Why I ride. I met my original goal of 4,000 miles (all purpose)

We are finally reaching the end of 2020, a year that few, if any, will be sorry to see behind us.

Activities matter. We are not out of the woods as far as the Coronavirus, as I most likely not qualify to receive the vaccine until June or July at the earliest, by my calculations. But this post is not about that, it is about cycling, but cycling is one activity that meets the COVID guidelines. I ride. I reached my original goal of 4,000 mile on Sunday, December 27, 2020. It took a ride of 40 miles on Sunday to reach the 4,000 mile mark. This year's goal was met by riding both on and off road (gravel/trail riding).

2020 was my third best year insofar as total mileage. I do have a goal to one year exceed 5,200 miles. I was on track to reach that goal having just over 2,600 miles as of June 30, 2020, but this was not to be the year. The summer storms as well as the realities of the legal practice significantly reined in the monthly totals for July through September.

Longest rides this year? 66, 64 and 58 miles. I have longer rides in past history.

Goals for 2021 include at least 2 rides each exceeding 100 miles.

My 4,000 miles biking came close to my total for car commuting in this partial work from home year of Coronavirus 2020.

This year did see significantly more mileage on gravel. Fun times. Nature riding.

(NOTE: Photos above depict events  in early 2020 pre-pandemic)

Cycling can be done within the family bubble as well as in a safe, socially distanced manner. 

Other posts related to my cycling adventures and why I bike can be viewed by CLICKING HERE.

Happy New Year! 

What are your goals for 2021?

I prefer to let the pictures tell the story, so feel free to explore my past posts and the embedded photos.

Enjoy.

The post would not be complete without a few cycling related quotes (originally posted on my post of July 25, 2020, Why I bike. Marking my 58th with a 58 mile ride. I missed the rain.):

“In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn’t enough of those things.”

Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, 2004

 “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

Ernest Hemingway

“One Less Car” & “We are not blocking traffic; we are traffic.”
Cycle advocacy slogans

And both sides of the aisle agree:

“Nothing compares to getting your heart rate up to 170-something, riding hard for an hour-twenty, getting off and not hurting, as opposed to 24 minutes of running, at the end of which I hurt. When you ride a bike and you get your heart rate up and you’re out, after 30 or 40 minutes your mind tends to expand; it tends to relax.

President George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 2004

“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.”

President John F. Kennedy