500 so far!
It’s not an April Fool’s joke, I’ve actually ridden 500km already this year! 505.1km to be exact.
The ride that put me past 500km so far in 2023!
This is a big milestone for me given it is just shy of 1/3 all of what I rode last year. I didn’t start riding until mid-May in 2022, for a variety of reasons, and yet with the start of an overwhelming teaching contract and a New Year’s Day move to settle in to, I’ve found a way to make it happen this year.
For regular readers (hello!) you’ll know I have a good reason to be riding. I’m gearing up for the BC Tour de Cure ride in August where I’ll attempt to cycle 260km around the Fraser Valley over two days. With the help of some very generous family (and one very generous friend!) I have already raised $930 of my $2500 goal! You can join the team supporting me here (thanks in advance!).
What has gotten me out on the road this year compared to last year? Well, the riding I did do in 2022 for one thing. Returning to the coast in 2021 meant I could push the riding season longer (or go all year as many people reminded me…) and I made some friends who helped push me out for rides into the fall. My new friend Chris, for one, and the Van Island Bikepack Collective’s summer rides were good motivators, and it’s always more fun to ride with people, especially around areas you don’t know that well. I also got really into watching cyclocross racing - if they can race in those conditions I can go for a ride on a cloudy day!
Probably the biggest thing was the new bike I got at the beginning of the year. It was my self-reward for getting a teaching contract (though I got the bike just a bit before actually getting the contract!) and I knew I needed to use it as much as I could. I’m not someone who likes to train, that motivation is just not in my system, but having a new toy to play with really changes things. It has taken a while to get used to the new, bigger frame, adding or changing some parts, and though it may not be 100% quite yet it is feeling lots of fun to ride as my rides get longer. Moving to a place one house down from a multi-use rail trail really helped too!
The weather also plays a big factor for me. Though I now have marginally decent rain gear and lights, I so much more prefer riding in the sunshine and the warmth. The time change has done wonders for my emotions, generally, as well as my motivation to go out exploring. Now I want to go out and try all the routes I made while sitting in the dark over winter!
To recap the first 500, I bought the bike and started riding a bit in January. The cold rides after holiday COVID and not-set-up bike geometry made this a bit less comfortable than I’d like, but I got things to a place where I commuted to work in February for winter Go By Bike Week!
My commute is a short one (every KM counts, right?) but has some nice options through some parks. These 15-minute rides jumped to my first 50km ride of the year in February as Chris dragged me around the traditional Cedar loop! My legs were dead! I don’t want to always blame the legs, so let’s blame the sudden dumps of snow we had for the rest of the month for not riding for three weeks after that...
March saw a strong but also somewhat ignominious return to the bike for what I’m considering the real start of my riding season. I was able to join the VIBC’s first campout of the year to French Beach…where I immediately froze in my -12 sleeping back and got sick and ended up on the couch for 8 days over what was supposed to be a productive Spring Break. The ride was still fun, two days of 50km rides along the coast and catching up with old friends at the rather cushy campsite. I also got out for some of my regular E&N Trail rides, did a 60km exploration around Cedar, and rode around Seal Bay with my cousin Brad (and yes, we did see seals!).
There’s a lot more I need to do to get ready for the August ride, but thankfully still a fair amount of time. Consistency is probably the most important, as is stretching around my rides (how do I always forget that?), and I’m excited to see what the spring has in store for more fun on the bike. I’ve got lots more fun routes planned than I can probably find time to do, but here’s hoping my legs stay strong and I get out as much as I can!
