10,000 Miles!

It was a beautiful sunny fall day with a chance to reach 70 degrees, and only the gentlest of winds. Karen volunteered to stoke the tandem to keep me company on my last ride to hit my goal of 10,000 miles for the year. No drama though. It’s not like I had to claw and crawl my way in the last days of the year to hit 10K. Finishing a month and a half early simply reminds me that I set my goal too low, if the idea was to really challenge myself.

That’s not to say I’m done riding for the year. So, if I was ok to exceed my goal of 10 centuries, and hit 25 instead, I guess I could revise my mileage goal too. Maybe I’ll sleep on that.

But today’s ride was wonderful no matter what the occasion. It was a simple route with little chance of a navigation error. Since the plan was to ride exactly 58 miles so that we’d finish right on 10,000 miles, then sticking to my (exactly 58 miles) pre-planned route was essential. Simple enough ... just ride eastbound out into Wayne County to a turn-around point that would route us through Pultneyville on the way home so that we could stop for lunch.
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We had a nice lunch (split a chipotle chicken panini) sitting in the sunshine. The rest of the ride back was as quick and smooth as the outbound leg but we interrupted it once again by stopping at Abbots/Bill Gray’s for ice cream. Karen treated to celebrate the 10K.  We pulled into the driveway at home with the ticker showing 58.20 miles.
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So I reached BOTH of my cycling goals for 2020. Actually, two out of three when I count the Baja, but by that measure, I can say three out of four if my Erie/Mt. Greylock adventure is considered. I guess I’ll have to do better next year.
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My chart looks to have suffered more miles than the bikes.