Putting 2024 in the rear view mirror

Wrapping up 2024.

It was not a stellar year, but it wasn't all trbl.  There were certainly a fair number of personal struggles that put cycling on the backburner at times.  

I didn't do one stage race all year long.  That's a first since I did La Ruta de los Conquistadores back in 2004.  I'm gonna have to fix that in 2025.  I definitely had the fewest days with a number plate on the front of my bike since prolly 2003.  Distractions were many, then Helene put an abrupt end to things, and I've been living in Zones 2-4 ever since.  I'm sure that lack of intensity is gonna halp come Winter Shart Tarck in a month.

I haven't ridden a geared mountain bike in over a year.  I don't miss it.  I have no idea when I will.  That said, my noodle bar shifty bike got 767* miles put on it in 2024, and if you take away the 108 miles of the Bootlegger, that leaves 659 miles of just Sad Dadding, under-biking, and actual "gravel" riding aboot... probably when the trails were closed and I was left with few options.  

I never took the top step on any podiums in '24... not that it says anything about anything.  I just noticed when I clicked over to my results page.  I don't feel any different about myself having that knowledge, in the same way I forget when I actually make it up there.

Early in the year, I mentally built my dream single speed, wrote the whole idea off as ludicrous and a waste of money, and then ended up YOLO'ing the clams into the Biden economy (it needed halp).  I have zero regrets on that decision.  I love this bike, and it's gonna be racking up the majority of my dirt miles in 2025. 

This thing has me swooning over the idea of doing the Breck Epic on a worthy machine as opposed to torturing myself as per the usual.  I mean... what if those descents are actually as much "fun" as they say?  I wished I woulda gushed about this bike more when I wrote about it two months ago, but I was still dialing it in fit-wise.  Pretty sure the 20mm rise bar put me in my happy place.  Also... I was running a finally worn all the way out cog that I could just feel in the drive train since I built it up.  I swapped it out on Christmas day, and I was given the present of free speed.

2024 is definitely one of those years that I'd like to put behind me and start the new year fresh.  Me and the Meatplow V.10 are gonna have a good lap around the sun together.

* I wrote that a week ago.  Thanks to a weekend of rain (and decent rain gear), that number is higher... because I couldn't bring myself to do this:

I haven't re-upped my Zwift account since February 2023.  I set everything up, Zwift was working... but I feel like it's a trap.  Like they are letting me back in for free just long enough to be disappointed when they shut it down mid-ride and mebbe pay up.  I turned it all off, put the wheel back on, layered up, and rode outside (after checking my credit card to make sure it wasn't surreptitiously charged).  Wet, cold, and muddy was better than being an exercise robot.  It just has to be.

Ready not ready for a new year.