Last Saturday I completed the Marin Century. This was my third time doing the full 100-miles. Prior to that I twice rode the 100K (65-miles). As you might guess, I am a fan of this particular event. Year after year the hosts provide excellent support, lots of volunteers plus great food and entertainment. Combine that with a beautiful and challenging route and you’ve got one winner of a ride.

Completing this ride means that I can check off one of my 2008 cycling goals. I wanted to participate in three organized rides, and now I have! I rode in the Primavera, Livestrong Challenge and now the Marin Century. I have one more organized ride lined up, the Mount Diablo Challenge in October; just found out that I’ll be rider #564.

We are just past the halfway mark of the year, so I may as well check the progress on the rest of my goals.

I wanted to take 52 individual rides this year, and I’ve recorded 35 on MotionBased. If I can still average one ride per week through the year’s end, then I’ll meet this goal. The hard part will be doing so once the baby arrives.

My final goal was to ride 1,500 miles this year and to date I’ve tracked bout 1,250. This means that I will blow the goal away and likely ride more than 2,000 miles by the years end. This means that I am going much further on each individual ride since I only went a total of 1,270 miles last year.

The results of this work is showing. I am much stronger and faster than I have ever been, even when riding more often during my AIDS Ride training in 2000. I have a better stamina, as seen in the increased ride distance. I am also about 8 pounds lighter than a year ago and I certainly like that side effect.

Allez!

* Thanks to Action Sports International for the photos.