What a difference a year makes

I went for a long bike ride at the weekend. Longish, anyway, a shade over 77 miles. And it trashed me. Yes, I had an off within the first ten miles; yes, I got soaking wet within the first ten miles; yes, there was a swirling, circling wind that only ever seemed to be against me; and yes, there was an unplanned route deviation that added ten miles to the route I'd planned. But still, it trashed me. After 60 miles, I was genuinely starting to wonder how, last September, I had cycled 142 miles in one day, without any real problems. Yes, I had been tired. But I hadn't hurt in the way I was at the weekend. Indeed, when I had arrived at my destination I had a quick shower, a bite to eat, and then headed off into the city for a few pints with my best friend. So, aside from being a year older and a bit creakier, what has changed?

This. This has changed.

This shows cumulative mileage. The orange trace represents 2018: you can see where I started cycling to work, mid-May. The green trace is 2019, the blue trace is 2020. By March 12th this year, I had clocked exactly 200 miles more than at the same time last year. As lockdown kicked in, that advantage was eaten away and, by April 23rd, had turned into a negative. As of this morning, I've clocked 343 miles less this year than last, so yes, that's a turnaround of nearly 550 miles.

And it's not just the distance, it's the regularity. The beauty of cycling to work every day was that I was cycling at least five days a week, every week, even if only ten miles a day. The side-effect of so-doing was that cycling became second nature, almost incidental - as natural as breathing. It was easy, in other words.

I've tried to keep the wheels turning during lockdown, and even now, less tightly locked but still working from home. But it's not the same, and its not easy at the moment. I need to remember this next year, if I'm still working from home, as I try to train myself up for the postponed LEJOG marathon. I will need to find a way to cycle most days, in 2021. You'll see, right here, whether I manage anything close to that.