What is Your Goal?

What is your fitness goal for the year?
For 2018, my goal was to ride my bicycle on every street in Rancho Palos Verdes, my hometown.

I finished cycling all the streets in Rancho Palos Verdes fairly early in the year. I moved on to Palos Verdes Estates and finished those. In both of those cities, I don’t think there’s one flat street. It’s all Hills. What a wonderful workout. Some of the streets were rather challenging, yet, I was able to ride up or down every street. I didn’t ride both directions on every street unless it was a dead end. I also rode most of the streets in Rolling Hills Estates.

I have been keeping track of my progress numerous ways: using technology and two old fashioned maps. I wear a Garmin Forerunner to keep track of where I have been as well as using MapMyRide on my iPhone. They show me on a map where I have been. The Garmin uploads to Strava where I purchased the yearly plan because it will make a “Heat Map” of where I have been. I have also kept track on two maps of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, marking the streets I finished with a red Sharpie.

I still have two closed/gated neighborhoods left to do as well as the entire City of Rolling Hills. Rolling Hills has a No Cycling law, but I do see people cycling back there. I was told that it is likely residents of the City. My understanding of California Vehicle Code is that all Rules of the Road MUST be the same in the entire state of California. This means that cyclists must be allowed. I may have to wait until 2019 to get those in, but I do plan on cycling on those. Some of the streets and Rolling Hills are very steep very curvy and narrow. I would likely have someone follow me in my car when I do these for safety because people in Rolling Hills will likely not be expecting a cyclist to be on their roads.

It’s not that I can ride every day. I am caregiving for both of my parents. My father is 96 he has macular degeneration and he can barely walk with a walker. He is a very sound mind and can ruminate or worry too much. My mother is 89 and starting to feel very old. She just retired from her volunteer job and feel she needs to stay home to take care of my father. She may be showing signs of Dementia. I am doing as much as I can, although we do not see each other without clothes on. There are many times especially in the mornings where I feel that I need to be there to make sure they both get up and get moving.

I do miss my times cycling with my PV Bike Chicks friends, but many times it’s easier to jump on my older bike on the trainer and get a good hard workout done. On the days that I get outdoors, I have been working towards my goal. I still have two closed/gated neighborhoods left to do as well as the entire City of Rolling Hills which is also gated. Rolling Hills has a No Cycling law, but I do see people cycling back there. I was told that it is likely residents of the City. My understanding of California Vehicle Code is that all Rules of the Road MUST be the same in the entire state of California. This means that cyclists must be allowed. I may have to wait until 2019 to get those in, but I do plan on cycling on those. Some of the streets and Rolling Hills are very steep very curvy and narrow. I would likely have someone follow me in my car when I do these for safety because people in Rolling Hills will likely not be expecting a cyclist to be on their roads.
I do not drive on people’s private driveways. I have my goal, but I respect others.

You would think that after all of this riding would have lost weight. Not so much. But actually I only rode my bike from 30 minutes to 2 hours a couple days a week. I have to say it was interesting seeing all these little streets that I never knew existed. And I got to meet some awesome homeowners along the way, especially where I parked my car. I did see a sheriff’s car a couple times. I informed them what I was doing each time so that they didn’t think that I was casing out a house or neighborhood.

I got to see a lot of wildlife and horses there. On a couple streets, I saw over 40 peacocks and peahens. A couple of the people in these neighborhoods love peacocks and feed them. Most of the people don’t want them there. They make a mess and they are loud, but they are beautiful.

The most beautiful thing about riding my bicycle over Palos Verdes is the beautiful views. You have use of Catalina and the hills, you have use of the entire San Pedro harbor all the way to from San Clemente all the way up to the Hollywood sign, and from the other side of the hill you have use of Redondo Beach all the way up to point Dume and throughout Los Angeles. It is breathtaking. Especially when you’re on the bike riding uphill looking at it. As I use MapMyRide, I take a picture with the beautiful scenery for every ride.

What is your goal for the next year? Is it big enough to excite you? Is it small enough that you think you’ll get it? If it is both, the it is in the sweet spot. You will likely make it happen! But what happens if you get your goal too early in the year? Are you done? Or do you expand the goal? Do you expand it like I did to other cities in the area? What do you want?

Map showing streets I cycled in 2018!