I surpassed my 2012 overall total mileage yesterday, riding on the training wheel (turbo trainer).  When I set my goal at the beginning of January I just knew I wouldn’t be able to put in as much time on the bike but I wanted 2013 to be a challenge so I set a goal of 5,000 miles, just 364 less than 2012.  In the overall scheme of things, to be truthful, while it is cool that I could have ridden from my house to San Diego and back again (and still have 700 miles left over to head down to Cincinnati and back), I set that goal in the first place just to fall in line and have a goal in the first place.  If I spent five minutes worth of actual time thinking about attaining this goal all year-long I’d be surprised.

The other goals I set were simply completing specific rides – no time limits, no “mph” goals, no speed increase goals…  To be truthful, I doubted I’d be able to get any faster.  I was mistaken.  All of my previous personal best times on the bike occurred this year.  So that leaves a lot open for next year when I’ll be riding a vastly superior and more comfortable bike.  That said, unless I’m stricken with some kind of “bug” to go put a label on how much I want to increase, the plan is to do the same thing all over again.  No goals, no limits, no expectations, just a lot of time on my bike.  The only real goal will be to stay fit and trim whilst still enjoying being able to eat a relative shit-ton of fast food (I use the word “relative” on purpose – my idea of “shit-ton” and someone else’s are probably very, very different).

My mileage, or time on the bike more accurately stated, has fallen off precipitously in the last month or so and so has my diet.  I imagine I’ve gained a few pounds over the thanksgiving weekend but it’s nothing to worry about yet.

For the rest of the winter, rather than taking two days a week off, I decided to bring the turbo home from the office so I can still ride with the wife over the weekend.  This will, no doubt, also help with recovery after my Saturday run (nothing better than a 30 minute spin after a run to keep an after-run recovery down to 16 hours) but squeezing in a day off will become interesting.  Ah, to have the problems I have.