2024: A Statistical Review

This was never going to be a huge year for me statistically, and breaking my leg at the start of November didn’t help. With the last two months of 2024 wiped out by injury, I finished the season with only 3,678 miles of cycling. That ranks 18th out of 21 seasons and is my lowest total since 2006. I did 141 rides this year, so my per-ride total was 26.09 miles. That’s almost 10% below my career average of 28.79. Here’s my 2024 mileage breakdown, month-by-month:

No personal records there! My only PR in 2024 came from walking: 554 miles, smashing the old mark of 463 miles that I set in 2021. For 2025, I will shoot for another 500 miles of walking for fitness. On the bike, I will look for another 3,161 miles, half of what I still need to reach 100,000 lifetime miles. If that seems like a low target, then consider that I still haven’t gotten back on the bike since my surgery. I don’t know how my body is going to respond. It could be months before I find out. I might be a strictly fair-weather cyclist from now on: no more cold, no more wet. There’s a really good chance I won’t ride outdoors before April or after October. And, at least right now, I have no plans to dust off the turbo trainer.

The 2025 WEMS Schedule

A Few Steps Closer To Normal

These will serve me until I can get back into lace-up shoes again!

Sunday was a significant day in my recovery from a broken leg: I reoccupied the lower level of my home. I had been restricting myself to the upper level, living as much as possible without going up and down stairs. My dining room served as a temporary home office. My living room turned into something of a track where I did a little walking to rebuild strength and mobility. Going up and down the stairs was rare. I allowed myself the occasional trip to the mailbox or to the basement for laundry.

Stairs aren’t a challenge anymore. My home office isn’t just open for business again; it’s open for business with a big new monitor that I’m sure will make my job easier. And I’ve dusted off the home gym. On Sunday, I did a 30-minute treadmill walk. My speed was deliberately much slower than normal, and that’s OK. For a while, my treadmill walks will be little more than a replacement for all the pacing I did in the living room! But Sunday’s walk felt more like rehab. It was a very intentional act with very clear objectives. There wasn’t anything athletic about it. I’m not there yet. (I’m just two weeks removed from using a walker.) But I think mindset matters. The darkest days are behind me and I’m rebuilding instead of only compensating. Treadmill walks are quantifiable. I can do a certain number of a certain duration, speed, and incline. I can set target dates for higher efforts as I get stronger. We’ll see how this goes. There’s no reason to rush the process.