Starting off the New Year right

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The snow-covered Olympic Mountains — about 70 miles away as the eagle flies — and Lake Washington provide a scenic backdrop for these cyclists out for a bike ride New Year's morning.

Lots of bicyclists hit the road in the Seattle area on Saturday in spite of temperatures that hovered around 30 degrees all morning.

Possibly they're fulfilling New Year's resolutions. I spoke to one rider who said she got the “old horse” out and plans to ride more this year.

If you are planning to ride more in 2011, it is a good idea to set a goal at the beginning of the year.

When I vowed to ride 4,000 miles in 2008, I divided that amount across 12 months so I could keep track of  how much riding I had to do on a monthly basis. When I fell behind the first couple of months, I kicked the riding up a couple of notches in the spring, summer and fall and just barely hit my goal.

In 2009, with no goal, I didn't even eke out 2,500 miles. Same story last year, although I made it to 3,500 miles. That's why I'm going to set the 4,000-mile goal again for 2011.

I knocked out the first 15.5 miles today; only 3,984.5 to go.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2011/01/01/starting-off-the-new-year-right/