The 500 Club

On Monday, September 15th, I crossed the 500,000’ of climbing line in 2008. My 76 mile ride generated 5076’ of climbing for a YTD total of 502,863’.

Up until 2007, I usually racked up around 10,000 miles and somewhere between 375,000 and 425,000 feet of climbing. If I ever saw anything as a goal, it was the mileage benchmark. Without really thinking about it, last year I climbed 515,401 vertical feet with 8820 total miles. My Pyrenees trip in June of 2007 is what pushed me over the top.

Well, here it is September 15th, and I have cracked the 500k mark for 2008. Something like 97,000’ of this came from my June trip to Europe, and many more feet from the preparation for the trip. Since it wasn’t a goal, there will be no celebration, and no concentrated rush to see how many more feet I can register with my altimeter.

The focus for me is now quality, not quantity. It just so happens that quality riding for me involves going up and down a lot, but it’s the quality of the experience that matters, not the quantitative result.

Unless I do something about it, and I don’t intend to, 2008 will be the first year for many years where I did not do one single ride of over 100 miles in length. I’m not much of an event guy, so riding organized “Centuries” has never been my thing, but normally I go over 100 miles quite a few times in a given year.

I don’t know where I am with YTD mileage, but I do know the final number will be more determined by the weather and my enthusiasm for riding than anything else.