Tag annual goals

This post is for me, myself and I. No one else. It’s a note to me for next year at this time. If you don’t want to be bored about my running and riding exploits for 2017 then you should close the window now.

Maybe my kids will read it some day. Maybe.

I’ve been frantically searching my disk drives for the goal setting exercise I did a year ago. I can’t find it. Maybe that’s because I never wrote it down. Well I’m writing it down here so I can find it next year.

What Were My Goals?
Reaching in to the memory banks, I know I did two areas: Exercise/Sports and Business.

Sports:
I set mileage goals of 6000 miles cycling and 400 miles running. I didn’t hit 400 running but went over 7000 cycling and hit a total of 7500.

On 12/30 I passed 7500 total miles.

In Running, I wanted to complete the Space Coast Half Marathon in under 3 hours if possible, and collect my 6th and 7th medals for the Big Bang series. I did it in 3:05, which although not my goal, was still a PR for the course. I wasn’t at my target weight at all. Hurricane Irma “gifted” me with 10 lbs that I have been having the toughest time losing. Maybe now that the “chocolate season” is over I will make some headway.

I had planned on 400 miles of running as training for the SCHM. I didn’t get to do the long run I wanted to before, so I had to go in with my longest run being just 9 miles. This might also have been a factor as I definitely slowed down in the second half of the run. I finished though, and I have officially “retired” from long distance running.

The 7 medals, the final t-shirt and towel combination, awarded to all Big Bang Series finishers – five years in a row

Next year? No goals. I’m retired from distance running

Cycling:
I have to break this in to several parts: Road, Time Trial, Mountain Bike, Cyclocross and Track.

Road: I had no real goals of road racing except to exceed 6000 total miles. Done. I wanted to complete my fourth Cross Florida ride in 10 hours or less. Not quite. Did it in 10:42 but I am still happy.

After XFL, I did get a new frame this year, as my old frame warped itself and was under warranty. Many thanks to Mickey Singer of Giant Bicycles USA for helping me out with it.

Love this snazzy new frame. Got it after the Cross Florida ride but really enjoyed it all year long

Also, one of my clubs put on a 5-10-20 contest – 5,000 miles, one ride that climbed 10,000 feet, and participate it 20 club rides. I am one of only 8 people who did all three. Excited about that.

Next year? I am considering entering some road races, as well as crossing Florida for a fifth time. If there is a 5-10-20 contest I will do it again. Our own club is doing a 5-5-25 version, 5,000 miles, 5,000 feet in a single ride, and 25 club events, rides, races or volunteerism.

Time Trial: I sold my TT bike, so I was hoping to do well in the Eddy Merckx class. I did OK. About half way through the year though, I got a fixed gear track bike which gave me an entirely new arena to play in. More on how that happened later, but I “won” the airport TT fixed gear class, as well as the CFL TT fixed gear class over 40K. Most of this was because there were very few others who made every race. This is always my secret to success anyway.

Next year? Defend my titles!

Mountain Bike: I had purchased and custom built a special mountain bike with a fixed frame, aimed at the WAR MTB series (in the cyclocross division) which was coming back, and I was defending champion. This wonderful bike was stolen in August, which really depressed me. Still no sign of it. I managed to repeat my WAR championship but it was by using borrowed bikes. Well here I am talking about Cyclocross and confusing it with Mountain Biking. Well I’m about to do it again …

My custom built Mountain Bike – stolen! I had nearly $4,000 in to this thing …

Next year? Defend the WAR MTB title, and maybe enter a few MTB races.

Cyclocross: I got a new (to me) Cross bike this year, a very nice Giant TCX. I immediately began training with it in Hal Scott preserve, a local mountain bike trail that is pretty flat and easy. I noticed that my Strava was showing me rising up leader boards on some segments that had been established out there by various people. I decided to do something about it. I took a bunch of segments and even created some for my own routes. There was one guy who was very hard to beat but I managed to beat him on every segment but one (and I missed that one by 1 second) by mid March. Strava says I claimed 35 KOMs in 2017. Even though he went out and took them all back (by putting aero bars on his mountain bike!) I still claim that as a victory. For a few weeks I was the “King” of Hal Scott.

The King’s Machine. Using this bike I procured 20+ KOMs in Hal Scott. I’ve since lost them all but it was fun for a few weeks.

OK now back to cyclocross. I went to every WAR race this year and by garnering points (not being fast, just showing up) I managed to win the MTB category and the Pro 1/2/Open category. I guess that makes me WAR Grand Champion. Got two jerseys for it. In addition, I am the points champion of the Florida P1/2 category.

Many will say that I don’t deserve that status, that I am slow, that I am clearly not the best cyclocross racer in Florida. I can understand why they say this but this is a points series and you get points for showing up. I beat 100% of the riders who stayed home on the couch. I may have finished last or second to last in nearly every race but I was there. I say to those naysayers, “If you don’t like me on this podium then come knock me off. Stop whining and start showing up for races.”

Doing the WAR knuckles in honor of the series. Am I faster than young Mr. Legg, or almost as young Dr. Chandler? Not by a long shot, but I finished more races.

Got a jersey for winning FLCX overall as well.

At age 60, still running and riding. Wearing the Florida Cyclocross points champion jersey for 2017 here.

Next year? Repeat as champion and get faster! I need to lose weight to get more speed.

Track: OK this is new to me and I had no goals for the year, because I had no plans to race on the track. As is told elsewhere in this blog I had a unique opportunity to buy a track bike and set a state record, which I did.

By the end of the year, no one had beaten this record and I was originally told I would be considered the state one hour time trial champion. This has since been “recanted” as “this is not a recognized championship” – ugh, politics. Disappointing, but I am still the current one hour record holder.

Also, as I stated in the Time Trial section above, I used this bike to win two Time Trial divisions as well.

Wayne Keller got this great picture of me setting a PR on the Airport TT course of 18:27. Best ever on this particular course, and on a fixed gear track bike (Giant Omnium)

Next year? I really don’t know. Maybe go to some track races, or at least some track time trials.

Business
This was our first year as a franchised business, so my goal was to get five franchises up and running (We currently have three). I also wanted to double our total payroll by the end of the year. It looks like we might just barely make it.

Amazing considering two really bad things happened to us that made us go in to “fire drill” mode instead of preparation and planning. 1: One of our partner PEOs had an owner fight that split up in to two PEOs and cost us two rather large clients. 2: The state of Florida in a horrible example of irresponsibility, shut down an insurance company (unjustified IMO) on November 27th. We had exactly one month (during holiday season) to scramble and place one of our largest workers comp clients with a new carrier. Unfortunately we were not able to place it all and this will cost us about $800/month.

Next year I’d like to see 6-8 franchises, and double our payroll handled again.