Orny's Cycling Journal

I haven’t said much here in a long time, so maybe it’s time for a “state of the state” posting. But first…

Ten thousand miles.

Of course, it might sound even more impressive as 16,000 kilometers.

That’s the distance from Anchorage, Alaska to Miami, Florida and back.

If you were driving a car at 50 miles an hour, eight hours a day, that would take you an entire month to cover.

Now imagine doing that on a bike.

Today I took an easy little ride from Quad Cycles with Jer & Sha (and made my first stop at Kimball’s Farm this year), but along the way, on the Minuteman bike path, my cyclometer tripped 10,000 miles. That’s an event worth observing.

Amusingly, in this very journal I wrote: my four-year goal of 10,000 miles, which I predict eclipsing around next June. That was written last October 9. I guess I have quite a good handle on how much I ride!

That accomplishment took me three years, seven months, and three weeks. That’s how long it’s been since October 15 2000, when I bought my Devinci Monaco. The most miles I’ve done in one year was 3400, but my average is about 2850. I always do the most miles in July, when I average about 475 miles for the month. My biggest single month was July 2001, when I put 558 miles down.

That’s a total of 191 weeks, during which time I biked all but ten weeks, and half of those were due to my 2002 bout with pre-patellar bursitis. An average of 55 miles per week, every week, throughout the entire year. My longest single week was 221 miles, which was over the 2002 Pan-Mass Challenge.

That’s 707 hours on the bike—about four hours per week—at an average speed of about 14 MPH (23 kph). The most time I was in the saddle in a week was 13 hours 40 minutes. The best average speed over a week was 17.25 MPH, again on the ’02 PMC. The top speed I ever hit was 44.9 MPH (72 KPH), at Purgatory Chasm on the ’03 PMC.

So those are the numbers as my odometer clicked over to five digits.

Since I’ve written so little thus far this year, here’s a snapshot of how I’m doing in 2004.

For no particular reason I can point to, I appear to be noticeably stronger this year than last. I started upping my miles about a month earlier than I did last year, and even got a long 80-mile ride in last month. It’s been an uphill fight, though, as we’ve again had a long stretch of cold, rainy weather throughout April and May.

I’ve been doing all the local hills repeatedly: Great Blue Hill, Prospect Hill, Summit Ave, Bellvue Hill, Bussey Hill, Dot Heights, the Dinosaur, and many more, all with no problems. At the same time, though, my goal of climbing more of the larger mountains in the region is sadly stalled due to lack of transportation.

Looking forward to this year’s PMC, I forsee no problems other than the fundraising, which needs to start in earnest next week.

Assuming the job hunt is productive, I will be looking for a new bike, but I’m certain it won’t happen before the PMC. But if it does come this year, then next year I’ll be considering participating in the Boston Brevet Series, at least the 200k, and quite possibly the 300k. But we’ll see about that.

But for now I’ll take satisfaction in breaking the ten thousand mile barrier. That’s one hell of a lot of road, and I remember many of those miles very well. It’s been quite a ride, and it’s really impressive to think that I have been capable of transporting myself that distance, powered solely by my legs, my lungs, and my heart.

Ten thousand one, ten thousand two, ten thousand three…