fbpx

227km … er… no make that 198km

At the beginning of the year I set myself a few cycling goals and the one I most wanted to achieve was 6,000km, or 500km every month of the year. There were other goals that I’ve failed to do such as managing to ride my first Imperial Century or the challenge to do at least one 100km ride each month of the year. So the 6,000km one is the only one I’ve got left that I can still put a tick next too – if I make it!

As of this morning, I had 227km to go and after the last couple of months, I’m starting to get a touch nervous about getting there. November and December have turned out to be very tough to get much riding in. Busy with work, sick children, bad weather, at least a month of children waking us up 3-4 nights a week – it’s just not been happening for cycling. If I didn’t manage to get out today it’d also have been 3 of the last 4 weekends with 0km cycling.

This weekend both of my kids have been sick, one with a cold, one with a fever and it’s been chucking it down with rain most of the time too, just to add to the fun factor. I cancelled a social ride with a friend this morning because the weather was awful early on and I needed to look after my sick son whilst my wife got some jobs done later in the morning.

Fortunately the rain disappeared and there was a small gap in the family schedule this afternoon – so I rode for just over an hour and brought the total needed down to 198km. In all reality this is three decent rides between now and the end of the year, balanced against Christmas, my wife’s birthday, visiting family, more illnesses etc, etc, etc.

The last couple of months have been a good reminder of the challenges of family life and cycling. It’s not a complaint – I’m really happy with the life I have and ultimately it’s not going to matter if I don’t hit the target – it’ll still have been a pretty good year on my bike.

However, sometimes cycling falls out of the equation for one reason or another and you just feel like you’re battling to stand still or not fall behind. We all have those moments and I hope you don’t mind me sharing this one.

I have one of the three rides I need planned already, which is great and I’m hoping for a couple of dry days to get the other two in. Last year, my last ride of the year was very wet and very windy and not much fun at all. I hope I make it so I can tick off one of my 2013 goals because I’m about to write the 2014 ones.

Thanks for reading and happy riding to you between now and the end of the year.