I’m still recovering from an unexpected 100 km ride yesterday.
When I do not ride longer distances, I start to doubt myself. I went out yesterday hoping to improve from the previously longest ride in 2023, which was 55 km. My hope was for a 70 km ride, as I assumed I was unfit.
If I plan to ride a long way, I normally go deep south with a pit stop at Holmes Chapel Costa. Yesterday’s ride was without a pit stop, i.e. no coffee and bacon butty.
My wife and kids bought me an Apple Watch a few years back. This really came in handy from 80 to 100 km as I rode on local roads to get to 100 km.
This is my third bike. The first was a right-off after a head-on collision with a car, which pulled in front of me from a side lane. When I bought the Giant, I sold the second bike.
My riding history
I started riding when I turned 46 and next month, I will celebrate my 55th birthday. Strava has been an amazing companion over the years, and when they were struggling to generate sufficient revenues, I decided to become a paid customer. The free version is more than adequate for my needs.
This year has been a slow year for me, only clocking 633.6 km against the annual target of 4,000 km.
In 2016, the best year so far, I rode 85 rides covering 3,813.9 km.
The number of rides is also significantly lower this year.
Since starting back in 2014, I have scored 18 centuries (100 km rides) with the longest being 126 km.
The question now is what would my 2023 performance be, given the very slow start to the year. Could I pass 2,000 km as 3,000 km looks near impossible?