Quote Originally Posted by Catrin View Post
I remember my first year cycling, which was 2010. I had just learned to ride and convinced myself that a 200K brevet that fall was just the ticket for me! I focused on getting as many miles as I could, I even started to ride metric centuries most every weekend. Now, my body wasn't ready for all of that, and instead of riding the brevet as planned, by that date I was off the bike entirely for close to 6 months due to over-use injuries. Due to that, and mountain bike injuries the following year...well, I will likely never meet the miles I rode that first year and that is OK!

Now that I can no longer ride at full capacity (if I ever really did) I focus on the joy of riding. I do look at my numbers at the end of a ride but don't even bother to write them down. My bike computer tells me my seasonal miles, and I do use it to keep my cadence in a knee-friendly range. I really enjoyed my "simple" hour long ride yesterday - and at one time I would have been very frustrated at not being able to spend 3-6 hours on the bike, but you know, that is ok! I do other things as well, and focus on over-all fitness and doing what I can. THAT is what matters.
I didn't set a mileage goal this year. I was sort-of hoping to do 2000, but I knew that between an unhappy knee, schoolwork, work (weekends and random days during the week) and a cross-country move, I'd be very lucky to get near that. So I "focused" on riding when I could, for however long I thought my knee could handle, usually 15-20 miles. By the way, the unhappy knee? Brought on by riding too much without other activities to balance it out. Just have fun.