It's been one year to the day since I did my last bike rally, in Waxahachie, Texas. (The word "last," here, means both "most recent" and "final.") Some of you may recall my avowed goal of doing 1,000 bike rallies. I ended up with 576. Oh, sure, I could have kept going and accomplished my goal, but when I compared the weekly grind of bike rallies with the alternative of riding from my house several times a week and staying just as fit, I decided to give up the rallies. Don't think for a moment that I've slowed down, however. Just the opposite: I'm riding more than ever. (Well, not quite. This year will be my second-best year in 35, mileage wise.) In the past year, I have ridden my bike 148 times, which is an average of once every 2.4 days. I've pedaled 4,540.7 miles, which is an average of 12.44 miles per day and 87.0 miles per week. My resting heart rate is in the low to mid-40s, which means I'm in great shape. (The lowest heart rate I've seen in the past 30 years is 42.)
Although I liked bike rallies in some respects, or even many respects, there were things about them that I never liked and that became tiresome. First, I had to rise insanely early every Saturday from March to November, sometimes as early as 4:00. Second, there were long drives, often in the dark, to get to the rallies, and then long drives to get back home. This is dangerous as well as expensive. Third, I had to pay a fee to ride. Some rally fees had reached $40, and one was an outrageous $50. I pay nothing when I ride from my house, and the trails on which I ride are wonderful (literally). Fourth, by the time I got home from a bike rally, most of the day was gone, I had missed various sporting events on television, and I was fatigued from the driving and riding. Most of my rides now are two hours long, which means they hardly disrupt my day. At the appointed hour (usually 11:00), I stop what I'm doing, ride, shower, and get back to what I was doing. Also, I now have Saturdays with my family. Do I regret my decision to stop doing rallies after 25 years? Not a bit. As far as I'm concerned, I have thrown out the bad things about riding my bike and kept the good things.
