2015: Year in Review

First, a few numbers:

15,439 miles

1,026 hours

832,562 feet

1 ride across the country

1 Everest

94 centuries

1 double century

2 centuries in new states

By far, the highlight of the year was Petoji. That was a goal that was 10 years in the making and taught me a lot about riding and life in general. 15,439 is a new PR as a yearly mileage total. That wasn't necessarily a goal, but just happened because of Petoji and the training involved beforehand. 832,652 feet is also a new record, but mainly because of the increased mileage. I did more feet/mile in both 2014 and 2013.

94 centuries is an interesting number. I didn't realize I was so close to 100 for the year. (I just counted them all up today.) 100 would have been a nice, round number and was certainly attainable. Oh well.

2015 was a great year, and in many ways was the best year I've ever had on the bike. Much of that was inspired by 2014, which was the worst year I ever had. I'm sure there's a life lesson in there somewhere. Meanwhile, I'm just happy to be healthy enough to do what I want to do. Make the most of it while you can.

Here's hoping for more in 2016.

Week 52

Date
December 29, 2015

Distance
101 miles

Strava Link
Week 52

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
It snowed a little bit overnight and Tuesday was my only day off this week, so I headed out to Yuba City for clear roads and a little extra warmth. On one hand I feel like a wimp for avoiding the weather, but on the other hand there's a reason I live in Reno, right? Might as well take advantage of being able to drive somewhere warmer.

This was the Bike Around the Buttes route, which was a pretty good one. It starts out on empty farm roads and eventually makes a big loop around the Buttes. The one negative is that it's super flat, but I don't mind that too much this time of year.

The one hill of the day

The sun was out all day and it felt warmer than the high of 50 that the weather graph shows. A lot of people out there have orange trees in their yards. It would have been so nice to just ride by and grab an orange, but I resisted the temptation.

Week 52 is in the books, which means that the mission is accomplished. I was able to ride a century every week. It feels good to be back on track and I will definitely be back in 2016 to give it another go. Later this week I'll post a recap of 2015 and a preview of 2016.

Week 51

Date
December 21, 2015

Distance
103 miles

Strava Link
Week 51

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
Enough cold weather. I wimped out and flew to Orlando for a few days of riding. The weather was great and you can read more about it on the Century in 50 States blog. If you didn't know, one of my long-term goals is to ride a century in all 50 states. Florida was a new state for me (I've ridden there a little before, but never a century) and brought my total up to 26 states.

A change of scenery

This year was kind of a slow year for me with only 2 new states, but I put that project on the back burner to ride across the country. I only got one new state out of the Petoji route, believe it or not. One of my goals in 2016 will be to ride at least 5 new states. I haven't done any riding in the northeast, so in theory I could do 5 states in 1 week without much traveling.

Week 50

Date
December 15, 2015

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 50

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
We got a lot of snow on Sunday and I was worried that this ride wasn't going to happen. The roads were absolutely terrible Sunday night and there were still areas of ice on Monday morning. Ever since I crashed in February 2014 I've been a lot more hesitant to ride when there may be ice. Monday was cloudy and cold, but it was just good enough to help the roads clear up a little bit.

Tuesday was cold, but the sun was out for most of the day, so it ended up being a relatively pleasant ride. I started out doing loops in Sparks, just to be sure I was riding on clear roads. After about 50 miles of that, things seemed warm enough to venture out towards Pyramid Lake.

Clear low, snow high

The snow had melted in the valley, but there was plenty of snow left in the higher elevations. Pyramid Highway was fine, so I probably should have ridden out to Pyramid Lake from the start. No big deal, though. As long as I got a good ride in without crashing I'm willing to call it a good day.

I'm off from the 20th to the 23rd next week, and I plan on getting out of Reno for a while. I haven't decided where to go yet, but it will definitely be somewhere warm.

Week 49

Date
December 12, 2015

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 49

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
It looks like we're going to have a real winter this year. It seems like there is a storm every week now. We had snow on Thursday and Sunday is expected to be windy and snowy, so I headed out on Saturday for a ride out to Pyramid Lake. Things started out great. The sun was out and it felt warm for morning time. It looked like it was going to be a great day.

Pyramid Lake

As I got closer to Pyramid Lake the clouds came out and it started to feel cold. After I made it to Pyramid Lake it started to snow a little bit. So much for a nice, sunny day. It wasn't that bad, though. The snow didn't accumulate and I made it home with no problems.

Today I passed 15,000 miles for the year, which is a new high for me. I usually do between 10,000-12,000 miles per year. It's been a good year, but it's not over yet. There are still 3 weeks to go, and the way the weather has been so far I can tell they won't be easy.

Week 48

Date
December 5, 2015

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 48

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
I did a simple out-and-back, mostly on 395. It wasn't as cold as last week, so things didn't feel too bad. I've been able to keep my hands and feet warm, which is the big key to happiness.

Week 47

Date
November 29, 2015

Distance
101 miles

Strava Link
Week 47

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
It was a cold day out there. I considered driving to Sacramento for a little extra warmth but decided against it. I haven't done a real winter ride in a while, so I haven't really earned the right to wimp out just yet. Instead, I drove down to Genoa to do 6 loops of about 17 miles each. This meant I was always close to the car in case I needed more clothes.

The cold wasn't actually bothering me that much, probably because there wasn't any wind. The bigger problem was that I felt very, very slow. I felt like I was riding under water or something. I was pushing hard, but not getting anywhere. That's winter for you. The air is more dense, the clothes are less aerodynamic, and the body is in worse shape.

After the ride I saw a few deer at the park in Genoa.

Week 46

Date
November 21, 2015

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 46

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
Happy Thanksgiving. I know I wish I was faster, could travel more, and had a nicer bike, but I do have a lot to be thankful for. I'm healthy enough to be out there riding, and that's more than a lot of people can say. Let's make the most out of it.

Moon

Week 45

Date
November 14, 2015

Distance
103 miles

Strava Link
Week 45

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Report 
This was probably my last trip out to Tahoe for the year. The weather was nice, so I did the climb up 50 and went back home through Virginia City.

There was a little bit of snow in the mountains, but nothing like what was coming just a few weeks later.