Since turning 30, I have struggled to find a healthy fitness activity that kept me interested long enough to stay in shape. I tried league soccer, tried to get some street hockey going, of course tried the gym for about three days, rollerblading, baseball, working out at home, running, etc. But most of these attempts at fitness fell short a week or so into my effort. But one thing I tried didn’t…cycling. And not only did I not give up a few weeks into my efforts, I might have become obsessed.
Before moving on with this story, I feel that one thing must be explained because it will be mentioned over and over again. One of the most popular tools for tracking fitness is Strava. Strava can track your mileage; it syncs up with most bicycle GPS computers and accessories, which, when used together, can relay loads of information such as heart rate, power, cadence, etc., and provides a social media outlet for athletes to share their data. Strava not only tracks progress for cyclists but can also be used for other activities like walking, rowing, or swimming.
Now that we all know what Strava is, and what it does, let’s move on to the most important part: competition. Since everyone’s information is conveniently located on one app, we can compare ourselves, create groups, and enter challenges. Nona Cycle just so happens to have a Strava club, and each week we can see who in the group has ridden, how far they’ve gone, and how many feet of elevation they have climbed, etc. Each week, one might or might not take a glance at the team leaderboard to spy on who has the most miles for the week. Enter the Strava Leaderboard War!
After completing a longer-than-usual ride on the first day of the Strava week, I took a glance at the club leaderboard. Surprisingly, I was in first place, which basically never happens. This gave me an idea…why not poke the bear a bit? I’m not known for distance, but starting day one in the lead gave me some very unrealistic hopes, so why not run with it? I decided it would be a great idea to mouth off to our Facebook group about having more miles than everyone and to “catch me if you can.” What ensued for the next six days was pretty hilarious, and even more amazing and humbling.
Day one ended with a new realization for me: I was not going to win. Two riders (Robert and Scott) had already racked up nearly 100 miles each. My closest competitor, and the one I decided to specifically seek to destroy, Greg Boyd, rode after me that day and closed the day out ahead of me.
Day two was the only day of the week I would not have to work, so I decided to put some miles in at home on the indoor trainer/simulator so I could also take care of house duties. After finishing my ride, my nemesis of the week was still ahead of me by a few miles, so I decided to hop back on the trainer so I could at least become the winner between us for the day. Shortly after, Greg must have noticed and went out for another eight miles to regain the lead between us for the day. He then taunted me to get back on the trainer; a few minutes later while already in my PJs, I ate my pasta dinner on a paper plate while riding on the trainer barefooted and took a video just to stir the pot a bit more. Finally, Greg surrendered the day at 111 miles! I had finally taken the daily win with 112 total weekly miles…well, sort of. Both Robert and Scott were leaps ahead with 196 miles and 140 miles, respectively. … So, the race was on for third place!
Days three and four were where things really started to get out of hand for me. Others in the group began to awaken with substantial miles, and Greg had, of course, passed me while I worked. By day four, my legs had really started to complain for me to stop. I decided to keep the riding to a minimum so that I could still stay in the hunt but finish the week strong. So, I figured, why not have a beer or two while riding indoors for a few miles? I shared this. Needless to say, Greg had pulled a pretty major lead on me. Little did he know, I had been sandbagging some miles by riding to and from work any day that I could and intentionally not loading my data to reveal my whole hand. Also, by this time Robert and Scott had nearly 400 miles each. I only had 144, Greg had 175, and another club member, Danny, had passed me as well during this time with 155 miles. I knew I was losing ground, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
Day five, I decided to take out my single-speed bike and get some miles around the Nonahood, do some sightseeing, and take a video for my new Obsessed Cycle media platform. I figured by the time I got back, surely I would be back in the mix of things. I was wrong again. It seems like everyone else also thought it was a great time to ride, so when I loaded my data and eagerly checked the leaderboard, I had actually slipped further down the rankings. Robert already had 506 miles for the week, Scott had 382, Greg was destroying me with 254, and Joey had snuck into the rankings out of nowhere into fourth place with 230. I had slipped down to sixth with only 184 miles. Things were not looking good for me. I was going to have to dig deeper to have any chance of a third-place victory.
Day six was triple duty for me, riding to and from work, immediate miles on the indoor trainer whilst also trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube to no avail. After finishing dinner, I took the single-speed bike out for some casual night-time neighborhood miles because I had my grand finale planned for the next morning. You might be thinking this is all pretty crazy, and it might be, but it was loads of fun, I promise. And the conversations online about it were nothing short of hilarious. These efforts were only enough to maintain my sixth place at 220 miles, 80 miles behind Greg.
Day seven. The grand finale. The morning did not start out as planned, as I had hit snooze too many times and missed out on my sneaky solo warm-up miles. However, I did manage to get out and meet up with Kevin, my early riding partner for the day. I warned him that I had already been going for six days straight and that I had a long journey ahead, so I needed to take it reasonably easy. We got in 10 miles before meeting up with the other weekly early ride, which rides by the airport and ends at the weekly Nona Cycle signature ride starting spot at Canvas. By this time, I already had over 30 miles for the day, and over 38 more to go, with hopes of finding a way to fit in a few more and still make it to work by 11 a.m. The ride went great, but I also needed coffee, so after a quick stop at Starbucks and some talk of the crazy week we had all had, I was on my way back home, just in time to get ready for work. Rain was coming in, and I realized I was done. No more miles for me. My legs had had enough.
I finished the week at 288.7 miles, nearly double my all-time best week. Unfortunately, it was only good enough for fifth place by the end of the week. I still felt very accomplished, and many of the riders showed their appreciation of the whole spectacle and noted that they were inspired to ride more. Special congratulations to Robert Link for finishing the week number one overall with 608.5 miles. That is an astonishing accomplishment fueled by McDonald’s cheeseburgers during the rides. Also, Greg Boyd, I surrender…I also owe a beer to each of the top four winners because I don’t know when to stop egging on. I can’t wait to start this war again, maybe on a week where I have two days off. Please see the final standings in the leaderboard photo.
