My year in cycling - 2024
My year in cycling - 2024
In 2023, my goal was 4,000 miles, and I made it, so I started with the same this year.
In late September, 2024, my local club did a ride across our state, about 350 miles over 4 days. After that, I was about 20 miles shy of the 4,000 goal, and hit it within the following week. I normally ride 80-120 miles per week, so 350 was a huge jump.
Then, I upped the goal to 5,000 miles, then finished that in late November or early December. A friend congratulated me and noted that 5,000 miles was almost 100 miles per week, so I made the new goal 5,200 miles.
Of those 5,348 miles, 2,111 miles (~39%) were on Zwift. I did three imperial centuries on Zwift this year, and several more metric centuries on Zwift. The rest were all outdoor, ranging from 25 miles to 120 miles.
I haven't decided on a goal for next year yet. Right now it's at 5,200 miles (it automatically resets to the same). But, for various reasons, I'm not sure whether I'll ride that much this year.
Congrats!
How do you stay engaged indoors? I can ride for 10 hours at a time outdoor, and still want more. But riding for an hour indoors, even virtually, is not fun at all.
Heh, I get that question a lot, especially after doing the metric and century rides online. First, music helps. Second, I think it's mostly about the challenge.
Being challenged helps - riding at low power for an hour is really boring. But stressing myself helps keeps me focused. Also, I usually ride with some groups (either a robopacer or a group ride), and often there is conversation that helps keep me focused as well.
During my first 100 mile ride on Zwift, I was just dying, and the group I was riding with wouldn't let me quit...they were like, "NO, YOU'RE GOING TO DO THIS." I was struggling at 80 miles, but I finished. I told them not to reduce pace for me, but they insisted and backed off a little bit. The support helps a TON.
I built a rocker plate that also does fore-and-aft movement, and that helps alleviate the "stress" of the bike not moving, and kind of forces me to keep somewhat focused, or I end up riding at a bizarre angle to the side.
But there are days when it's like, "Will this ever end!?"
That's probably what it is. Garmin has me doing base training right now, and the first one was like 3h at low watts... even with a movie on, it got boring fast.
I have been trying to do longer training sessions outdoors when I can, so most indoor training is low usually < 2h, but the duration of these training rides will ramp up as I get closer to my target date (for a 300km ride!).
I'm doing MyWhoosh, because I'm poor. LOL But it's got some cool features, including group rides with randos. I did a few of those, and it was fun. Once in a while, I'll spot a group where the members are on like hour 13... and I can only hope they get paid to ride! LOL
That's another good point. My indoor training is a basic stationary bike with a magnetic flywheel... feels very different from my actual bike. I think some newer trainers that you mount your road bike too also feature movement and such, so the ride is supposed to feel as close to real as you can get. I'm sure that helps, too.
Thanks for the input! Good luck with your 2025 goals!