One of the useful things about Strava for tracking your rides is that you can also use it to motivate yourself. You can compare how you do to how others are doing on ride “segments.” You can join challenges of set distances, times, or elevations. Friends can create challenges and invite others. It’s all good motivation. For example, I have joined the monthly Gran Fondo — 100 km distance on a ride — for several months now. A hundred kilometers used to be big deal for me. Now I do it just about every weekend.
Last month, after doing over 23,000 feet of climbing, another challenge caught my eye — 7,500 meters in a month. I used to hate hills passionately, but now I kind of like them. And with my recent weight loss, I’m finding that getting up hills is getting quite a bit easier. Today I passed 24,000 feet for the first time. Just a few hundred to go to finish that challenge, and on the way I’ll pass 600 miles in a month for the third straight month. Something unexpected during the hottest and wettest time of the year.
Summer of Bob is shaping up quite well…
