I reached my cycling goal today...

[tulip]

Overseas tours have that effect. Congratulations!

[PamNY]

Congratulations. That's very impressive.

[Crankin]

I am not sure if I am stronger. Stronger for some things, maybe. I don't have to use my granny gear as much on some hills, but if it's near the end of a ride, that wipes me out and hurts my knee. I guess not using my granny to get up Strawberry Hill is an accomplishment. I used to think it was really hard... before I moved to a street with a bigger hill! I did more 40-60 mile rides, consistently, and that made a difference. But, I have a different attitude. It's mostly been fun, with little emphasis on speed, although at the peak of the season, my speed was up where it was 3 years ago, which is fine for me. I did about 10-15 club rides and was able to hang with the faster group, but they are not fast by most club standards... we're too social.
Yes, the tour helped, but it wasn't a tour with huge mileage-- just about 30-40 miles a day for 8 days. Just hard climbing! Unlike last year, I didn't do a lot of errands on my Jamis, which counted for about 300 of my miles in 09. It was just too hot to be running around to farm stands and bakeries when it was 95 out.

[redrhodie]

But, I have a different attitude. It's mostly been fun, with little emphasis on speed, although at the peak of the season, my speed was up where it was 3 years ago, which is fine for me.

I noticed this. When you stopped worrying about speed, your ride reports got more positive.

It's really hard to not be concerned about speed when you're geared that way (pun intended ).

[OakLeaf]

Yay! Sounds like a great year and there's still six weeks left.

[alpinerabbit]

My first thought - so now you're quitting?

[Bike Chick]

Awesome, Crankin! The year's not over yet

[Crankin]

No, I am not quitting. This weekend looks to be great weather, high 50s. I'll probably ride Friday a bit, too. My cold tolerance has gone way up; although Hirakikubou wisely convinced me not to ride tomorrow at 6 AM. It's going to be 25 degrees and although I was willing to try the temperature, there's still a few residual puddles from the rains we've had. Not many, but since my friend broke his hip last March from riding through a shallow puddle that was really black ice, I tend to be wary.
I probably won't bring the road bike inside for the trainer until after Thanksgiving or so. I tend to get the Jamis out if there's sunny days after that, and the roads are OK, but around here, it's dicey. We might have a year without a lot of snow, but even then the roads can be full of mud, slush, salt on the shoulders. I don't have a winter bike and right now I am starting to look get antsy about x country skiing.