Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker popular in the US in the 1970’s until the 1990’s, used to give out these circular business card thingies that had the letters TUIT on it. I must have gone to a speech because I had one for a while. It was to remind people that goals should not be for some day in the future, you should seize the day. It was my intent to write this post a week and a half ago, but I’m just now getting a round to it. Get it? In other words, after my long ride of 60 miles, I was so tired… (How tired are you?) I was so tired it has taken me a couple of weeks to write about it. So, here at long last is my report off my big annual ride and another year of consecutive daily bicycling.

That six years of biking literally every day — aka, a streak — is by far a bigger accomplishment than one long ride. The main thing I have to say about the former is that it is as exhausting as it sounds. Getting on the bike every day, sometimes for a 20-miler, or at the end of the day is tiring. Averaging 14.5 miles a day may be nothing to your elite athlete, a weekend warrior who can throw down a half-century in a few hours and barely break a sweat, or even the geriatric hard-core rider. But to a fathlete like your Dude here, it’s not nothing, it’s something. It takes effort and time (and a lot more time as the calendar pages fly by). Mentally, emotionally, logistically… it takes a toll just as much or more than the physical force required. Somehow I managed. A lot of pre-ride naps. Sometimes a trainer at the gym. Why? Why not?

So, props to me. But also, big whoop. I’ve been doing the daily rides since 10/11/2019, and no awards are forthcoming. For transparency I like to say the Guinness Book of World Records has not come calling. On rare occasion, there’s been a glitch. While I’m out the door by midnight, a handful of times my Garmin watch didn’t start recording on time, usually because I didn’t double tap it or I triple tapped it. So, technically, my streak would not stand up to the scrutiny of the UCI (Union Cyclistes Internationale).

Who cares? Whatever. The point is, I bike a lot, for me. And as I keep saying, every day could be one’s last. Whether it’s keeping up a streak, or on a bike, or on the planet, tomorrow is not guaranteed. Actually I’m very certain I’ll be out of commission and possible have no choice but to be off the bike for a time. That will be weird, and hard, but ultimately good, or at least it will be what it will be. Que sera, sera.

As for the long ride, this was my 10th year of doing it. The last few, I’ve stuck to the Southern Walnut Creek Trail. With the extension to one of Austin’s bedroom communities, Manor, Texas, out and back twice does it mileage-wise. I hadn’t trained as much, so it took me about 5.25 hours, with about 3 of rest stops. ‘Twas a long day, but a good day. It went well. No crashes, falls, tickets, punctures, snakes, or mechanicals, except I lost my easiest chain ring for a good bit of the back end. Seeing how I had no particular place to be, it didn’t bother me much.

For the first 15 miles, I was accompanied by Lauren and Rhodney. It was a warm autumn day, and we enjoyed our time together. After they departed, I stopped for one of may rests. And eventually continued my annual ride on Sommar, the Fuji Finest road bike I was gifted during a time Sonnie was on her adventure (being stolen, and then me stealing her back by Orion the Awesome. As I kept going up and down the trail, I thought of everything and nothing. I was in my body, and having an out-of-body experience. I saw bugs and birds, bushes and bicyclists, smiles of passersby, and the scarlet sunset sparkling on the skyline. It was a sublime day, but it was a hard bike ride, and yet it wasn’t.

Will I continue this tradition? Maybe switch to kilometers? Give in to a pedal-assisted bike? We shall see. For now, I’m glad I was able to do it. And I’m grateful to those who’ve been supportive of my journey, including you, Dear Reader. Thank you for that. Just keep bikin’, dancin’, runnin’, swimmin’, or whatever you do. Most of all, Just Keep Livin’.

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