Happy New Year!
Have you made your New Years Resolutions, those annual lists of usually unobtainable goals we make and break every year? Especially that most ubiquitous goal of all, “this is the year I resolve to lose X amount of pounds and/or get into shape”.
Autumn ride in Cherry Creek State Park. (Click to see larger image)
I know I have made and broken that same resolution more times than I would care to count. I’ve come to believe that the resolution to “lose weight” is flawed, because it focuses our resolve on the wrong goal.
Instead, I believe we should resolve to do the physical activities that we actually enjoy and want to do. We need to stop flogging and guilting ourselves into shape, and start living the life we actually want to live.
Since I love bicycling, it’s my hope that if I ride my bicycle on a more consistent basis (combined with a better nutrition component), that my body will gradually become leaner and stronger. I’ll “get into shape” by doing more of what I enjoy doing.
That’s the theory, anyway.
So with that in mind, here are my 2019 New Years Bicycling Resolutions:
- I resolve to add at least 3 bicycling routes that I have never ridden before to my repertoire. I have about 7 or 8 rides that I like to go on during the riding season. They’re good routes, but I felt they were getting a little stale last year. Time to expand my comfort zone.
- I’m going to retry the “Ride and Revel” cycling event which is held in Greeley in mid-July. I actually finished the 40 mile event last year, but I was so overheated and wiped out I never got to sample some of the brews that were provided. This year I would like to ride the 55 mile route, only this time enjoy a beer or two afterwards.
- I’m going to do the “Tour de Vinyards” ride held in Grand Junction in September. Perhaps Mrs. Vintage will make the trip with me and she can sample some of the wines while I wheeze my way around the Western Slope.
- The ultimate event that I would like to accomplish this year would be to do an overnight trip. I’ve pondered riding from Morrison to Fairplay over Kenosha Pass in late summer/early autumn, when the aspens should be in full color and temperatures more moderate, but that is 8000+ feet of climbing to the crest of the pass. I’ll admit that I’m a little intimidated by that steep of an ascent. So I’ll ponder other routes so as to give me several options and then I’ll decide which one to attempt later in the season.
Thus I hereby resolve to push myself harder, but still have a good time. I think all of these are doable. And with any luck, and a lot of hard work, I hope to prove my theory correct and will be a lean, mean MrVintageMan machine a year from now.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress throughout the year.
Colorado.com Book Cliffs near Grand Junction.
