2014: My Cycling By The Numbers

2014: By the Numbers

This post may be considered a follow-up to my previous post, (LINK) , but takes a look at the numbers a bit more closely. Geeks, enjoy.

So, where do I begin? I'll start with my miles, month by month. With a few exceptions, my months fall into two ranges: ~700-800, or somewhere around 300 miles. The 700-800 range included a five month streak, while the 300 group includes four months (five if you sufficiently stretch the definition of 300.) That leaves two months with little riding, January and February. As I recall, there were some "meteorological concerns" that kept me off the bike last winter, which explains those two months. The other parts of the year follow typical patterns for most riders in this area; March through June mileage ramps up, July and August maintain that level, and then in September we see a distinct decline in my time on the bike. For 2014, December is something of an anomaly, as I neared the year's end I chased a few goals which increased my mileage for that month. My number of rides per month saw a similar pattern. Obviously, that ought to correspond loosely to my mileage I suppose.

I find it interesting that for a four month run my ride number was virtually identical, 20-21. The two months with the highest number of rides (April and May) however, are surprisingly only the fourth and fifth highest in mileage. The month following those four my number of rides then dropped about 30% while the number of miles remained near-constant. I suppose that can be explained by my streak of 100-mile rides noted in the previous blog.

I've looked at miles per month and number of rides per month, now let's consider the average miles per ride (m/r). A perfect example of why one needs a significant sample size is demonstrated in the first two months of the year. While February has the lowest m/r, as may be expected, my one foray out onto the road in January gave that month the honor of having (by a fair margin) the highest m/r for 2014. I'll just consider January a statistical anomaly and leave it at that. Seven months of the year my m/r was quite consistent, ranging from about 33 to 37 miles, even while the number of rides for those months varied from 8 to 21. The remaining months in the heart of summer my m/r jumped up to 42 to 57 miles. The 42 seems pretty reasonable, while the 57 m/r in August is easily explained by the five centuries I rode that month.

Now let's look at the year's totals. That big number down at the bottom? 5800? Very pleased with that. Almost 500 more than my previous best year. Next column: almost 336 hours on the bikes. That really doesn’t sound like so much. 14 day’s worth. 14 out of 365...nearly 4% of the year. I guess I really didn’t spend so much time as I thought on the bikes. Another way to look at it...over eight 40-hour work weeks. Two working months. Yeah, I guess that’s a pretty fair amount. Now, let’s skip over Avg Speed and move on to Number of Rides. 146. Roughly 12 per month. For every 10 days, I rode 4. Not unreasonable. So...on average, for every five days, I’d ride two times, for a distance of almost 40 miles, and 2hrs and 18min each ride. That means for each and every day of the year, I averaged nearly 16 miles.

Maximums. Really the only comment I have for that grouping at the lower right of the chart above is regarding the most miles in a month. 899.60. Had I known at that month's end I was just a loop around the block from 900, I most certainly would have done just that. But alas, by the time I'd logged that last ride of June, I was off the bike, showered, and enjoying a beer. So now my best month ever stands 4/10 of a mile shy of 900.

What's remaining to relate now? Ah, the miles ridden on each bike. Four listings there, although "Other" encompasses multiple bikes. As is obvious, "Other" had the least number of miles, with nearly 2/3 of those miles on just one ride. The other miles for Other are mostly from leading running events, or barhopping. My road bike (actually, all my bikes are road bikes since I almost never venture off-road) had the highest mileage total with 2404, accounting for 41% of my year's riding. The lowest mileage total of the big three bikes was my TT bike, with a quarter of my year’s miles. This bike, not surprisingly, had the fastest average speed of all them. I say "not surprisingly" because this is the bike on which I compete. And last, but definitely not least, is my fixed gear. This bike went into the month of December behind my TT bike in miles, but all 333 miles in that month were on the fixed, giving that bike the second most miles for the year. Not so much by plan or design, but largely because with the weather turning colder and wetter, due to the simpler mechanical nature of that bike it just makes more sense for me to ride it. Fewer parts to lube, clean, repair, etc. By the end of the month the bike was a filthy mess, but still running like a top.

I could continue looking at and analyzing these data, but I’m sure you're already sufficiently bored. As always, thanks for reading...and I’ll see you next time.