Good Riding but Not Catching Up

Lots of good things happened over this three-day weekend to allow me to ride more than 75 miles and five hours on the bike. Sadly, it only kept pace with the hours I had spent in the car for the week, as I'm still about five hours behind my cumulative commuting time.

This is okay, because this is not a sprint, but a marathon.

As we finish up January, it's likely that the commute time will be about seven hours longer than my bike riding time (based on what's happened so far).

Doing rough math, when the office moves to the new location, my daily commute time should be shortened by about 40 minutes total. At roughly 18 commutes per month, that's about a 12 hour reduction in commute time for the three year-end months, and maybe 6 hours for September, as it looks we'll be moving the office in early September.

So if I run a 7-hour deficit for 8 months, that's 56 hours through August. Then a 12-hour swing in the bike's favor for the ending three months, and let's hope that September's a wash. That's 36 hours back to the bike, leaving about a 20-hour deficit for the year, holding the January numbers constant during the year.

However, January may or may not be normal in terms of bike riding or commuting.

If I take some vacation days this year, which I fully expect to do, that will help keep the gap close, particularly if I can ride my bike on those days. Also, I anticipate riding in two century rides this year, which will probably take 7 or 8 hours each, if I am lucky, which will help the bike riding time catch up with the commuting time.

I think if I can keep this pie chart looking much like this throughout the winter and into the spring, my chances will be good that I can achieve the goal of riding my bike for more time than I spend commuting to and from work for the year.

Miles ridden in January: 304
Miles commuted in January: 1088