Cycling goals

Setting goals can give you structure and motivation to achieve the things you want to achieve.
Over the past few years I have set myself some distance goals for cycling. I've started this years ago and promised myself I could buy a new bicycle when I reached my yearly goal.
After this I kept setting my goal, but then without this reward (somehow I can't convince my wife I'm buying a new bicycle every year 😂).
But somehow I didn't manage to reach my yearly distance goals in the past two years anymore. I don't know if it had to do with the lack of a reward, longer periods of bad weather, a lack of motivation, or a combination of factors, but I just didn't reach the 5K I intended to make.

As you can see in the progress bar above I achieved 89% of my goal.
And although almost 4500 kilometers is quite a lot, it wasn't as much as I had intended to ride.

2025 goal

But 2025 was going to be different. At the start of January I had set myself the 5000 kilometer goal again and I was destined to make it this year. I had planned to make a lot of training kilometers since my cycling buddies and I decided to ride a Granfondo in June; a 177 kilometer ride with 5000+ meters of elevation.
This challenge would require a lot of hours on my bicycle.
But now, when we're near the half of the year, my total amount of kilometers is under 1500, which is only 28% of my goal 😒
So what happened?

My injury

The year started out quite well. I made a lot of commuting rides and often some rides in the weekends as well. In January I made almost 400 kilomters which is quite a lot in a cold winter month where I don't ride my bicycle when it's below 0 degrees Celcius.

But as you can see in the graph above, in February it happened; during a futsal match I got injured. A serious groin injury prevented me from practicing any sports. With a week of two rest I thought it was recovered enough, but nothing could be further from the truth. The injury was still lingering in the background and became much worse than it was in the beginning. At one point I even had to walk with crutches for more than a week. You can clearly see that in the February/March stats.
Only after a lot of rest and several visits to a physiotherapist, I was slowly able to start my recovery. Luckily, by the end of March I could get back on the bike again, but with the advice to ride slowly and not too far.

By then, I had already let go of my plans for the granfondo and was fully focussing on recovering from my injury. Cycling has a low impact on your joints, which means that if you have a groin injury, you can return to cycling relatively quickly. And that is what we see in April. I started commuting again, which, together with the nice weather, resulted in a lot of kilometers. And even more in May.
And this month has started quite well too with already 75 kilometers in the first three days only 💪
It's good to be back on the bicycle!

The mental impact

I really underestimated how not being able to ride my bicycle had an impact on my mental wellbeing. Not having the freedom to be able to ride my bicycle really made me feel gloomy and listless sometimes.
Even when I was able to get back onto the bike I wasn't too enthusiastic because I kept feeling the injury (which I was told, was normal and not bad as long as it didn't hurt very badly) and I to hold myself back a lot to avoid going too hard and too fast. Did didn't always go well and I also did have some setbacks.
But I do have the feeling that the line is going up again.
I'm increasing the distances per ride and also increasing the speed. I am still far from my old form, but I am on the road to recovery again, which gives me more energy.

My goals

This injury made it very difficult to reach the goals I have set at the start of the year. When I calculate the number of weeks (29) and divide the total amount left to reach 5000 (3574), I need to ride 123.62 km per week. That is quite a lot, but let's see how far I can come.
For now I'm already happy that I'm able to ride my bicycle again.

Your goals?

What about your goals? I'm interested if you have set any. And if so, what is the progress? Where do you keep track of your progress and does it help you to set goals and check them regularly?
Please share your thoughts with us!

FriendlyMoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
Check out my projects below!

Topcomment is an initiative to reward high quality comments.

For all Hive Photographers: come join our Hive Photographer Discord Channel

A weekly blog with an overview of all the photography contests on Hive. #photocontests.

Share anything about cycling in the Cycling Community