My goal is to achieve 100,000+ feet elevation gain in 2011. Progress will be recorded with each post and at the top of the blog in the "Progress Tracker."
The Dedication
I'm dedicating this goal to the late Jeff Good, who passed away in 2009 after battling ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. To learn more about ALS and how you can get involved, go to the ALS Association's website.
Why Elevation Instead of Distance?
Some have asked me why my goal is elevation based. To answer that I have to go back to a conversation I was having with Rick Gerrard last year. I was telling him about a ride I did over the weekend to K-Town (that's Kuna, Idaho, for those not familiar with that little term of endearment). I said, "I made it to Kuna and back pretty fast and everything felt pretty good and it was about about 12 miles and blah, blah, blah." Rick's response: "How much elevation was it?" End of conversation.
I didn't soon forget that response. When I began thinking about a goal for 2011, I immediately thought ELEVATION. I knew a goal like that would force me to really work and push myself in ways a distance goal never could. Why? Because of the time constraints I have put on my riding. In order to minimize the impact on my wife and 4 kids, I choose to ride during my lunch hour at work. This keeps the evenings and weekends open for the important stuff.
Why 100,000 Feet?
First, I took a look at the 65,000 feet elevation gained in 2010. I wasn't riding every day, but I got in about 3 rides a week and did the occasional weekend ride. I then sat down with a calendar and figured I had roughly 6 months (June-November) available to me. That's 26 weeks; multiply that by 5 to get the number of week days. That's 130 lunch hours available for me to ride.
Now I knew there would be days when work would be too hectic or the weather wasn't cooperating. I thought if I could get 4 rides in every week with a gain of ~1,000 feet for 26 weeks, that would put me right around 100,000 feet. And there you have it!
