There are so many statements you can make about setting goals, but at the end of the day it comes down to one thing. You don't achieve goals if you don't have them.

Last year, on the logs, I have right around 2841 kilometers logged. When I started cycling over the winter, I decided to set a specific distance goal. At the time, I had no aspirations of racing or really getting faster, just to ride more. So, I set a goal for getting 10,000 kilometers in 2006. That's a lot of kilometers for a guy who had not really cycled long distance before last year. I set complimentary goals of 2,500 km per quarter. Here's how we're doing so far:

July - December, 2005: 2841.6 (53 rides)
Jan 1-Mar 31: 3,383.96 km (65 rides)
Apr 1-Jun 30: 3,821.74 km (57 rides)

So far, 2006: 7205.7

So, since I started logging my rides on July 7 of last year, to today's date, I'm over 10,000km! I'm just really stoked about reaching that milestone. If I finish off the year around 14,000km, I'll be happy. Let's hope we escape the rest of the season injury free.

Next year, I'll move from distance to time based goals and plan on starting real race training for Tour de Kunisaki.

 I think of all the routes I've done long distance so far, this route is my favorite. It has a monster climb right in the middle of it, but everything else is ok/kinda tame. The elevation profile looks something like this: (right click, and select "view image" to get full size)


It was fantastic weather for a ride today and the overall ride experience was just great.  I hydrated wonderfully for the first 5 hours-ish of the ride.  Then the heat really kicked in on the city streets around Kudamatsu and I was sucking down water at the "cyclic" rate.  By the time I got to Oshima Bridge, I was definitely feeling it.  I wasn't really "spent", but I knew I was going to make it home with plenty of time to spare before work so I stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed an ice cream cone and some cool water.  Then I took a 22km recovery pace back to Iwakuni (even though I still averaged a good 30-32kph al the way home).  There were some sections coming over the climb that I had to hop off and walk for a bit, but nothing too long, 10 meters or so at best.

The route map has been added to the cycleiwakuni map lists here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/routemap.php?id=14

I also added the GPX file for the route here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/GPX/chugoku188.gpx

My bottom bracket and drivetrain were making some serious noise on the way home.  Going to look at those tomorrow before I hopefully ride again on Saturday.  The weather is looking like rain all the way through the weekend right now.  Yuck!

Avg HR: 150, Max HR: 179
Distance: 187.83 km
Time: 06:24:26
Avg. Speed: 29.315 kph
Pace: 2:03 min/km
Start Time: 6:00:00 AM
Non-riding Time: 00:42
Finish Time: 13:06

Took another rider out today to show him some routes. I really love the ridge ride, but still waiting for the second half of it to get repaired down in Zenitsuboyama. So, he took his Gary Fisher MTB and I on my Specialized FSRxc and we did the first half of the route so I could show him where the entrances to the Koshojiyama Green Park roads are. The roads up there are great for training and getting into cycling. Lots of 15+% grades and some gorgeous scenery. Temperatures are climbing and the hills are much cooler than the coastline.

On a good note, I met two more riders. We'll do a 50km ride on Saturday morning. Here's the stats from today:

Distance: 26.8 km
Time: 1:22:00
Avg. Speed: 19.610 kph

Avg HR - 121
Max HR - 165

I'm posting my HR zones on the side so folks can compare the Avg HR to see exertion levels.

Distance: 53.90 km
Time: 01:41:06
Avg. Speed: 31.988 kph
Pace: 1:53 min/km

This was one of my worst rides of the season. I felt like total garbage. The humidity was crazy and my heart rate was just simply out of control. I averaged a high 168 for the ride. (BTW: my LTHR is 175, Max HR around 190ish, resting HR 46). By the time I got the tailwind for the return trip, I'd used all my fuel in my body. Need to start eating better again if I want to start adding distance back on. I use Joe Friel's HR training zones (http://www2.trainingbible.com/) and for this ride I was in zone 5 (above LTHR) for over 18 minutes. With only an average speed of 31.988, that's CRAZY.

I need to stick to the flats a little the next couple weeks. With Chris in town, the mountains and I have had much time together. Need to get some hammer work in on the flats. This week I'll do my century down and around Oshima which will give me some good hammer time with a small handful of hills.

Here goes a shot at starting another blog.

How many blogs are started every year, maybe even week, that aren't carried through? I know this will make my third - perhaps fourth.

This will primarily be a cycling journal, how I felt, and what I saw while I was out riding. I'm an avid road cyclist now, though I only started road cycling around a year ago. Since that time I've just barely crested 10,000 km (or at least I will by the 1 year mark on my training logs). My goal for this calendar year was 10,000 km, but I'm already at around 7,000. Next year I may have to readjust the goal, but next year I think I'll start training specifically for racing instead of distances.

I own a 2005 Roubaix Elite. It was originally a triple. I changed out to a double in April with 53/39x12/25. I just ordered a new back wheel that's going to have a 12x23 on it specifically for the flats. I feel like I'm missing something right at around the middle on the big ring. It seems odd to say that, but I spin at around 100-105 rpm. And the jump from 19t (35.2-37kph) to 17t (39.4-41.3) is huge for me. the 18t will give me the middle of those at 37.2-39kph. I'll ride it pretty much specifically for flats or days I really want the pain in the legs on the hills. There are some grades here in Japan where I won't be able to survive without the 25t.

Finally, I'll link this to my main page at http://www.cycleiwakuni.com so that it's just one more chance for the good ol' GoogleBot to hit the page and bring more cyclists to the awareness of other cyclists in Iwakuni.