Happy New Year

We made it! Through all the trials of 2020, we made it to the other side! Although I realize we’re not through much of what made it a challenging year, it’s nice to have a fresh start and hope for things to improve in the near future. Despite the roughness, there were bright spots during the year, lessons that I know I learned, and moments that were enjoyable, even if they seemed few and far between.

A beautiful sunrise captured early in 2020… the promise of a great year, I believed at the time.

At the end of 2019/early 2020, I thought for sure we were on the verge of losing our Labrador. She has surprised us though and remains solidly moving toward her 15th birthday. As stated at the time of the post about her, she is stubborn and I know she’ll stay with us as long as she likes and will likely go out on her terms. I have no complaints about this. I worry about her some days, but I enjoy that she is finding new ways to enjoy life in her senior years.

Resting in the mountains during one of our biggest rides this year. It was a challenge to climb some steep and slippery terrain (in spots), but it was great fun to do so together.

This year, I took many solo rides to locations I would’ve never ridden alone in the past. I think I’ve grown more confident in my ability to take on riding challenges this year, and I know this likely wouldn’t have happened without the time Sam and I spend together riding the tandem. Becoming a stronger captain has been one of my goals because I don’t like feeling as though I am stunting our potential being the weak link in our duo. At the end of the year, I am finally starting to believe that I can pull my own weight, and although it’s taken a few years, it’s a nice feeling to know I’m not completely dependent on my much stronger stoker.

Taken at the start of the only event we participated in this year in February… Sam was riding a 100k ride, while I was running a 10k run with a friend and our dogs. Unfortunately, it got cancelled soon after the start due to some pretty intense weather conditions.

Usually, we both find events to participate in throughout the year, whether on foot or bike. Of course, this year most events were cancelled (rightly so), so finding other ways to challenge ourselves became a different sort of self-contest. Initially, we thought there may be hope for some events later in the year, but soon into the virus mess, we knew there weren’t going to be group gatherings for quite awhile. We have both missed going to the gym, but we were able to gather enough free or very inexpensive equipment to make a home-gym in the garage, which has helped.

An extremely rainy ride in the cold. I left in the warmth of the sun and was quickly greeted by some very cold, pelting rain, but I was still having fun.

Somehow, I managed to ride more miles than I ever have in a single year, even slightly edging out Sam (which has never been possible for me in the past). Weirdly though, I didn’t complete a single ride longer than mid-60 miles in length in 2020. I ended up a few average-length rides shy of 9,000 miles… which, for many, is a drop in the bucket, but for me was quite an accomplishment, particularly given how slowly I tend to ride most days. I suppose it helped that work was limited this year and I needed something to distract myself. Riding seemed to fill a bit of the emptiness and I used cycling as much as I could to release emotions and tension.

This was just a gorgeous day! The sun was shining, everything was green, and I enjoyed every moment of the ride.

In that vein, this year has also taught me that no amount of strength training can take the place of physically climbing hills/mountains on a bike. The training certainly helps reinforce the rides, but there doesn’t seem to be a substitute for actually doing the work. This may seem obvious to most, but somehow that light bulb just didn’t switch on for me until this year. After accepting that I would be slow and just doing the work, I feel like climbing is slowly but surely getting a bit better. I’m still slow, but I can feel that each time I climb things get a little bit easier to deal with and I even occasionally look forward to it (something I never thought would happen). I know that I won’t ever be a super-star climber, for various reasons, but I appreciate that I don’t dread it the way I once did.

Enjoying a slow ride on my old friend, the Rivendell.

I reacquainted myself with an old two-wheeled friend, which helped me remember that not everything has to be a race, and just enjoying the ride, at whatever pace, is what it’s really about.

We dealt with incredible fires that ravaged the entire western US and left us breathing a little extra poorly. Never was I so grateful for the cold weather to set in to help with extinguishing the raging catastrophes. One got so close that there was a brief threat of evacuation that put us all a bit on edge and many close by lost a lot, unfortunately.

I made art, but didn’t sell much. It’s a challenging thing to figure out the virtual world of selling when so many like to physically see work in person before plunking down money. I can’t blame anyone for that, as I have very much the same feelings. It doesn’t help matters that so many are unemployed right now and art is the last thing people are looking for when finances are tight. I hope that there will by physical fairs and markets in 2021, but I realize we are a bit out from that hopefulness, too.

I made bread (like most), and pies, cakes, cookies and more. Though not as much as I generally would, I suppose. Despite the baking, I feel more fit than I have in quite awhile, but that could be because I mostly made and didn’t consume much.

For those who have interest in such things, here are the more solid numbers (or at least those I recorded, as I tend not to record transportation rides). I spent:

--> 605+ hours riding a bike, or 8,922 miles

--> 386+ hours running or walking dogs, or 1,302 miles

--> 205 hours (and some change) working out in some other form

I did not accomplish as much as I had hoped this year, and mostly I have only myself to blame.

I had hoped to use some of my spare time to get better at Spanish (many of the classes I subbed in before COVID had students who only spoke limited English, and as many years as I’ve taken of Spanish, I still don’t really seem to be able to get it to stick… at least to a point that I am somewhat comfortable). This one is particularly disappointing for me… no me gusta.

I had planned several longer rides that never happened. On the list was my first 200k, but it just didn’t take priority, and several other 100+ mile rides.

I had projects around the house to complete that also didn’t get done (such as repainting gutters/fences/decks and finally turning a trash find into a usable piece of furniture).

Although I have enjoyed some of this year, I can’t help but hold out hope that 2021 will be a better year for all of us. I hope that you’ve found bright spots during the year as well and that you and yours have remained healthy and well. Please feel free to share your highlights (or low lights) too. Wishing you the very best in the coming year.

Happy New Year!!!!!