A cool little landmark...

Last night was January 29th. That means there've only been 29 days so far in the year.

When I first started riding in earnest, it was January 4th. I rode about 5 miles for about 25 minutes with an average speed of about 11 mph. My cycling computer calculates all this for me and I've been tracking my progress nightly in a moleskine that I'm using to track my daily food intake and chart my exercise work.

My inital goal at that point was, "I'd like, at the end of 2009 to have averaged at least 5 miles a day on the bike." That means my total odometer by December 31 should read at least 1825 miles on it. Not a lot, but you figure you're not riding every day, naturally, and I didn't wanna shoot *too* high.

Over the last month however, I've been actually...you know...getting into shape, and as a result, my numbers and estimates have changed a little, for the better too. I wasn't really prepared for such a dramatic increase in efficiency, but as it stands now, I can't even work up a real sweat in 5 miles, and I'm now banging out anywhere from 15 to 20 miles a night, only limited now by the actual amount of *time* I can spend on the bike. In other words, now I run out of time before I run out of energy or get tired! I'm riding now for anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, my speed is averaging now about 18 miles an hour, and my distance covered ranges from a *minimum* of 15 miles to as many as 20, and soon (this weekend) 25 to 30 in a single sitting.

I feel like I'm fucking *killing* it, and it's only getting better and better, more and more fun, and more and more addictive.

So...back to my "landmark".

Last night my total odometer hit 290 on the 29th day of the year. So now, my average is exactly ten miles a day and that's after not really hitting ten miles until at least a week or two into my riding. The reality of that number is that it's skewed pretty heavily towards recent riding, and if I continue to even REMOTELY ride like I'm riding now that ten mile a day average will be long gone by the Spring, and could easily be double.

So, as it stands right now, by the end of the year, my total odometer should read 3650 miles. At LEAST. I'll have to remember to link to this at the end of the year when I check.

I can't tell you enough how much this means to me. 3,650 is a magic number, for one. It's pretty much the distance across America from Myrtle Beach to Los Angeles along the southern route thru Texas and Louisiana, which is a secret goal of mine to one day traverse. Two, and more importantly, it means I've actually gotten healthier than I thought possible. I really don't see a day in the future when I'll ride LESS than ten miles, and if my current condition is any indication, it'll probably be WAY more than ten miles.

That's why the 29th day of the year was a cool little personal landmark that I think I'll remember for a while...