2555

I doubt whether anyone is going to guess the significance of the number 2555 to me even if I provide a hint. For those inclined to try, rather than spilling the answer right off I have included it after the jump. The number isn’t my PIN or the balance in my savings account. It is the approximate distance between Bremerton and Youngstown, Ohio, but that would only be important if I were going there. However, “distance” or more specifically “miles” is a good hint.

Simply put 2555 miles was my goal for the number of biking miles I wanted to ride in 2011. This seemingly unbalanced total breaks out as riding (or at least averaging) 7 miles per day times 365 days. Last year I came close but wound up about 80 miles short. Earlier this week I reached the goal—with a couple of weeks left in the year. If I had headed east on January 1st and somehow had been able to cross the Rocky Mountains, I would be in Youngstown by now.

I don’t keep a daily log of miles ridden, but I do note monthly totals. To meet the goal means riding between 200 and 220 miles per month. Every month. Good weather months and bad weather months. I ride a few more miles per month during the summer, but I seldom dip below 200 miles per month no matter what season it is.

If you like to ride longer distances (say 25 miles and up), keeping up a 7-mile daily average is no big deal. Two rides per week would do it. But that’s not my approach. Except for a couple of 20-mile rides along the Hood Canal in August, almost every ride I took was between 6 and 9 miles. So the 2555-mile goal was met by taking hundreds of short daily rides. You can do that if you are retired.

So where did I go on all of those daily rides? Most were close to home—Rocky Point and West Bremerton, around Kitsap Lake, along Chico Way. My other favorite places to ride include Port Orchard’s Beach Drive and the Hood Canal’s North Shore Road. When I’m at Treasure Island, the Grapeview Loop Road makes a great local bike route—good scenery, light traffic, manageable hills.

I haven’t set a goal yet for 2012, a leap year, although it likely won’t be an 8-mile daily average. Perhaps 2562 miles would be good goal. That way I would end up east of Youngstown and almost into Pennsylvania.