2013: A Goal-less Year

Here we are, two weeks into the new year. The recent weather's been depressing: foggy, damp, cloudy and grey. I've managed just two bike rides so far this year, and one of them ended in a flat tire.

Just before the flat tire, I was riding an healthy wellness ride at work, and was considering the new year as I reflected upon the last. Last year, every bike ride was important; every ride had meaning. Each minute on the car balanced out a minute I had spent commuting to or from work in my car.

Likewise, I documented each and every trip to and from work in the car. These timekeeping efforts were important as I had made the goal to ride for more time than I commuted. I had a spreadsheet filled with data. I kept pie charts. And it all worked out that my bicycling efforts indeed ended up how I thought it would: I spent more time riding my bike than I spent commuting to and from work in my car.

I had noticed during the year that my new office, being about 15 miles closer to home, really added a predictive quality to my commuting trips. Whereas at the old building, every commute was an adventure. Some mornings I got there in 35 minutes, other times it took over an hour. Going home was the same. Some days were 40 minutes, most were closer to 50, and some were more like two hours.

But here in the new building, since September, my commutes to the office have been very consistent at 26-31 minutes, and my trips home, even during Christmastime, have been between 32-38 minutes (except for one day that took over an hour, but that was I think the one exception). Commutes have been so consistent that I have stopped tracking my trips this year.

So I have no real data. What was a large part of my life last year is now over. It's practically meaningless. And my lack of bike riding has prevented me from enjoying the fun of riding.

Yes, the weather will improve. Yes, my flat tire is fixed. Yes, I'll go on more bike rides. But it appears that I won't need to make any new comparison between riding and bicycling this year. Making a goal of "just have fun" won't cut it because as we all know, every ride is fun for some reason.

And with each day that passes without a ride, I can feel myself sliding back into the complacent world of laziness.

But, if this is the worst of my problems, that means everything else must be pretty good, so I best not complain...