Cycling 2012 and 2013

Well, 2012 is ending in a few hours, and it has been an 'interesting' year.  Reminds me of the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."  But rather than focusing on the sad, and other darker thoughts of tyranny and oppression which I will leave for another day, I will just summarize my year on the bike.

Some of you may know that both Dave and I started riding in 2011 again, after a decade or so off the bikes.  I converted to a recumbent, a Bacchetta Giro for me ultimately, and both a Giro and a DF bike for Dave.  I have truly enjoyed the bike this year.

I acquired the Giro in March 2012, on the secondary market.  It was an excellent choice for me, being able to accept both 26" and 700c wheels.  After Dave built up a set of 700c's for himself, I swiped the "whitewall" wheelset of Velocity Deep V/DeoreXT's for myself on a permanent basis, nicely set up for disc brakes.

I did not start out with much of any goals for cycling in 2012--other than a desire early on to start randonneuring.  I failed in that--after a bad start on 1/1/12, where I was sick enough to call it walking pneumonia 2 days later, I lost interest in randos, sadly.  My only other goals were to do a few t-shirt rides (pay rides, often in support of some cause, where participants get a shirt for their entry fee), and to complete an Imperial Century (100 mi ride).  In both of those goals, I did succeed!

The rides I did were all good ones--well organized and supported.  Ride Ataxia, Ride for the Heroes, Tour de Paris, Red River Rally and the Denton Turkey Roll.  In 2013 I am scheduled to do the rides Dave did in 2012, namely the Muenster Metric, Collin Co Classic, Hotter 'n Hell 100 and maybe one other.

I did note that I never set a mileage goal for 2012.  When things were hectic here, around late Nov-early Dec, I discovered I was close to 2000mi, and wanted very much to make 2000mi.  However it was not to be.  I will end 2012 with a total of 1924.1 miles ridden, in 82 rides in 158 hrs of riding.

For 2013 then I have actually set a couple goals.

1. Ride at least 3000mi in 2013.

2. Work on my overall speed.

3. If I can, push for 4000mi riding.

4. Continue having fun riding.

 

There are  a couple other goals, but they are not bike-related.  Now that my disc brakes work well (thank you Mark at Cadence Cyclery!), I hope to hit all the above goals, and perhaps more!  I hope to see more of you out there riding too!  So if you see the Yellow Peril rollin' along, do say hello, as you cruise by.

Tailwinds everybody, and Happy New Year!