I have a goal.

Well, for the fifth time, I am faced with one of those decade birthdays this month. Yes, I will turn 50 in a couple of weeks. This provides me with yet another opportunity to reflect on my life and set some goals or check some items off my bucket list. While the options are seemingly unlimited, I am a realist and know that not everything is possible. So I have been pondering just what might be possible given who I am, where I am and where I would like to be. I have settled on one primary goal - to ride a bicycle one thousand, eight hundred, fifty-five miles in 12 months.

While that might seem like a fairly random number, it is the very concrete distance from my front door to my daughter's in Tampa, Florida. She suggested the distance as I was struggling to come up with a number that made sense. Initially, I thought, "Not a chance. I can't ride that far." I did the math, an average of 5 miles a day for 365 days! I live in Colorado where riding would be very limited at least 3 months of the year.

My brother sets his goal at 3000 miles a year routinely. He also rides annually in Ride the Rockies, a 500-mile bike journey in a single week in June. Between his training for that event and the event itself, he knocks off two-thirds of his goal in a little over three months. He is also self-employed, setting his own hours, and not a single parent with a middle-school child still living at home.

I knew I could do whatever goal I set for myself if I really wanted to. So, I adopted this goal of 1855 miles and bought a bike. My old bike was a ten year old mountain bike would not support my goal. Now, I have my Trek hybrid and am beginning to ride. In my first 9 days of riding, I have traveled 44.5 miles in just 5 rides. Maybe I can do this.