Day 200: Two Hundred Rides are Done

Today was a bit of a milestone for me. It was my two hundredth consecutive bicycle ride. Prior to today I’d thought that I’d do a really special ride, and perhaps even another century as I did on Day 100. Unfortunately for me, I woke up feeling really fatigued today, and for the very first time that I can recollect, I actually didn’t feel like riding. I would have been a happy camper if I could have simply stayed home. I have no idea why that on Day 200 I’d feel so tired. Why not on Day 197, or Day 180?

I of course rode today. I’m not going to let a little fatigue get in the way of Riding to Recovery. I did change my plans in order to suit how I was feeling. At the very beginning of R2R I promised myself that I’d “listen to my body” on each day that I would head out to ride. So even though today was a milestone for me, I listened to my body and didn’t push myself in order to do a special ride. Instead I did one of my old favorites, and at a reasonably good clip.

I felt that I needed to reflect on my journey today. It’s so hard for me to even remember what ride I did three days ago at this point, since they’ve now all melted into one long journey. It’s not a bad thing, and I’m happy that I have this forum that will serve as my memory for many, many years from now.

A part of my personal reflection on this long journey included looking at the statistics such as how many miles that I’ve ridden. So I thought that I’d share a few fun (for me) statistics. These are a few of the numbers that I've racked up thus far:

Miles ridden: 5129 miles
Hours ridden: 401 hrs. (Ten work weeks)
Elevation gain : 517,800 ft. (These are vertical feet that I have climbed)

The past couple of months have been hard on me during most of my rides. I’ve had to ride through illness, broken ribs, major storms, and frigid cold, etc. I feel like my statistics are a bit off from where I had hoped they'd be at this point, but I’m not going to get too caught up in all of that since I’m still on track to reach my primary goal, and that’s to ride every day for a year, rain or shine.

In spite of my feeling tired today, and given that I didn’t do a long or special ride, I was happy that I made it out the door and onto my bicycle today. Riding has become my church, and the place where I can safely think about where I’ve been, where I am today and in this exact moment, and where I’m going. I know that I’ve come a long way on my journey, but I also know that I have a long, long way to go.

Distance: 18.42 miles
Calories burned: 1,604
Time: 1:43:20 hours
Elevation gain: 2,340 ft
Garmin Connect ride details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21766296