| 2009 Ride Summary | |
|---|---|
| Total Rides | 156 |
| Total Distance | 4,310 mi |
| Road Rides | 139 |
| Road Distance | 4,135 mi |
| Total Time | 251:14:08 hrs |
| Average Speed | 16.46 mph |
| Total Climbing | 201,528 ft |
| Average Gradient | 48.7 ft/mi |
| Rides over 50 mi | 28 |
| Rides over 100 mi | 3 |
| 3,100 miles for the year | The mileage goal is my primary annual goal. Last year my goal was 2,000, and I got to 2,340, with several weeks off the bike in the middle of the summer, so I figured I could increase this by a significant amount. | Achieved (on 9/5/09, total mileage through 12/29/09 is 4,310) |
| 100+ miles in every month | Last year my mileage dropped significantly after I achieved my total mileage goal for the year, so this year I set some secondary weekly and monthly mileage goals to give me intermediate targets to shoot for during the year, and to keep my on the bike through the winter. A hundred miles per month is no problem in the summer months, but it's a lot more challenging when there's snow on the ground. (December update: didn't manage to achieve this, due to lingering sickness in December, lousy weather, and new gym membership providing more attactive alternatives to riding outside). | Not Achieved (through 12/29/09, lowest full month was February with 101.43 miles) |
| Two weeks during the year with 200+ miles | Looking for at least two big weeks with long mileage. | Not Achieved (through 12/29/09, so far no weeks over 200 miles, and not looking good for the remainder of the year) |
| Four consecutive weeks with 160+ miles | Looking for a block of consistent solid weeks during the summer. | Not Achieved (through 12/29/09, quite a few weeks over 160, but haven't been able to string together even two in a row) |
| Two centuries | Last year I did one century, looking for at least two this year. | Achieved Three centuries (COVAC Century on 9/13/09, NCC Century on 10/3/09, Great River Ride on 10/11/09) |
| Great River Ride | Complete the Great River Ride on 10/11/09. | Achieved (114.79 miles in 6:59:22 on 10/11/09) |
| D2R2 | Ride either the century or metric century (100 km) in the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee (D2R2). | Not Achieved I never managed to get my secondary bike suitably fixed up in time for this event, so it will have to wait until next year. |
| Ride a brevet | Would like to do a long-distance brevet this year. | Achieved This goal was a bit of a stretch, since the primary local brevet series (Berkshire Brevets) runs mostly in the spring, at which point I wasn't ready for 200+km rides. I'm still counting this one, though, since I rode the timed version of October's Great River Ride, which is technically classified as a RUSA 170km "populaire" brevet. |
| State line rides - cross north and south Massachusetts borders | The Vermont and Connecticut borders are both about 50 miles away from my home, and make good targets for long-distance rides (on separate rides). | Not achieved (through 12/29/09) I haven't been doing many of the long-distance solo rides I would need to hit this goal. I did cross the northern border into Vermont and New Hampshire on the COVAC century, but I'm not counting that since I traveled to the start. |
| 150 miles on new roads outside Amherst | I'm always trying to expand my selection of routes, so this goal provides an incentive to ride on roads I haven't ridden previously. | Achieved. I did a total of 383 new miles, but a lot of this was on trips to New Jersey and Maine, miles which don't really meet the intent of this goal (I was shooting for new mileage on local rides). But 191 of the miles were local, so I consider this goal more than achieved. |
| Complete Amherst roads | One of my long-term goals has been to ride every road in the town of Amherst. This is more difficult than it sounds, and I've been working on it for several years. For the last couple years I've been neglecting this goal as I've been riding further afield, but I would like to finish this up in 2009. | Achieved This one came down to the wire, but a last-minute push on Dec. 29 (with temps below 15°) snagged the last few roads I hadn't yet completed. Very glad to finish this one. Map forthcoming shortly. |
| Average speed for the year over 15.0 mph | I set this goal in the beginning of the year intending to improve on my 2008 average, but it turns out my average from 2008 was 15.2 mph, so the bar was a little too low here. Still, the rides on my old bike in the cold weather months have definitely brought my average down, so this is still a reasonable target, if a fairly easy one. | So far, so good (through 12/29/09, average speed is 16.51 mph) |
| Average gradient over 60 feet/mile | Getting a high average speed is easy if all your rides are flat, so I included this goal to make sure that I'm putting in quality miles in the hills. I calculate the gradient for each of my rides (total feet of climbing divided by distance in miles). Generally, rides with a gradient of under 40 ft/mi are pretty flat, and those with 70+ ft/mi are quite steep. Note this uses the elevation gain provided by the altimeter on my bike computer, which generally reads about 30% higher than the "total climb" figures you get from online sites like MapMyRide, which usually don't include the height gained from the smaller rollers along the route. | Not Achieved (through 12/29/09, average gradient is 46.8 ft/mi) I definitely set the bar a bit too high here. I spent a lot of time this year riding back and forth to Northampton for NCC rides, and this brought the average gradient down a lot. |
| Total climbing over 170,000 feet | This one is kind of redundant, because it follows from the total distance and average gradient goals, but it provides a bit of further incentive to get my hill work in. | Achieved (through 12/29/09, total climbing is 201,528 feet, or over 38 vertical miles) |
| Sub-25:00 time on Pelham Hill | I record my times on many specific hills and ride segments to try to improve performance. This is a goal for climb I do fairly frequently, from the East Amherst Common up Pelham Road and Amherst Road to meet Rt. 202 in the center of Pelham. Best time last year was 27:30. | Achieved (three times, first on 8/26/09, best time 24:47) |
| Sub 1:00 time on South Pleasant Street | A short climb up South Pleasant Street in Amherst, from the Amherst College gym to the top of the hill right before Rt. 9. This is my standard short burst climb near the end of a ride. This goal is a carry-over from last year, when I wasn't quite able to get there (best time last year was 1:06). | Achieved (four times, first on 7/6/09, best time 0:58) |
| Bookmill loop at 18.5+ mph | This is a loop I ride fairly frequently, up Rt. 63 to Montague, past the Bookmill, and south on Meadow St and Falls Rd to Rt. 47, continuing south to the bike path and home. Pushing hard the whole time makes this basically a 90+ minute time trial. My best average on this loop last year was around 17.6 mph. | Achieved on 10/25/09, 33.03 miles in 1:40:58, at 19.63 mph, my fastest ride of the year |