iRide Tue. 17 Sep. 2019

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Riding at running speed

• My outing today was less of a bicycle ride and more of a day out in the countryside by bicycle, ending with a meet & greet with the neighbors to discuss our shared heritage. After I checked the stats on Strava, I realized that my ride distance of 26.29 miles (42.31 kms) was slightly longer than the official marathon distance of 42.195 km (26.22 miles). That's where the comparison has to end.

The current world record for running a marathon is held by Eliud Kipchoge (2h:01m:39s) and the record for a woman is held by Paula Radcliffe (2h:15m:25s). My time for much the same distance by bicycle was a moving time of 2h:53h:02s spread across 3h:45m:24s. My spread time included birdwatching, powerchute-watching, flower photography, and the aforementioned social interaction. I need to focus my efforts if I want to equal the times achieved by runners. It should be achievable. Why, I hear you ask? Because goals. It seems reasonable to me that after a lifetime of aimless under-achievement I might benefit from trying a different tack.

There is a super-abundance of advice about goals to be had on the Internet. As in most super-abundance environments, a lot of it is junk, but it's relatively easy to sort the wheat from the chaff. I demurred on taking the advice from a self-styled guru of self-help to establish an emotional connection with my goals, although in a different context that may be useful advice if taken from a reputable source. The Waterstreet Creative blog offered a down to earth five-step plan for creating strong, SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, geddit?) goals. It seemed that the only thing my goal was missing was a due date: 31 Oct. 2019 then!

A final word: "Step 6-Prepare for the bumps!"


WEATHER report:
*START* 09:23, Clear, 77°F, Feels like 77°F, Cloud: 4%, Humidity 40%, Dewpoint 50°F, Wind 5mph from ↖, 8mph, UV index 2.
*END* 11:36, Clear, 87°F, Feels like 87°F, Cloud: 10%, Humidity 22%, Dewpoint 44°F, Wind 10mph from ↗, 16mph, UV index 6.
*RIDE* feel 82°F, avg. temp. 82°F, avg. feel temp. 82°F.

The forecast was for overcast, but over the valley it was blue skies all the way.


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