October round-up

Things are not looking good.

The aim was to cycle 3,759 miles this year. To do that I needed to average just over 70 miles a week. At the beginning of August I was a couple of weeks behind, but by the beginning of September I had put in some more effort, closed the gap, and was even slightly ahead. I knew we were going away for a couple of weeks in September, so things would drop back. But I thought there was still time to catch up again by the end of the year.

Unfortunately the accident has mucked things up a bit. Instead of catching up in October I've fallen even further behind. Now this year's mileage is about where it should have been five weeks ago, and there's only a couple of months to catch up. Out in the real world, things are pretty busy at the moment, and the weather is becoming less helpful. There's little chance that I will close the gap.

The trouble with unreachable goals is that they stop being an incentive, and become a discouragement.

At the moment I can see two options. One is to recalibrate the annual goal, and the other is to extend the length of the year. About 10% of the goal I set myself in 2010 was to compensate for the shortfall against my 2009 goal. If I postpone the roll-over another year to 2011 then I would be left with an easier goal of 3,364 miles for 2010. I'm just about on track to do that at the moment, and I ought to be able to reach it. Alternatively I could decide to end 2010 at some point in January. That would give me longer to reach this year's goal, but a shorter year in 2011.

My inclination is to postpone the shortfall, rather than move the date because I think that leaves more of an incentive.

I am being teased for over-thinking all this, but it's not the kind of decision you want to rush.