With a 10-mile virtual ride in the basement yesterday afternoon, I have now ridden more miles than any other year. Added bonus? It’s still October. The key was a strong offseason, which was mostly made possible by a combination of regular morning meetings coupled with a nice trainer, and no major interruptions (sickness, injury, family stuff, etc.). The ultimate goal is to hit 5000 for the year. Sounds like a lot, but I have friends who are already past that, but baby steps… There’s 67 days (including today) left in the year and I’ve got 1086 miles to ride = 16.2 miles per day. I’ve only averaged 13.1 for the year, but the difference between 13 and 16 is negligible so I’m pretty confident I’ve got this.

I was hoping to go for a run today and also announce that I’d run more miles than last year (199), but my knee is a bit tight, I have a pair of races out of town this weekend, and I know better. Besides, I have 67 days to run 3 miles. I won’t get that given my run rate of the past month, but I’m pretty sure I can fit it in.

If you’re looking to track your mileage, there’s a few tools of the trade. I’m a huge data geek and love competition so I’ve found Strava pushing data to Veloviewer to be for me. If you’re not looking to virtually compete, Mapmyride and Mapmyrun are what I tell people.

Where do I go from 5000 miles assuming I get it? 100 miles a week (5200)? 15 miles a day (5475)? 6000? 20 miles a day (7300)? 7500? 10,000? On my side this coming offseason and year is Zwift and my fancy new trainer, which makes indoor riding (beat the weather and save time) far more palatable and worthwhile thanks to the electronically adjustable resistance and power meter. I’m thinking I’ll just get into a rhythm and see what happens; 5000 this year wasn’t a goal I kind of fell into, and after years of this stuff I think that’s the healthiest way to approach things.