The Last Ride

It's official.

With our first snowfall, I'm officially marking the end of my outdoor cycling for the year. Though my last ride was Monday, November 8, I did hold out hope that I would be able to squeeze one more ride out of the season.

This year will go down as a record for the number of rides I've done in a single season. I didn't actually count the number of rides that I've done, but I probably could if I wanted to. Thanks to my virtual journeys that I've done this year—and continue to do—every ride has been recorded through The Conqueror Virtual Challenges app.

I first got on my road bike in mid to late April and rode it at least three times each week; sometimes, I rode as many as five times in a week. Even when I was riding with the Ottawa Bicycle Club, I would only ride twice a week, and not every week.

It's a record year for distance travelled on my bike, too. Again, thanks to The Conqueror app, the distances have been tallied and I'm proud to say that I clocked 2,775.5 kms on my road bike. I can't help but feel good about that.

I've already started planning rides for next year, as soon as the roads are clear of snow and debris. I want to cycle to a friend's house, which is out near Plantagenet. I had already plotted it out, this year, but never found a weekend to make the trek.

I also want to cycle to Oxford Mills and Burritts Rapids, but so far it's a 111-km trek and I'm trying to limit myself to 100K rides because I find my body suffers when I exceed this limit (my longest ride, this year, was 89.05 kms). We'll see how I feel when I get back on my bike.

Until then, I'm back to using my spin bike. I'm approaching the two-thirds mark of my Route 66 trek, and I'm averaging about 30K or so each day.

So it's farewell, for now, to my road bike. Let's hope for an early spring.