This is a summary of my bicycle riding statistics on the Strava app for January through March.  It shows my total miles biked so far for 2019 is 1,213.  At 13.47 miles per day over the first 90 days, that isn’t bad.  It’s only slightly off the pace of 13.75, which will put me at 5,000 for the year — IF I’m able to keep it up.  That’s always the question.  By the way, virtually all of these miles are being done on Sophie, the Fairdale Weekender Archer. 

Less Long Rides, but More Consistentcy

This Strava screenshot shows my Sunday night ride. Had I not needed to run an errand, I’d be at 1,200 miles even.  I would have hit 1,250 (25% of 5,000) had I not been experiencing a lot of knee pain recently.  So I’ve had to reduce my riding even though acupuncture has helped.  More investigation is necessary to see if my bike needs adjusting, I have to do some physical therapy, or what.

This just means that I have a few miles to make up.  With the weather warming up, I’m not too worried about it.  The stress and strains of life, not having a lighter weight bike, and the joint issues are concerning me though.  Ironically, biking is great for knee pain, but it can also cause it if your bike isn’t fit properly.  In my case, I think I’m just overdoing it and not resting enough.

Let’s Talk About the Walk

As mentioned above, due to volunteering then participating in South by SXSW, I piled on extra miles walking since I had less time to bicycle.  Especially in the huge throngs of people in downtown Austin, biking just wasn’t possible.  I took in a lot of movies, comedy, some music and some learning too.  But a mile is a mile.  Strava does a bad job at showing walking mileage, so I either have to subtract the cycling mileage from the totals to get it, or refer to Garmin.

Method 1 shows the following: January – March total mileage = 516 387.4 + 463.9 = 1,367.3. Subtract the cycling mileage, 1,213.8 from that and I get 153.5 miles walked so far in 2019. At this rate, I’ll be at about 5,500 for the year with walking and cycling combined. That’s about 500 more miles, and a four-year total of over 20,000. Pretty good for an aging fathlete!

Method 2 involves checking and running a report in the Garmin Connect, which shows 148.91 miles walked. The discrepancy is from a few walks that I had to enter manually since I forgot to turn on the vivoactive HR watch. That’s 1.67 mles per day on average, which is above my goal.

Back to the bike, other stats of elevation, time and total rides are as follows:

How YOU Doin’?

Joey Tribbiani (Matt Le Blanc) would ask this question in Friends.

What’s up with your goals and New Years resolutions?

Are you on track, behind, ahead, given up?

Where can you try again to re-start?

What makes sense to let go or be more realistic about?

The answer for me is that I’m struggling. Weight, sugar, sleep, energy, motivation, and more are all challenges, like for many of us. Usually biking improves my energy and outlook, but lately it hasn’t as much. I do believe allergies are a big component; they definitely were earlier in the year with cedar fever, and I think recently with the nasty yellow film of oak pollen I’ve seen coating cars and other surfaces. We’ll see about that. Needing to find a place and move again plus secure stable income are also stressors. Hopefully things work out for the best and I’m able to keep blogging, writing my book, and get back to biking more, and faster.

The point is there will be always be challenges. What they look like at a particularl point in time are of course different for each person. I know a guy who is biking a century ride (100 miles in one day) every week. I couldn’t do that, but he doesn’t have time for the daily riding that I do. He’s a hare, I’m a tortoise. We both get where we need to go. Other people feel fortunate just to be able to use their home bike trainers at all after an injury. For some, 20 miles in a week is a big deal. No judgment here. We’re usually all our own worst enemies. (See my post Coaching Yourself With Compassion Instead of Criticicm.)

Whatever you do, the point is to do something. Make progress, and don’t worry too much about some number on a scale or on your fitness tracker. Sure, challenge yourself, go hard, leave it all out there, and all that competitive stuff. When I see my number is below 100, I am disappointed. Then I try to reframe it: “Well, at least I did x amount, which is far better than I used to do, and more than many my age and weight class, or those who don’t even try.” Making time for fun, rest, enjoyment, friends and other things in life than just striving for your goal.

At least that’s what A Dude thinks. Your mileage may vary (literally)!

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