My Garmin tells me that I rode 3,675 km in the past 12 months.
Note though that 1300 of those kms were ridden in one month last summer. I blogged about that month here. It was a lovely month that contained both a cycling holiday and the friends for life bike rally.
Note also that that’s outside riding only. I don’t track kms on the trainer.
And I don’t use the Garmin on my bike commutes, partly because I usually commute on a different bike and partly because I’m committed to not using my Garmin on the city’s multi use pathways. I’ll blog about why later.
I’m thinking of setting a distance goal for 2015. How’s 5000 km sound? Maybe 6000? Not sure.
Either way it’s a lot less than these guys plan to ride!
Two men race to beat 76-year-old mileage record
Few individuals are able to ride 75,065 miles on a bike in their lifetime, let alone in 365 days. But this year, two men are trying to do just that.
The Ultra Marathon Cycling Association has decided to bring back a record with a long history — the Highest Annual Mileage Record (HAM’R). The number to beat: 75,065 miles in 365 days, an average of about 205 miles per day.
Two men have been battling toward the record since January, but just recently the race became a bit more interesting. The contenders are 41-year-old Englishman Steven Abraham, who set out to beat the record on January 1, and 52-year-old American Kurt Searvogel — better known as “Tarzan” — who started his attempt shortly after, on January 10
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You can connect with me on Garmin here and on Strava here.
And I’m curious, how far do you ride in a year?
I never know what to aim for! My Garmin tells me that I’ve done 4,256.30 km in the last 365 days, which I’ll share knowing that I am one of the least handy when it comes to getting the thing to work so I’ll round up in my head to 4500. I would like to do more this year than last year — 3700 it says — but I biked my butt off last year and am enjoying running and swimming with my cardio time more than last year, so we’ll see. This spring has certainly been slow to start for a fairweather rider like me!
When I returned to cycling @ 32 yrs., I tracked my annual cumulative mileage for first few years. I was racking around 4,000 – 6,000 kms. annually. Then I didn’t want to be a slave to my numbers so I gradually forgot my cyclometer.
My highest were years (2 in total) when I was unemployed twice, where it was over 7,000 kms in 1 yr. I was in living in Vancouver –a place that allows year round cycling. Each day for nearly 4 months, I was cycling a minimum of 40 km. daily with 65-70 kms. per weekend day.
Last few years probably has been around 2,500 -3,000 km. This yr. it will be lower since I’m still recovering from head injury.
I joke to my partner who cycles and tracks his mileage for last 25 yrs. that he is like a used car. He has a Excel spreadsheet. He has surpassed 170,000 km. now.. He’s done several cross-continental solo trips across North America, New Zealand and “lesser” trips in Europe.
The above mileage is also possible and real if you live a car-free life like we do.
I didn’t have a bike computer last year, but I was ticking along at about 4000 km a year for the 4 years previous. My commute is a bit shorter than in used to be, though.
I usually ride around 5000 km a year (plus other sports). I don’t have any goals for it — I just like bike rides and bike commuting. I recently moved from a place that easily accommodates year-round cycling to a place that gets a lot of snow on the ground, but I’d unwittingly prepared for that a few years ago, by getting a rowing machine at home. I somehow morphed into a princess that is annoyed by wet-bike maintenance and containment, so the machine can tide me over on winter days when I just “can’t even,” as the kids say. Last year I only rode about 3500 km, but I put around 900 km on my rowing machine over the winter. (I still need the outside time, though, so I’ve been walking and hiking through the winter.)
Last year, the first year I’ve ever tracked my kms, I logged 3,315.8 kms, although I know I rode more than that because I often forgot to turn on my Strava. So far this year, I’ve ridden 1,732.7 kms so I’ll easily beat last year’s total and I’m pretty excited about that. Most of this is commuting topped off with as many mountain bike rides as I can squeeze in. I haven’t yet figured out the ratio, but I may do that at the end of this year. Pretty sure I won’t hit 75,000 kms in my lifetime, but that’s ok with me. Quality, not quantity 🙂