Closing another volume
The 2006-07 cycling year has come to a close, and most of the news is bad.
Looking back, my knees bothered me all year, even keeping me off the bike for three weeks in June and July. Although I had a great ride during this year's PMC, I was off the bike for another three weeks in August, getting my rear wheel replaced (under warranty) after it tried to self-destruct during the ride.
The prior year, I accumulated a record 4,600 miles in the saddle, thanks in part to riding the Boston Brevet Series 200k and the 16-mile commute out to Woburn. At the end of the year, I gave myself a big offseason rest, and took a job with a mere 2-mile commute. Then I started training late, and I couldn’t ride any brevets this year.
All that adds up to a lot less mileage this year. In fact, this year I rode just 2,300 miles. That’s exactly half what I rode in 2005-06, and only 200 miles short of being my lowest mileage total since I started cycling seriously back in 2000.
Not that the news is all bad. I had a fabulous early-season ride through Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas on a rented Cannondale Synapse, and the weather for the PMC ride was-yet again, and despite my pessimism- absolutely perfect. I also got a bunch of interesting new equipment this year: two new LED headlights, Slipstreamz noise reducers, a new pocket digital camera for use on the bike, insulated water bottles, Specialized Armadillo tires, and of course the brandy new Ultegra rear wheel.
But the biggest news of the year has to be my fundraising. The previous year I set a new record, raising $6,360; this year I blew that record out of the water, raising an absolutely unbelievable $10,190 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. So I’ve raised as much in the past two years as I did in the previous five years combined, and that brings my total fundraising over seven years to $32,615. I’m very proud to be able to have that kind of impact on the fight against cancer, and I owe more thanks than I can possibly express to all of this year’s record six dozen sponsors.
So what are next year’s goals? I dunno. I think the the first order of business is to figure out what’s up with my knees. After that, repeat the PMC, and maybe I’ll think about the 200k and 300k brevets. I might even do the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage, if circumstances allow. But really, with the knees giving me trouble, I have no idea even what I’m capable of, so no firm predictions this year, other than I’ll be back for my eighth Pan-Mass Challenge, which I’m very much looking forward to!