On this blog I chronicle the awkwardly bad as well as the awesomely good—it is named “Dubious Ventures” of course—so I feel like it’s high time to mark the downward spiral of Keir By Bike since its peak of 2021. In that semi-quarantine year I racked up 128 rides for a personal best 2103 miles, but unfortunately it’s been all downhill since then. Check it out:
This basic bar graph (a far cry from previous documentation) shows year/rides/miles since I acquired the Red Giant and began biking to work across town in 2006-2011. ’12-’13 was biking to work a few blocks away. It was a good effort, but I wasn’t seeing results health-wise, so I stepped it up in 2013 with a New Years resolution that stuck.
2013-2016 was biking for real exercise on weekends while driving to work far away on weekdays. 2017-present saw serious biking for serious exercise (including a serious but probably unrelated injury in late ’17) while working from home. After peak mileage in 2021 rides increased but mileage decreased in 2022-’23-’24 as I avoided major roads in favor of paved trails.
Belatedly catching Covid in fall ’23 (and getting addicted to Baldur’s Gate 3 during recovery) may or may not have played a part too. I know others have experienced drop-offs in stamina when exercising after sickness, but I don’t think that’s what happened to me. I did feel winded at times, but not regularly and seemingly not in ways that could be attibuted to anything other than a steady decline in exercise overall.
Even so, 2024’s numbers were down substantially from the declining totals of 2023 (indeed my lowest since 2017), and this year’s started out badly too. I could blame it on bad weather or wildfire smoke or my beloved Baldur’s Gate 3 bard, but that feels counterproductive. I think a better goal might be to try hitting 140 miles per month (which at my peak was actually a low total), which would be a big jump from my current average (about 100mi/mo).
I mean, it won’t feel like rock bottom until I gain back all the weight I lost from 2013-17, and while I’m about halfway there, I can still choose to nip it in the bud right now. So that’s what I’m gonna do.
