The last couple of years I worked I commuted by bike quite a bit, running up 8,000 or 10,000 miles each year. When I stopped working I knew I needed to maintain my activity level so I decided to try to bike every day and settled on a goal of 1,000 miles each month. I soon realized that short months during ski season get in the way of a monthly goal, and I restated my ambitions as 12,000 miles a year. 2018 was the fourth of those, and I hit the 12,000 mile mark at the end of October. At first I figured I’d just work on getting more than in 2017 until I realized that with a little push I could get to 10,000 on my single bike. I managed that, and ended up with 4,000 tandem, too.
Here’s how 2018 looked on Strava. (14,110 miles, 748,398 ft. climbing & 1,173 hrs on the bike.)
So what do I aim for in 2019? just doing more miles is kind of dull. I like the challenge of getting 10,000 on my own bike. Maybe I’ll come up with some more sub-goals like elevation and miles on gravel – but then I’d have to track those as well. I think that maybe the answer is to set a multi-year goal instead of another annual one. Right now I want to get to five 12,000 mile years, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking about how at the end of 2018 I’ve ridden 63,000 miles since leaving work and that means I only need 37,000 more to claim 100,000 in retirement!