Statistics time

Two months into it.  One sixth down.  16.7 %.  (Yeah, I know there is one more day in February this year, but Brenda doesn’t have any plans to ride tomorrow, so it looks today was the end of this riding month.)

So here’s where she stands—1,154 miles, or 23%.  Not bad… 23% of the miles in less than 17% of the time.  February actually turned out to be a pretty good month.  She rode 14 days in January and 15 days in February.  Here’s the breakdown:

January: 

-  14 rides

-  553 total miles

-  Average 39.5 miles per ride

-  Longest ride, 60 miles

-  Shortest ride, 24 miles

-  Average speed, 14.7 mph

-  Fastest speed, 16.1 mph

-  Slowest speed, 13.9 mph

February:

-  15 rides

-  601 total miles

-  Average 40.0 miles per ride

-  Longest ride, 65 miles

-  Shortest ride, 25 miles

-  Average speed, 14.9 mph

-  Fastest speed, 16.3 mph

-  Slowest speed, 14.1 mph

She’s making progress on all counts!  I remember last summer when she started, it was a big deal to get out to the 24- or 25-mile mark.  Now she considers anything under 30 to be a short ride.  She’s deliberately not really working on speed right now, and I’ve encouraged her that she doesn’t have to.  Unless you’re a racer (and we’re not) speed doesn’t really matter just as long as you can keep up with, and pull from time to time, the group you want to ride with.  I keep track of average speed because I think it’s a real good indicator of the “strength” of a ride (that is, how strong we felt on it.)  But if she's anything like me, she won’t have to work on speed—her average speed will just naturally go up as she gets in more and more miles.

So now it’s on to March and the 25% mark.  We’d like for this to be a good month because it’s in April that she starts teaching her swim lessons, and then she won’t have time for the weekday morning rides.  Let’s see what we can work out to take their place…