How Many Miles?

How many are enough?
All that you can get!
Well, sometimes.
Maybe.
I was thinking of this, how many miles I mean, when I was reading about Mr. Big Oak and his recent long long distance brevet on his blog Big Oak Bikes.
The longest I've ever done was around sixty miles so going out for something like a two fiddy is beyond comprehension.
Like that's pretty durn far.
Would I ever do it?
Why would I ever do it?
Why do I even keep track of my mileage?
What does it say about me as a cyclist?
Many many questions, not very many answers.
So I started to take a look inside.
Me I mean.
I guess what it all came down to is that it's sort of a test.
A test of fitness and of mental strength.
I ride to increase my fitness.
I also ride for enjoyment.
Increased fitness also means increased enjoyment so they sort of go hand in hand.
Do I really need to rack up those miles though?
My riding mileage has begun to sort of taper off.
This year, if I get in the same as last, I'll be happy though the idea is to increase the amount of road miles, not decrease or maintain.
I think though, that when I first started to ride, I knew that getting in as many miles as I could was important to increase fitness so off I went like a bicycle riding maniac getting in as many miles a week as my short legs with the massive thighs could possibly take me.
Now though, things have changed.
Perspective and all that.
Back then, twenty miles was like Wow!
Nowadays, twenty miles is like Ho-hum.
Then again, when I think about it, in perspective I mean, twenty miles is pretty far to be riding around on a bike with nowhere to go.
I mean there are times when I won't drive twenty miles if I don't have to!
The other day, I got in a good thirty seven miles and I was thinking oh yes! great day for me!
Then along came Mr. Oak.
Suddenly my thirty seven seemed like tears in the rain.
You gotta love Blade Runner.
Should I have been satisfied with my measly thirty seven miles?
Should I have gone for forty, just to make it even?
Should I have gone on until the short legs with the massive thighs fell off?
I figure it's all about pushing your body.
When I first started, every ride was about pushing yourself and getting stronger.
Every ride back then seemed like I went until the short legs with the not yet massive thighs fell off.
I couldn't wait to get out on the road!
Now things are a bit different.
Now, riding my bicycle is like doing ceramics, it's difficult to get going but once I start I don't want to stop.
It's the getting started part that's hard.
Well okay, stopping on the bike is pretty easy especially when you run out of gas!
Or is it?
What compells you do those extra miles?
Why eek out two more, then three more, then four more?
I mean seriously, I'm not impressing anyone here, or there or anywhere for that matter.
I'm not even impressing myself!
Actually it's sort of depressing, but that's another post.
I guess you do it because you don't have to.
I mean it's pretty easy to take that turn and head on home but if it was easy then everyone would be doing it, right?
The easy thing would be to get off and push but no, it's better to grind it out until the heart explodes than to succumb to gravity and incline.
I mean I've never passed out before in my life and it took a freaking bicycle ride to take me there.
To pass out land I mean.
Not that I ever want to visit again.
If you know what I mean.
I guess it's about going places I've never been before(like the back of an ambulance!) and racking up miles I never would have dreamed of two years ago.
I guess it's about breaking down that mental wall that says you can't and finding out that you can.
I mean three years ago, if you told me I would be riding a bicycle over twenty miles, going around and around in circles, I would have told you to GTFOH!
Okay, maybe I wouldn't have said that.
Then again, maybe I would have.
Said that I mean.
So how many miles?



Okay, that was kinda hokey but you get the idea.