✦ 5,000 Miles ✦ 300,000 Vertical Feet ✦

I didn't really have any cycling "goals" this year other than completing the Belgian Waffle Ride in northern San Diego County. That was achieved in the first half of the year. ➤ Then Strava took over, egging me on to show some "results" as often as I could for myself and my small audience on Strava. ➤ Then another local Strava user mentioned that he was going for 5,000 miles before the end of the year. That was late November. I looked at my YTD mileage and figured I could reach 5,000 too, despite upcoming family time and travel. ➤ Then—just yesterday, as I was checking to see exactly how many miles I needed to ride to ride today to hit my "goal" before the end of the year tonight—I also noticed I was within spitting distance (1,600 feet) of achieving another round number... 300,000 vertical feet of climbing. It's not quite outer space (which starts at about another 27,000 feet higher than that), but it's a nice new "goal" for this morning, which also had possible (50% chance) rain in the forecast. 

So yes, I got my butt out there and achieved both of these nice round numbers by 10:30 this morning. Not bad for the old fart Father Tortuga.