Going for 4,000 bicycling miles in 2008

I've seen lots of ways to measure annual bicycling goals. There are total miles, total bicycle rides, total centuries, total weight loss, riding at least one major bicycle tour.

One bicyclist at the Cycling Challenge blog in Switzerland sets vertical goals. I suppose it helps if you live in the Alps, but he'll try to cycle 525,000 feet of vertical ascent, or about one foot for every minute of every day of 2008.

I'm going to renew my attempt at 4,000 miles in 2008. Last year's attempt fizzled out at the end of the summer with interruptions for testing and surgery for prostate cancer. The mileage goal didn't seem that important during that period.

2007 total

Although I got back in the saddle after about five weeks, I didn't press it. My total for 2007 was 2,864 miles, about 55 miles a week. At my average speed, that's almost 4 hours a week on the bike.

At the website of the late Ken Kifer, he suggests that 45 minutes a day for six days (about 4 1/2 hours) a week is a good target to improve health and fitness. I was almost there.

2008 goal

I like the 4,000-mile target. Howard over at Why Howard Laughed picked 8,000 miles one year because it's the diameter of the Earth. That makes 4,000 miles the radius of the Earth. It's also a little longer than the  typical cross-country bike tour.

Ira Stone at Bicycle Musings picked 4,000 miles for 2007 and blew it out of the water at over 5,000 miles. He's shooting for 4,500 miles in 2008.

Best rides

So even though I didn't hit the 4,000-mile mark, I had some memorable rides last year. My favorites were loops around San Juan and Lopez islands in the Puget Sound and a late summer overnight bicycle ride up to Port Townsend, Washington.

One of my most memorable was the Christmas day ride last week when I tested out my new cycling trou. It snowed, and I don't think I'd bicycled in the snow since I lived in Annapolis.

Mileage logs

I keep track of my mileage on a simple spreadsheet log. There's a copy of the 2008 bicycle log at BikingBis if you want to download. Nothing fancy. It's an Excel file with date, route, weather, comments, mileage, time. Average speed, total time and total miles are computed.

I'm told there's also an easy online mileage log over at Bike Link, as well as Bike Journal.

Picture at top: Bicycle sculpture at Green River (or Interurban) Trail in Kent, Washington.