The march of time

 

Skip to Happy stuff below if you hate whining...

Before I retired a couple of years ago I bike-commuted daily, rode a tour or two each summer, and rode centuries (and even doubles.) I racked up at least 6000 miles a year, often 7000 and once over 8000. Now, here I am at 70 and retired. I was looking forward to more cycling.

I've moved from California to upstate NY where there's snow and cold. I don't have my daily commute to pad my mileage. There's only so much garage that Zwifting my brain can handle. Though I rode the Eire Canal, spent a week on tour in Maine, Rode a tour of the Hudson Valley and managed to ride around all the Finger Lakes, I only hit 3500 miles last year.

I can tell each year I'm a older and less strong. I'm slower (not that I was ever fast) and it takes longer to recover from even a reasonable effort. It's annoying that at last I have the time to ride, but not the physical ability to do what I'd really like.

Perhaps I should be grateful I can ride at all, and realize I'm doing better than folks who never get off the couch. But it's tough accepting that I will never be in better shape than I am today; that time keeps marching on.

Here are my stats for the year.

OK, enough of this nonsense.

Happy stuff (though not cycling related)

I've been seeing a lot of live music since I moved here. It's really rather amazing how much there is. Early on I decided I'd try to photograph every show we saw and post in B&W on Instagram. I've use my iPhone, my Panasonic micro 4/3 camera and my Nikon D7000.

Here's the link to the tag I'm using. Instagram will only show 30 of the more than 60 photos I shot if you view the link on the web. If you're on a phone using their app you'll see them all.