After spending 2010 and most of 2011 ramping up to attempt Paris-Brest-Paris, 2012 seems like a down year for my cycling. Shoulder surgery, some lower back degeneration, and iron deficiency anemia slowed me down compared to prior years. Nevertheless I managed to continue my streak of completing at least one 200 km ride every month for the third year in a row. As a result I earned another RUSA R-12 award. It's special to me because for many years I had a goal of cycling at least one century ride/month for 12 consecutive months and was never able to pull it off. Once I began doing Randonneuring rides I have not missed a month. Now it's kinda like my not drinking except it's one month at a time instead of one day at a time.
I didn't really keep track of my mileage but estimate I rode about 6,000 miles in 2012. Most folks would consider that a lot but compared to prior years it's not nearly as many miles. 2010 was just over 10,000 and 2011 was about 8,000.
The fact that I crashed out of PBP after about 1050 km still bothers me. I want to complete a 1200 km ride and 2013 looks like a good opportunity. I won't be coaching TNT cyclists until the fall so I am setting my sights on the Shenandoah 1200 in June. This is a ride that starts in northern Virginia, heads up to Gettysburg, then heads down the Blue Ridge mountains to Mt Airy, NC. Then it turns around and head back up to northern Virginia. It's no doubt a hard ride but if I train smart from January through May I should be able to complete it. At any rate that's my main goal for 2013.
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