedoed by achilles tendonitis, heart palpitations, and Covid vaccinations. I also addressed a longstanding irritation by swapping out my saddle (writeup). Seasonal asthma slowed my autumn riding, and aging-related performance declines remain an annoyance.

Another challenge was getting replacement bike parts due to the collapse of the bike industry’s supply chains in the pandemic’s wake, as well as Mavic’s receivership. My LBS jerry-rigged my recalcitrant rear wheel, but I can’t put high power through the pedals due to worn chainrings that I can’t replace.

Finally, in 2021 I gathered a collection of Strava Local Legend awards, which go to whomever has ridden a road segment most frequently. Here’s some of the segments I was named Local Legend on this year:

Riverview Park is the center of Pittsburgh's cycling universe.

The Team Decaf group ride stops to admire the Pittsburgh skyline from the Fineview overlook.

• Squirrel Hill:
  • Phipps to Summit
  • Serpentine-Darlington-Top of Schenley
  • Wightman, to Beacon Light
  • Wightman to Schenley Sprint (Hobart)
  • Fruit Loop
  • Forward into Beechwood
• Shady Ave:
  • Shady: Forbes to Fifth
  • Shady Sprint@Wilkins
  • Shady Ave - sprint to 5th Ave
  • Shady: Wilkins to Penn
  • Top of Shady Ave to Bud Harris Oval
• The Great Allegheny Passage bike path:
  • (McKeesport) Marina to Hot Metal
  • Boston to Pump House
• And farther afield:
  • Milwaukee St. climb (Hill District)
  • Day’s Run (to Butler)
  • Brewer (from Butler)
  • Just A Hill (from Butler)
  • Braddock Ave to Brinton Rd (Jones Ave climb)
  • Brighton Rd. into Bellevue (Jacks Run)
  • Cali/Brighton-Sewickley split (to Sewickley)
  • Rocks to Run (to Sewickley)

Noteworthy Purchases

Despite the bike industry’s disarray, I made several beneficial acquisitions.

Not a purchase, but (as mentioned above) I swapped out my extremely worn saddle for a less-used one off one of my other bikes. It’s not brand new, but don’t tell that to my butt! (writeup)

My biggest purchase was the new GoPro Hero 10 action video camera and accessories. It was too late in the year to produce much, but I have huge hopes for future rides. Tho I did create this 72-second vid:

Also on the topic of optics… Back in 2015, I bought plastic HydroTac stick-on bifocals that adhere to any pair of glasses with water: perfectly functional and cheaper than prescription sunglasses! This year I bought stronger ones and stuck ‘em on my Oakley sunglasses and some clear lenses I bought for night riding.

For evening and nighttime rides, I added a new headlight: a Niterider Lumina OLED 1200. Featuring LED bulbs and lithium batteries, it’s immensely better than my old AA-powered incandescent one. Along with the action cam, this was my best purchase of the year.

Having trouble procuring my preferred Michelin Power Endurance tires, I tried a pair of Continental GP5000s, a new model in a popular line of road tires. I like them a lot, although I miss my Michelins’ red sidewalls.

Also replaced the Shimano SM-BTR1 battery for my Di2 electronic drivetrain. After 8½ years, its original battery had lost capacity, and I needed a replacement, since they’re being discontinued.

I occasionally replace the caps on my Camelbak Podium Ice insulated water bottles due to mold. I bought four replacement lids after learning they were recently redesigned, making them easier to clean.

Finally, I got new ice cube trays. These ones are nicely-sized. I also got these thinking 2” cubes would work inside a hydration pack, but that proved unnecessary once I was vaccinated and could stop at convenience stores to refuel.

My 2021 cycling calendar/log.

My 2021 Strava "Year in Sport" summary, averaging 62 minutes and 17 miles per day.

Blogposts

• 3/1: Watts Up, Doc? (Alpe power vs. time)
• 3/22: Zentury 2021 (Zwift fondo+ ride report)
• 4/29: The Final Boss (Zwift Level 50)
• 6/2: Gimme a Regular (1st group ride & achilles injury)
• 7/20: Century 99 (1st outdoor century in 2 years)
• 8/21: 2021 Pan-Mass Challenge & 100th Century! (just a pointer to my full PMC ride report page)
• 9/14: Interstate Travel (1st post-Covid major event)
• 9/20: Back in the Saddle Again (saddle woes)
• 10/26: Dishin’ Dirt (my Dirty Dozen photos)
• 12/31: Stand on Twenty-One (my year in review: you’re reading it!)

Goals for 2022

2021 was a big improvement over Covid-plagued 2020. But what will 2022 look like? I’ve got a whole checklist of idears:

• Going 100% metric
  I’m taking the plunge. Far broader than just cycling, this impacts cooking, weather, travel, health… Don’t you think it’s about time?
• Another 10,000 km year
  Here is where that transition begins. Having ridden 10,000 km in two of the past three years, my goal for 2022 will be to make it three out of four.
• More major events
  Most ride organizers are resuming full-length events in 2022. I’m excited to revisit events I’ve missed since 2019.
• Video ride reports
  It’s been eight years since my last ride video, and the GoPro should produce immensely better results. I wanna see what I can do with it.
• Another remote PMC?
  I’ll probably sign up for a 17th Pan-Mass Challenge, again remotely. I’m awaiting the event jersey reveal, and considering potential routes. One remote possibility is a two-day, 200-mile ride crossing Western PA from south to north, ending on the shore of Lake Erie.
• Zwift team time trial?
  I don’t race, but the Herd sponsors several teams for the WTRL team time trial series. The format is intriguing, so I’d like to try it out.
• Bike repairs?
  This will be a concern until the bicycle industry recovers. My biggest problem is putting down sprinting power without my chain falling off my worn chainrings.

That’s 2021… It could have been better, but it was a big improvement over 2020, and there were several memorable highlights. 2021 fulfilled my hopes of getting closer to normality, and leaves us with the promise of an almost normal year as we roll into 2022.

In contrast with a miserable 2018, 2019 was a complete renewal: possibly my best remaining year on the bike, and arguably the best of my entire lifetime.

MS Escape to the Lake Finisher

Indoor Training on Zwift

MS Escape to the Lake

I’m in Brilliant Physical Health!

PedalPGH Pittsburgh Overlook

The Herd's Leelanau Harvest Tour

Akron Bike Club's ABC Ride

My 2019 Cycling Calendar

While it lacked crowning moments like the Pan-Mass Challenge or the Dirty Dozen, I set dramatic new high water marks for miles ridden, century rides completed, and level of fitness.

Beyond the numbers, though, was how easy it felt. After my first winter using a smart trainer and Zwift, I began the season already near peak form. It was such a different feeling, without the usual early-season suffering to build fitness, and I went into every major event strong, confident, and at ease.

It made setting and chasing my cycling goals an unblemished pleasure, making 2019 a complete reversal of my disappointment in 2018. It was an absolutely stellar year!

My Original 2019 Goals

Let’s review my 2019 season goals. A year ago, I set three secondary and three primary ones.

My secondary goals laid the groundwork for achieving my primary goals.

“My secondary goals for 2019: spending the winter riding Zwift on the trainer, allowing me to enter the road season at a high level of fitness, and monitoring that by performing regular FTP tests throughout the year.”

Spending the winter riding Zwift on the trainer

I really enjoyed Zwift, as described in my summary blogpost. The virtual world was entertaining, the smart trainer changing resistance to simulate climbing kept it interesting, and the social interaction through Discord audio chat was engaging. From December through the spring, I tallied an unprecedented 2,600 simulated miles on the trainer.

Allowing me to enter the road season at a high level of fitness

I monitored my training using my usual fitness charts, which you’ll see shortly. I made steady progress throughout the winter, but would it improve my outdoor riding?

The big test of Zwift’s effectiveness came on April 14th, when one of my first outdoor rides of the year was a 125-mile 200k brevet. It went fabulously, as described in my blogpost.

Performing regular FTP tests throughout the year.

Since my indoor trainer includes a power meter, I can gauge my fitness with a new metric: functional threshold power (FTP). I took two different FTP tests every three months to monitor and quantify my progress, plus automatic FTP increases detected by Zwift while riding. Depending on how you measure it, my FTP varied from 197 to 234 watts, averaging 215W.

That set me up for success reaching my main goals for the year.

“My primary goals for next year are simply this: to finally get beyond the malaise of 2018, to ride more, and get back to peak fitness this summer.”

Get beyond the malaise of 2018

Although the turnaround started with my new indoor trainer and Zwift membership, several other factors helped rekindle my desire to ride. Bypassing the usual springtime pain of riding my way into fitness certainly helped. I also lost less time to traveling. And after suffering through 2018 being the rainiest year in Pittsburgh’s history, all of this year’s major rides had gorgeous conditions (despite 2019 being our third wettest year ever). And by staying on top of my fitness and fatigue levels, I avoided overtraining, which can also sap motivation.

Ride more

In 2019 I rode 3,400 miles, which is more than I average, and 625 more than I rode in 2018. So you can check that goal off.

But that’s only 52% of the story... The other 48% are the virtual miles I put in on the trainer. In my first full calendar year on Zwift, I logged an additional 3,182 indoor miles.

My combined total was 6,582 miles, which constitutes an all-time record for me. Ride more? Double check!

Get back to peak fitness

All that indoor and outdoor riding ensured that I got back to peak fitness. I was in the best form of my life, which I’ll quantify in the two charts in the following section.

Charts

These charts provide the next level of detail about my year, plotting my Chronic Training Load (CTL), which is a measurement of cycling fitness. The charts really tell the story for 2019.

Before addressing 2019 in detail, it’s worth looking at my fitness over the past nine years, which allows me to visually compare 2019 to previous seasons.

At a high level, four major themes jump out of this chart:

• I was much fitter than usual earlier in the year
• My training was much more consistent in 2019
• I peaked higher, reaching new record levels of fitness
• I spent a much longer duration at peak form.

If you compare 2019 to 2018, it’s obvious that 2018 was a substandard year, and that 2019 was an immense improvement. My max fitness in 2018 was 66.3; in 2019 I spent six and a half months above that level, peaking in June at 94.3! And looking forward, I’ll begin January 2020 with a CTL of 79: higher than I ever reached in all of 2018!

A little further back, my previous all-time max fitness levels occurred briefly in 2016 and 2017 around 82.5 (follow the horizontal grey line on the chart). In 2019 I spent more than four months above that level!

In other words, it was a record-smashing year. Now let’s zoom in and take a closer look at 2019.

First, note that grey line inside the chart. That’s my average fitness level from 2011-2018. Thanks to my winter training, I entered 2019 way above my usual fitness, and surpassed my typical midsummer peak form by the middle of February! And my fitness remained above average over the entire year.

Another big difference from last year is my consistency. In 2018, I couldn’t ride regularly, so its chart had lots of ups and downs. This year was steadier, only showing brief dips (for travel) in March and July, followed by that big dip in October, when travel, an achilles injury, and a cold kept me off the bike. I hopped back onto Zwift in November to build fitness for the 2020 season.

These two charts document a ton of hard riding; I could stare at them all day long.

And those green circles on the chart? Those represent my 100-plus-mile rides. That’s the next level of detail to talk about…

The Centuries

When asked what kind of cyclist I am, I say I’m a centurion. The most important and memorable target events of my year are centuries (100 miles) and 200ks (125 miles).

This year I demolished my previous mark (nine), logging no less than a record-shattering thirteen centuries over just six months! Two of those were longer 200ks, and one was my first-ever virtual century on an indoor trainer.

With seven of them crammed into an eight-week period in July and August, I relied on a well-planned, repeating pattern of: train, taper, ride your event, recover, and repeat.

My biggest disappointment of the year was that I missed Pittsburgh’s arduous Every Neighborhood Ride while doing another ride I’d already committed to.

Here’s my full list of centuries with comments and links to ride reports. Or you could watch my late-season summary video.

• First Zentury (4/7)
  I extended one of Zwift’s 64-mile gran fondo events to complete my first-ever imperial century on an indoor trainer.
• Sandy Lake 200k (4/13)
  Nearly my first outdoor ride was a 125-mile brevet: my longest ride in two years, confirming the effectiveness of indoor training.
• Shades of Death solo (5/23)
  Rode a solo century from Pittsburgh to the West Virginia border to explore the Panhandle Trail and Shades of Death Road!
• Escape to the Lake (6/8)
  Incomparable weather for the annual MS ride to Lake Erie, my only two-day event of the year.
• PMTCC 3-State Tour (6/30)
  A foggy start gave way to a warm day for a familiar PMTCC ride to West Virginia and Ohio, with a thankfully modified route.
• Absolutely Beautiful Country (7/14)
  Off to Akron OH for a club ride whose flat route was also altered this year, outrageously omitting the usual free ice cream rest stop!
• Meanville Greenville 200k (7/27)
  Returned from a week of travel and dove straight into another long 200k brevet with the Pittsburgh Randonneurs.
• Butler solo (8/4)
  Extended one of my long solo rides up Sun Mine Road, through Saxonburg to Butler and back.
• Mon Valley Century (8/11)
  Enjoyed the return of an event that hasn’t been run since 2016 due to landslides; a third ride with a modified route (and poor support).
• Four Rivers solo (8/19)
  My interwebs were down for 48 hours, so I went out and rode an easy solo century along Pittsburgh’s four rivers.
• PedalPGH (8/25)
  As usual, I extended the PedalPGH metric to a full century, despite riding on an injured achilles and more ride organizer negligence.
• Pedal the Lakes (8/31)
  Ended summer with a speedy and enjoyable PtL ride, completing 6 centuries in 6 weeks, and 8 in 10 weeks.
• The Herd @ Leelanau Harvest Tour (9/14)
  The culmination of my season was a weekend trip to northwestern Michigan for an international gathering of Zwifters… and a scenic century alongside Lake Michigan.

Additional Highlights

One major development was my ability to train with a power meter, which allowed me—for the first time—to track my functional threshold power (FTP) and my power curve, which in turn helped me figure out my cycling “phenotype” as described in this blogpost. I also picked up and made good use of the defining treatise on the discipline: Allen & Coggan’s book “Training + Racing With a Power Meter”.

The biggest setback of the year was my late-August achilles injury, due to a combination of overuse and over-stretching. Although I completed three centuries while injured, it wouldn’t heal without time off the bike, which brought my season to an abrupt end. I’d hoped to do more easy autumnal riding, but there was very little of that.

I’ve already alluded to this year’s weather, which was simply amazing.

One fun tech project was creating the AlpenTimer, a Javascript webapp that helps you monitor and predict your pace up the Alpe du Zwift climb in order to earn the sub-60 minute achievement, break your own personal record, or just track your historical performance.

An artsy project was cutting hand-shapes out of Coroplast and spray-painting them cyan to mimic the blue “Ride On!” thumbs-up symbol that appears in Zwift’s virtual world. I hung a large one from the ceiling of my “pain cave”, and made a bunch of small ones for my jersey pockets.

One final disappointment was BikePGH’s Tag-o-Rama cycling/photography game. Regular participant Yale Cohen started harassing other players, driving many of them away. I don’t tolerate online abuse, so despite picking up 25 tags in 2018, I also quit Tag-o-Rama this spring.

Noteworthy Purchases

In the past, many of my “Additional Highlights” were things I bought, so I’ve carved out a new section to specifically highlight my new toys.

Most of this year’s purchases were on-bike equipment. A new Giro Aether MIPS helmet. New Prizm Road lenses for my Oakley Half-Jac sunglasses. A couple pairs of my favorite Craft Hale Glow bib shorts.

I ordered three new cycling jerseys, each of which comes with a unique story. I’m eager to show them off, but I'm still awaiting delivery of the last one, so I won’t say any more until an upcoming blogpost.

In terms of the bike, I got a Cygolite Hotshot 150 taillight, which crapped out after its first wet ride. I finally tested some Continental GP4000 tires I’ve had lying around; they were okay, but now I have to try their new GP5000s to see if they’re any improvement over my usual Michelin Power Endurance rubber.

I updated my Garmin bike computer with two new apps. I’m using Heart Rate Stress Score to replace Strava’s “suffer score” app, which became worthless when they changed its calculation. And I tried Multi-Page Race Notes for handy course notes, but fell back to old-school white electrical tape on my top tube.

The only noteworthy purchase that didn’t go on me or my bike was the aforementioned Allen & Coggan book “Training + Racing With a Power Meter”.

List of Blogposts

And one final item before I look forward to 2020... It was a busy year here on ornoth-cycling.livejournal.com, with 24 ride reports and blogposts. Here’s the full list:

• 1/30: Catch the Wave (average fitness over the year)
• 2/7: Performance Buh-Bye (Performance Bicycle shop closure)
• 3/26: Here Comes Your Slutspurt (international cycling terminology)
• 4/8: Don’t Be Stupid, Be A Smarty... (Zwift training & my first Zentury ride report)
• 4/16: 125 Miles of Pudding (Sandy Lake 200k brevet ride report)
• 4/28: A Phenotypical Male (lessons from training with power)
• 5/6: Ornoth and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (aborted WPW Spring Rally ride report)
• 5/15: Der AlpenTimer (Zwift pacing utility I wrote)
• 5/25: Back From the Shades of Death (Shades of Death solo century ride report)
• 6/14: Master Escapologist (Escape to the Lake ride report)
• 7/2: State Machine (PMTCC M3ST ride report)
• 7/15: Another Bloomin’ Century (ABC century ride report)
• 7/28: High Season (Greenville 200k ride report)
• 8/5: Buttle Aboot (Butler solo century ride report)
• 8/13: Mon Again (Mon Valley Century ride report)
• 8/20: Four Rivers (solo century ride report)
• 8/27: Pedal Piggie! (PedalPGH century ride report)
• 9/1: Four Lakes (Pedal the Lakes century ride report)
• 9/18: Here’s the Song of Shear and Torsion (Leelanau Harvest Tour century ride report)
• 10/27: Dirty Birds (photographing Pittsburgh’s Dirty Dozen ride)
• 11/13: Hey Nineteen (video summary of the 2019 cycling season)
• 12/1: Climb Every Mountain (frustration with my inner voice)
• 12/20: My Chariot of Fire (I finally figure out what kind of rider I am)
• 12/31: 2019: The Best a Man Can Get (my year in review: you’re reading it!)

My 2020 Vision

That’s all she (he) wrote for 2019… What’s my outlook for the coming 2020 cycling year?

I don’t really expect to surpass my 2019 season, due to this year's confluence of circumstances. Will 2020 also feature great weather, limited travel, no job commitment, and an understanding partner who will loan me her car to get to distant rides? And can I continue to evade the growing concerns of age and health?

I’ll certainly continue Zwifting through the early season in order to hit the ground running once temperatures start to warm again. And I’m starting the new year at an even higher fitness level than 2019!

I’ll mostly target the same events I do every year, but there’s one known wrinkle in next year’s schedule. Instead of repeating the Leelanau Harvest Tour, next year’s Herd gathering will be outside Toronto, at the Epic Tour. That’s geographically convenient, and their 180km route will be the perfect distance for a September ride.

Other than that, 2020 will probably look an awful lot like 2019, and I have no problem with that whatsoever, since 2019 was one of my best years on the bike.

Bring it on!

From start to finish, 2018 was a disappointment.

After the extreme effort to conquer the 2017 Dirty Dozen (blogpost) and my 250,000-foot climbing goal (blogpost), I fell into an enduring malaise and lack of motivation that lasted all of 2018. On top of that, three long trips—smack in the middle of training season—ensured I couldn’t get back into proper form in the spring.

A wet, grim start to Escape to the Lake Day 2

As if that weren’t enough, 2018 was Pittsburgh’s wettest year in recorded history, washing out even more of my training. In July, when my travel was done, I struggled through my remaining four big events, eventually riding myself back into fitness just in time for the season to end.

If we only count outdoor road riding, I rode only 2,776 miles: my lowest total in five years (if we exclude the intentionally light year of my move from Boston to Pittsburgh). And it was by far the least amount of climbing I’ve done since the move. Though if we count the 486 virtual miles I did on the indoor trainer, my annual total rises to a more respectable 3,262: still 20 percent less than I rode in 2017.

2018 wasn’t entirely bad—there were a few minor highlights—but all told, it was a miserable year.

My Original 2018 Goals

I really didn’t have any cycling goals for 2018. In 2017 I had checked off everything I’d aspired to do in Pittsburgh, leaving nothing specific to reach for.

The only item I mentioned at the end of last year’s summary (blogpost) was a planned trip to Tuscany, where I hoped to enjoy some long European riding and even catch a stage of the Giro d’Italia elite cycling race. However, it rained the entire time, allowing only 80km of wet, uncomfortable riding; and I abandoned my Giro date due to a scheduling conflict (blogpost).

My rental Bianchi at our Tuscan villa

Morning light on the Pedal the Lakes century

Tag-o-Rama pickup on Lemon Way, Downtown

Orny descending a mountain in Zwift's Watopia

Dirty Dozen rider Jeremiah climbing Eleanor St. on a bikeshare

My 2018 cycling calendar

The Centuries

Another way I judge a year is how many 100-mile rides I complete; therefore, this year I’ve introduced this separate section to enumerate them.

In 2018, despite the weather, my travel, and lack of motivation, I matched 2017’s total of six centuries. I suffered more than usual on these long rides, either due to insufficient preparation or increasing age.

The first century was easy: a slow amble up the Montour Trail with friends De’Anna and Bill, which I spontaneously extended with a solo jaunt to Monongahela and back. But it was so unnoteworthy that it earned only passing mention in my entry for the second century of the year, which was…

The annual Escape to the Lake MS Ride (blogpost) was soggy and sloggy, with rain both days, compounded by an unannounced (and poorly signed) detour and relocated rest stop.

I made a road trip to Akron for my second Absolutely Beautiful Country ride (blogpost). Despite a flat course, it was still a sufferfest. After accidentally bringing only two right gloves, I rode bare-handed all day, which produced a painfully memorable sunburn.

August began with the always-difficult Every Neighborhood Ride (blogpost). This year I had to stop for a vicious cramp halfway up Forbes Avenue. After recuperating and cooling off at the Squirrel Hill rest stop, I fell back and finished the ride with the slow group.

Pedal PGH (blogpost) was as chaotic as usual. Extending the metric to a full century proved costly, as I needed breaks to let the legs recover while recuperating from the heat.

A week later, I drove up to Mercer County for my final century of the year. Though difficult, Pedal the Lakes (blogpost) was manageable, since I’d finally started coming into form… just in time for the season to end!

Additional Highlights

One 2018 highlight didn’t require much effort: picking up 25 tags in Pittsburgh’s Tag-o-Rama cycling/photography game. That was enough to break into the top ten players (out of 125). (blogpost)

I’ve already mentioned that Pittsburgh set a new all-time record for precipitation in a calendar year, receiving over one and a half times our normal rainfall. The resulting landslides washed away several roads, some of which still haven’t reopened ten months later. Many rides were canceled, including brevets, the Western PA Wheelmen’s spring and fall rallies, the Mon Valley Century, and numerous group rides. I only attended 5 out of 27 Tuesday night Team Decaf rides due to rain, and I bailed halfway through one of those due to a sudden mid-ride rainstorm!

The year was filled with other frustrations, as well. Several of those mentioned below are covered in more detail in a short mid-August blogpost tellingly titled “Yeah, Yeah, Bicycle”.

The local bike “advocacy” group decided to withdraw all support for BikeFest, a two-week cycling celebration it had run for 15 years.

My bike had several mechanical travails, ranging from a still-unresolved creak to a fancy new Di2 mount that promptly broke my Di2 junction box.

I spent $70 to re-stock my supply of powdered Gatorade mix, only to discover they’d changed the formula into an unusable dust that won’t mix with water and tastes just like burnt plastic.

And Strava completely ruined the training charts I relied on, which I’ll speak more of below.

I wasn’t in any shape—or mood—to ride this year’s Dirty Dozen hill climb, but that gave me the opportunity to play event photographer, which might have been more fun than actually riding! (blogpost)

The year’s biggest highlight happened in December, long after the riding season was done: my long-awaited purchase of an indoor smart trainer and membership on the Zwift multiplayer online cycling platform (blogpost). In addition to my first FTP test, I rode as “far” on the trainer in December as I did on the road in any other month in 2018! While it had no impact on the 2018 season, it has helped me get over my season-long malaise and should improve my form next spring.

The Charthouse

As mentioned earlier, Strava changed the math behind their “Fitness & Freshness” chart that I relied on for training and event tapering, and which I incorporated into my annual summaries as a graphical overview of the year.

Their “improved” metrics are completely worthless, but thankfully I’ve been able to recreate the TRIMP charts I relied on them for. Updated versions follow:

This first chart shows my fitness level over the past twelve months, with centuries highlighted.

What you’ll note is an overall saw-tooth pattern, with sudden gains from intense training followed by immediate backslides; i.e. a complete lack of sustained improvement.

You can see the dips during my travel dates: Southeast Asia in the latter half of March, a mini-dip in May during my week in Tuscany, and my meditation retreat in late June.

But even when I was home, each time I gained fitness, it declined again, rather than moving progressively higher. Every upward impulse is followed by a dip back down; I just couldn’t sustain a consistent string of training.

One easily-overlooked but hopeful sign is the upward trend throughout December. That’s the result of my new indoor trainer and Zwift membership. With any luck, I have already begun my positive fitness trend for the start of the 2019 season!

The second chart shows how 2018 compares to previous years. Even though I began the year at a high level, over the summer I never attained the peak fitness of my previous six years. And that pretty neatly summarizes my year.

Goals for 2019

A year ago, I reluctantly set some vague goals for 2018; I’d done all the new rides I wanted to do, and didn’t see any specific challenges to undertake in the new year. In that respect, I’m in the same situation this year.

However, my lackluster 2018 was not a direct consequence of my lack of clearly-identified goals. I blame it all on horrible weather, lots of poorly-timed travel, and the fatigue and demoralization left over from a very demanding 2017.

Fortunately, I’m entering 2019 much fresher, and with no major travel plans. So long as we don’t set any new rainfall records, 2019 is bound to be better than 2018 was.

My primary goal for next year is simply this: to finally get beyond the malaise of 2018, to ride more, and get back to peak fitness this summer.

That’ll be aided by my secondary goal for 2019: spending the winter riding Zwift on the trainer, allowing me to enter the road season at a high level of fitness, and monitoring that by performing regular FTP tests throughout the year.

I needed a major change to shake me out of the funk that lingered over me all year, and Zwift is certainly different. I find myself actually looking forward to riding the indoor trainer and learning how to train more effectively by using its built-in power meter. I’m hopeful it’ll be the key that unlocks both my attitude and my fitness level for the 2019 season.

If I can achieve those two simple goals, I’ll be happy, and it will make possible any specific challenges I target as the year progresses. And so far it looks promising!

As you would expect, my first year riding in Pittsburgh was eventful and full of new experiences. Judging by the size of this 2016 year-in-review post, I consider it a pretty successful year overall.

Here I’ll review my original goals for the year, plow through a list of other noteworthy developments, show you a few informative charts, and then close by looking forward to 2017. All accompanied by a handful of related photos.

Original 2016 Goals

When I moved to Pittsburgh at the end of last year, I set four explicit goals for myself, plus two implicit ones. How did we do?

First goal was to buy a new indoor trainer. It didn’t happen because nice weather allowed me to ride outdoors throughout last winter, and I wanted to conserve cash. Although I never got that new trainer, I can’t call saving hundreds of dollars a failure! And there’s always next year…

Second goal was to do more century rides than the feeble four I had done in 2015. I bagged seven, one of which was a 200k. Great success! To enumerate them: Pittsburgh Randonneurs’ McConnell’s Mill 200k (a new all-time record for most climbing in one ride), Escape to the Lake MS ride, a solo century to Brush Creek, the Pittsburgh Tour de Cure Gran Fondo, the Western PA Wheelmen’s 3-State Century, the Mon Valley Century, and the Pedal the Lakes Century.

Third goal was to check out Pittsburgh’s outdoor cycling track. Definitely did that, and set my first personal hour record there (20.77 miles). But I didn’t participate or even spectate at any of the races held there… Yet!

Final goal was to ride the Dirty Dozen. Sadly, family obligations brought my season to a screeching halt just after I started training for the Thanksgiving-weekend ride. This one has to wait for next year.

My two implicit goals were to ride more than I did in 2015, and to learn and become familiar with the roads and routes used by Pittsburgh cyclists. I covered both of those without question.

Overall, I did a reasonable—but not perfect—job of meeting my original goals for the year.

Innumerable Highlights

But the story of a season isn’t made up solely of chasing predicted goals. It’s also a collection of serendipitous moments and unexpected developments. And 2016 was a very eventful year.

How come? Here’s a quick run-down:

• I opted to take the summer off from work, giving me lots of free time to ride.
• I rode more miles in 2016 than I did in any my past six years except for 2014.
• Overall, my average distance per ride is down, but my climbing per ride is way up, and I rode much more frequently this year.
• I rode my first brevet in ten years, my first-ever gran fondo, and my first personal hour record on the track.
• I rode to a town called McMurray in memory of my mentor Bobby Mac, did the PedalPGH and Every Neighborhood rides, rode from home into West Virginia and Ohio, around Saratoga New York on vacation, through a cheeseball spill, and to a town called Bagdad over two closed roads that were broken up and collapsing down the hillside!
• I rode in regular group rides with Team Decaf and the East Liberty Performance Bicycle shop guys.
• But I lost out on the Dirty Dozen, its training rides, and the 321 cancer charity ride I’d planned on doing.
• I met a lot of cool riders, including Stef Burch, Monica VanDieren, Jim Logan, Eric Collazo, Kai, Colleen Spiegler, Ryan Popple, and many, many others.
• I had one nontrivial crash due to debris in the road, resulting in some road rash and a quick trip to the walk-in clinic.
• Rode in two processional rides in memory of local riders who had been killed by motorists.
• Michelin replaced my standard Pro4 line of tires with a new model called Power Endurance. When I was accidentally sent 25mm tires rather than my preferred 23s, I opted to stick with them. They’re more comfortable, and wider tires are a new trend with many riders.
• Also bought a Continental 4-Season rear tire for wintertime traction.
• I destroyed another rear wheel, but replaced it with a new Ksyrium with an all-black Exalith brake track that whines evilly whenever I’m slowing down. My bike shop forced me to impersonate a shop employee in order to get my warrantee registered.
• I bought a couple Ass Savers, a hub-level video camera mount, several new jerseys, caps, and a really nice new insulated winter cycling jacket.
• I started playing in the BikePGH forums’ Tag-o-Rama photo-finding game, finding and setting four sets of tags. Also bought a cycling card game called Attack the Pack.
• Bought a new set of Oakley Half Jacket sunglasses, with ear socks and lenses to match my bike’s red and white color scheme. Also attached plastic stick-on reading lenses to those sunglasses, making it much easier to read my GPS bike computer, especially when navigating unfamiliar areas (like all of Pittsburgh!) by map.
• Although I haven’t bought the new Garmin Edge 820 GPS cyclo-computer, I did buy some electronic widgets that will allow my future head unit to talk to my Di2 electronic gear shifters. More on that in the future!
• Lost my only Strava KOM up in northern Vermont, but gained a new one located behind Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
• Was shocked to hear that Dirty Dozen founder and Pittsburgh cycling legend Danny Chew had been paralyzed in a crash.
• Surpassed 10,000 miles on the “new” bike (R2-Di2), and broke 50,000 miles overall since 2000.
• Ordered a fistful of Camelbak Jetvalve water bottle tops, because those things grow mold like crazy and are difficult to clean. They’re rarely sold separate from the bottles.
• Added searchable tags to my cycling blog, so that you can now navigate my posts by topic.
• Finally paid for a Strava Pro membership. Between Strava and the Stravistics add-on, I got all kinds of new features, including:
• Started automatically posting ride photos to my Strava page via my Instagram feed.
• Access to my Strava “trophy case”. On top of old challenges from years past, this year I earned eight monthly gran fondo badges, four monthly climbing challenge badges, and one special challenge badge.
• I used the Flyby feature (example) to identify similar riders in my new neighborhood and learn the routes they favored. And I used Strava’s Global Heatmap to see overall popular routes in Pittsburgh.
• One of the coolest things I did this year came about because I wanted something no other website provides: a way to directly compare the slopes and lengths of hills against one another. Being a techie and data vis geek, I started hitting the Strava API and created my very own Slope Comparison Tool. It’s really awesome and I’m really proud of it.
• And then there were some new data plots that I discovered: my personal riding heatmap, my yearly elevation gain chart, and my training/fitness chart.

Let’s go into those charts in a little more detail, since they are extremely pertinent to any discussion of my 2016 season.

Teh Plotz

I told you that one of my implicit goals was to learn Pittsburgh’s roads. My 2016 mileage total was 3,260, which is greater than four of the previous five years, so I definitely covered a lot of territory.

But it’s easier to show you that on a heatmap than it is to talk about it. Here’s a static image of my 2016 riding, which shows a lot of riding around the city core and numerous expeditions further afield.

However, you can get a much better understanding by clicking through to the actual interactive map to pan and zoom around.

Custom personal heatmaps are one of the awesome features that came with my paid Strava membership. I have another map depicting all my riding (since 2010), both before and after my move from Boston to Pittsburgh.

Next comes a truly amazing chart, which shows something my blogposts have belabored: how hilly Pittsburgh is in comparison to Boston.

The chart depicts how much elevation gain (i.e. climbing) I did each year. From 2010 through 2015, while living in Boston I climbed anywhere from 87,000 to 120,000 feet (16 to 23 vertical miles) per year.

Now look at the pink line for 2016. At the end of September, I had 190,000 feet of climbing: nearly twice my previous record for that point in the year! If I had ridden at the same pace for the last three months of 2016 I would have broken a quarter million feet (48 vertical miles) this year. But I didn’t, so I had to settle for a mere 36 vertical miles…

That chart is from the Stravistix add-on for Strava, which adds all kinds of useful information above and beyond what you get from Strava itself.

Finally, I’ve got two versions of this year’s TRIMP chart, which I described in detail in this blogpost. The first one tracks this year’s fitness, and the second lets you compare 2016 to previous years.

Here’s what you’ll see below:

This past season began with a great build-up from mid February through the end of March. The next month and a half were plagued by mechanical troubles, travel, and bad weather, except for that mid-April brevet I rode: my longest ride of the year. There followed three and a half months of enjoying long summertime rides and steadily-increasing fitness, culminating with the Pedal the Lakes Century on September 4.

After that, I kicked off my Dirty Dozen training rides. Although I was building up leg strength, my fitness chart started trending downward because I wasn’t riding as often or as far; I was just banging out the steepest hills, then taking time off the bike to fully recover.

Dirty Dozen training went well enough until my mother got sick and I left for Maine, which abruptly terminated my season. The chart clearly shows the resulting precipitous decline in fitness from its late-August peak. See?

As with almost all images I post, you can click through for the full-sized version.

That’s a tactical view of 2016, but how does this season compare with other years? That’s what we see when we zoom out to a TRIMP / fitness chart for the past six years.

What you immediately notice is that the winter dip from 2015 to 2016 isn’t as deep as any previous year. That—and the irregular jagginess of the curve—reflects the fact that I managed to ride outside a lot last winter; whereas indoor trainer work would appear more regular, like what you see through the winter of 2014-15. Riding outside allowed me to start 2016 at a measurably higher fitness level than usual.

You also see some of the things I mentioned above: the early spring build-up, followed by a brief dip, then a very productive summer season, and a complete drop-off for the last four months of the year.

In terms of the absolute peak fitness I achieved, my max has been pretty consistent over the past three years. See?

These two charts are also available as a part of a paid Strava membership. I found them—and especially the underlying form and fatigue data that I haven’t shown here—insightful and very useful in preparing myself for major events this summer without over- or under-training.

2017 Goals

That’s all I want to say about 2016, which leads into the next logical question: what will 2017 look like?

There are a handful of things that I definitely want to accomplish next year, and a couple open questionmarks. Let’s start with the easy ones first.

I plan to purchase and learn how to use a new Garmin Edge 820 GPS cyclo-computer, replacing my reliable six year-old Edge 800. I’m really excited about the many new features it offers, some of which I describe in this post.

I would like to ride both days of next year’s Escape to the Lake MS Ride. This year, I only rode the first day because it was a century and Day 2 was not, and because I could avoid worrying about hotels and overnighting and return transportation. However, Day 2 ends on the shore of Lake Erie, which I have yet to visit, and I think I might enjoy completing the entire event.

I plan to ride next October’s Woiner Cancer Foundation 321 Ride. This year I registered, fundraised, and got the ride jersey, but couldn’t participate due to my mother’s hospitalization.

And it goes without saying that I want to attempt my first Dirty Dozen next year. After several years of anticipation, in 2016 I was all set to take on that challenge, until life intervened. Now having ridden almost all of those hills, I really want to add that ride—and the steepest public street in the world—to my palmares.

Those are my main goals. What about the ones I said were questionable?

One is a 2016 goal that I deferred on: the purchase of a fancy new indoor trainer. That wasn’t necessary last year because Pittsburgh had a very mild winter, and I was trying to save money. The need is still there, but only time will tell whether I need to pull the trigger on it or if it can wait. But I won’t get any indoor or outdoor riding done during this extended stay in Maine.

And then there’s the employment question. Having a job is nice, and it does introduce the possibility of commuting by bike, but it also restricts how much time I can spend in the saddle. Although employment is a non-cycling goal, I’m definitely hoping that I can mesh those two aspects of life together successfully. But that’s also contingent on getting back home again.

That wraps up the end-of-season retrospective. I enjoyed my first year in Pittsburgh, and it was very eventful from a cycling perspective. I learned a lot, got some cool new gear, set benchmarks as well as some new records, met a lot of people, and experienced a whole lot of territory.

Here’s hoping for an equally enjoyable season in 2017!

Like the rest of my life, the 2014 cycling season was a big pile of extremes.

I started this year on a high, receiving the silver lifetime achievement pin that the Pan-Mass Challenge gives to riders who surpass $100,000 in fundraising for cancer research. Just a few weeks later, the world changed forever when my hero and charity ride mentor Bobby Mac succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Up and down.

By mid-June, I was happily on pace for a record year, with the Outriders ride to Provincetown constituting my fourth century ride of the year. That night, on a one-mile ride home from the ferry dock, I had a bad solo crash that left me with a mild concussion. Even worse, the ER nurse botched an IV insertion, which left me with a huge hematoma and an unusable right arm. It was six weeks before I was well enough to do another long ride. Up and down again.

I wasn’t fully healed—and certainly not fully trained—when I completed the Mt. Washington Century in July as a final warm-up for my 14th and final Pan-Mass Challenge. By riding with my buddies Paul and Jay from the New York state line, I extended the PMC to a third day and 290 miles. I felt strong again, and was both proud and sad to ride in Bobby’s memory and to finish my PMC career having raised $111,222 for cancer research.

Shortly after the PMC, I noticed lingering pains in my abdomen. Eventually I was diagnosed with a balky gall bladder. I put myself back on a restrictive low-fat diet, and stayed off the bike in the interest of halting the accompanying weight loss. That pretty much put an end to my season, while I waited (and waited) for a surgery date. Up and down again!

Yesterday I completed my first ride post-surgery. It was nice to be out on the bike again, but it also sucked. It feels like I’ve lost all my conditioning: strength, endurance, cardio, speed, sprinting, climbing, bike handling, everything. Looks like we’ll be starting 2015 from scratch. Fortunately, since I live in the fucking tundra, I’ve got three and a half months left to hibernate before I have to address the fitness shortfall.

Despite my health problems blowing two gaping holes in my season, 2014 was still a great year. My 3,500-mile total was the most I’ve ridden since 2010, and I did set a new lifetime record of nine rides in excess of 100 miles. In fact, nearly 30 percent of my riding was in century+ rides! It makes me wonder how much more was possible if I had not run into so many health issues.

A lot of that was possible because I wasn’t working this year. Having just started a new job at Buildium, my opportunities to ride next year will be curtailed quite a bit. And I won’t be commuting, because it’s not worth riding the mere one mile to the office.

On the other hand, my new employer fields a 40-person team for the Cape Cod Getaway MS ride, which I’ll participate in. Like my annual Outriders ride, it goes from Boston to Provincetown, and it usually falls on the weekend after Outriders. Unlike Outriders, which goes 130 miles in one day, the MS ride wanders around, taking two days to do 175 miles. So it should be a walk in the park for me. It’s kind of nice to have a bit of cycling culture in the company, and to be able to step in with some instant cred. And as compared to the PMC, the fundraising is trivial.

So I guess I’m happy with 2014. It was a very eventful year, with many extreme highs and lows. But I still did a lot of riding, and enjoyed myself quite a bit.

At this point, there’s no saying what 2015 holds, save that I won’t have as much time to ride. Hopefully my digestive system will adapt to my new gall-bladder-less reality without inhibiting my riding. I think we’ll have to take the 2015 season day by day. But I’m eager to get through the winter and back out on the road!

My 2011-2012 cycling season has come to a close, and it’s time to look back and reflect on the year gone by and think about what next year holds.

This year I rode 3,000 miles, which is exactly the same distance I rode in the previous year. On the other hand, that’s a little below my usual average, thanks in large part to spending my weekdays working for a living. I also fell just 500 miles short of surpassing 40,000 miles since I took cycling up again back in 2000, but that’s a milestone that will fall soon enough. (charts)

In 2012 I only did five centuries (Tour d’Essex, Outriders, Mt. Washington, PMC, and Maine Lighthouse Ride), and fell just five miles short of a sixth when I overheated and opted not to finish a solo ride in June. That too is below my usual pace of seven or eight rides of a hundred miles or more.

On the other hand, I went into this year with an intention to enjoy myself more by doing some new and different rides, and in that respect I really succeeded. In addition to the aforementioned Tour d’Essex, Mount Washington Century, and Maine Lighthouse Rides, I also did my first ride with the Kennebec Valley Bike Club, and fulfilled a longtime dream in going to California to do the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage. (If you’re interested in the BBP ride report, you’ll find it here, in my regular blog.) And I have to say that I really enjoyed every one of those five new routes, so the experiment was an unalloyed success.

And I can’t say I missed the two familiar rides that they displaced: the Climb to the Clouds and the Flattest Century. Overall, I enjoyed the new rides, and felt it really added a lot more interest to my riding. My only regret is that my riding buddies weren’t able to join me on several of those rides, and it’s not quite as fun when you’re riding alone.

I did, however, get to ride with my buddy Jay during this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge, which was our last ride together before he moved to Florida. That made this year’s PMC extra special. And I raised over $11,000 this year for cancer research, treatment, and prevention at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which puts me in good shape to reach my lifetime goal of $100,000 in 2014.

So while 2012 didn’t feature huge miles or dramatic turns of events, it was both interesting, fun, and very satisfying.

This was also probably the last season for the Plastic Bullet, the Specialized Roubaix that has been my primary ride for the past seven years. Ironically, after sitting idle for a week while I was in San Francisco, the lower set of headset bearings rusted solid, freezing my steering and requiring a trip to the bike shop to have the entire headset replaced. It’s just another instance of the old girl showing her age.

Which brings me around to my predictions for the upcoming 2012-2013 season.

I’ve begun the process of test riding new bikes, but there’s still a lot more evaluation to do before I pull the trigger, and unless the weather improves, that may not happen until spring. I am taking the time to ride just about everything I can put my hands on, so you can expect to read more about that in the future.

As I mentioned above, I should crack the 40,000-mile barrier shortly, too. That’s quite an achievement, I think.

I definitely expect to return to some of the new rides I did this year. Those were fun, and hopefully I can convince my buddies to tag along.

But that’s going to be the big question for next year; Jay was really the social center of our group, and now that he’s gone I’m not sure our riding group will survive. My other two buddies, Paul and Noah, are both married and living in the distant Metrowest suburbs, and neither of them ride the PMC anymore, so we may not synch up very often.

That could be a problem for me, because it may be hard for me to find transportation to most of the major rides in the area. So even if I have the desire to ride, next year might look a little bit different than recent years, when there was usually someone to beg a ride from.

But we’ll see. For now I’m content to use the remaining fall weekends to test ride potential new bikes, which is a luxury unto itself. Then next spring I’ll hopefully be ready to hit the road with renewed enthusiasm and a zippy new machine.

That should make 2013 another interesting cycling season. I’m looking forward to it!

Since I’ve always calculated my cycling season beginning and ending in mid-October, it’s time to look back and review my 2009-2010 cycling year.

In many ways, this was one of my best years ever, with lots of noteworthy accomplishments, but it also had its disappointments, which seemed to cluster at either end of the season.

2010 started with a bang. On my first outdoor ride of the year—a short shakedown cruise to make sure the bike was working properly—a female Asian student crashed into me head-on on the Charles River bike path. I was left with a permanent scar on my left hand and a $300 repair bill which the girl responsible for the crash bluntly refused to help pay. (blog post)

Despite that setback, I managed to do 60-70 miles on each of my first three training rides of the year, which is double what I can usually handle in March. Despite the injuries I received in the crash, my early season fitness and endurance were surprisingly strong.

My biggest disappointment of the year also took place right at the start of the season. In 2009, Paul, Jay, and I had formed a solid riding group, and in 2010 we wanted to add a few more people to it. In order to bring people into the fold and build some enthusiasm for the coming year, I invited 13 prospective riders to a pre-season planning dinner. Only six people accepted the invite, and in the end only four people showed: Paul, Jay, and I, plus Jay’s friend Mary. It was a truly pathetic showing. (blog post)

Although we tried to expand the group throughout the year, we were never successful. Mary, who was the most active addition, became known for bagging out on us. We added a girl named Suzanne, but she really only showed up for one ride and her riding style was actually downright dangerous. But toward the end of the season we added Paul’s friend Noah, who hopefully will stick with us next year. And our regular Quad Cycles buddy Lynda was probably our most regular riding partner all year long.

As the season progressed, I took advantage of my unemployed status to lay down a lot of miles, setting a new yearly record of 5,000 miles, a 400-mile increase over my previous record and more than double what I rode in 2007 and 2008. That took me to a total of 33,500 miles over ten years, and 15,500 miles on the Plastic Bullet, my Specialized Roubaix. I set monthly mileage records in October and December of 2009, as well as June, July, and September of 2010. (charts)

In 2009, I was impressed that I’d done five 100-mile rides, but in 2010 I actually did eight full centuries. We ticked off every major goal we had, including my first-ever 130-mile Outriders ride from Boston to Provincetown (blog post, GPS log, video), the Climb to the Clouds century (GPS log, video), my first 93-mile pre-PMC ride from the New York border to Sturbridge (GPS log, video), the Pan-Mass Challenge itself (ride report, GPS log 1, video 1, GPS log 2, video 2), and the Flattest Century (GPS log). On top of those explicit goals, I also did my first-ever CRW Spring Century (blog post, GPS log, video), my first Hub on Wheels (blog post, GPS log), and three ad hoc centuries (GPS log 1, GPS log 2, GPS log 3). I also did my first training rides with the Green Line Velo group that meets at Cleveland Circle on Tuesday nights (GPS log).

Looking specifically at this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge, it was probably the best year I’ve ever had. In addition to a great experience on my first “Day 0” pre-PMC ride from the New York border to Sturbridge (GPS log, video), it was also my 10th PMC ride and my 5th year in a row reaching the esteemed Heavy Hitter fundraising plateau. I raised over $10,000—my second best fundraising year ever—which brought my lifetime cancer fundraising to over $63,000. I had over 140 donors, more than doubling my previous record of 71 sponsors. And none of that does justice to the fun and personal satisfaction I experienced during the event. (ride report, GPS log 1, video 1, GPS log 2, video 2)

After the PMC, things wound down, and the year ended not with a bang, but a whimper. The Flattest Century (GPS log) was cold and overcast, and I spent the whole day riding alone, having flatted and let my buddies get far ahead of me. Then I had to forfeit my registration money for the CRW Fall Century because no one was willing to give me a ride to the start. And I had to cancel my entire San Francisco trip for the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage when my buddy Mark bagged out and finances got tight. So the end of the year was pretty disappointing. Still, looked at as a whole, this was arguably my best year.

One thing that helped make it memorable was the series of video ride reports that I created after the CRW Spring Century, the Outriders ride, the Climb to the Clouds, and PMC Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2. I think they all came out pretty well and will be wonderful mementos of those rides. The next step for me in doing these videos is to apply some more creativity to ensure that they don’t all wind up looking the same, using the same visual techniques. I think it’ll be fun to spend the off-season thinking about how I can continue to improve on them.

I also started putting GPS track logs of all my significant rides online on my Garmin Connect page. In addition to serving as a place where I can go to review my own rides, hopefully they will be of some use to other riders, as well as any of my friends who are curious about the places I ride through.

So despite some disappointments, I really did have a tremendous year. It’s well within the realm of reason to say this was my best biking year ever. But it’s also quite possibly the best year I will ever have on the bike. Being unemployed, I’ve had two summers off to build up to peak conditioning, and I probably won’t have another opportunity to devote that much time to cycling until I’m well into my fifties and feeling more of the slowly-accumulating effects of aging.

But if this really was the best year I’ll ever have, I can still be quite happy with that. I spent a lot of time in the saddle, knocked out a bunch of new personal records, did a whole slew of interesting new rides, raised all kinds of money for cancer research, had a ton of fun, and was able to share it all with my two great riding buddies Paul and Jay.

That ain’t bad.

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?

This year—I measure them from mid-October—I rode 2,200 miles. Bearing in mind that my average is over 3,000 miles per year, that’s the second-lowest total I’ve had in the eight years I’ve been keeping records, and the lowest since 2001-2002. My total over eight years is now up to 24,500 miles. That’s 39,500 kilometers, 10,000 laps at Daytona International Speedway, or 23 million Smoots.

Actually, that would be about normal if we exclude the five months that I was out of town on a work assignment. Despite setting new all-time lows for every month from January through May, my riding has been pretty typical over the past four months. I even set a new record high of 658 miles in the month of July, during my last-ditch effort to get into shape for this year’s PMC.

The other bit worth mentioning is that I finally replaced my Specialized Armadillo tires with Michelin Lithions. The Armadillo is great at what it is: a bulletproof tire that is almost impossible to puncture. Its shortcoming is its weight, and slightly dead road feel.

The Lithions are much more supple, and a whole lot lighter, which makes an immense difference. You lose the extreme flat protection, but I don’t abuse my tires enough to warrant the extra weight. Amusingly, it looks like Specialized has just released a new Armadillo that claims to be significantly lighter.

So between these new tires and my move to Mavic Ksyrium wheels this spring, this has been the year of reducing rotating weight. It makes the bike feel much more responsive, and spin up much quicker. In short, the bike feels really good: fast, and easy to pedal.