Wrapping up 2018 - Part 2
To finally put 2018 behind I’ll do the final wrap-up for 2018 in this post. I’ll go ahead and continue with the pictures and end this post with some stats and graphs from 2018. I will start looking into 2019 in the upcoming posts. So here we go, hope you enjoy!
June
June is always special. It’s when you start realizing it’s summer, the nature turns up the colors, birds chirp and you know that those amazing colors will start fading out at the end of the month. So you try to take it all in. For me June means a lot, but one thing that usually amazes me are the lupines. Yup, you heard me. These flowers just light up the roads making my ordinary Kakskerta-Clockwise route just special, each and every time. And the colors are there for only a few weeks. So I divide the summer not just by before and after midsummer, but pre-, at and post lupines bloom.
Sheep in Ohensaari
Kakskerta with Klaus
View from the office
Riding in the forests of Paimio
The Canyon family grew again in June
The most impressive piece of superfood there is. Wild strawberries is a must eat during the summer season. Heaven.
Midsummer was soaky but oh so enjoyable!
The must take Hovimäki at Summer pic. This time during midsummer.
Midsummer at the office
This is Summer
This ferry (pikkuföri) took me over the Aura river throughout the summer. What a service!
July
July was warm. Just the way I like it. July was probably the warmest month I can recall. It was mainly above +30 degrees, which is not typical for our latitudes. Training was going well and I enjoyed cycling.
We had a couple of rainy days during July. Maybe 2 or 3.
It was really pouring down like h*ll. But it was warm, so I enjoyed it!
Pre-work riding
One morning Henkka came to Turku. We were supposed to take an easy morning spin. But easy became putting down the hammer. But it was fun!
The warmest days were above +35. Warm enough to open up the zipper a bit.
One of the longest rides during the Summer in +35 degrees. I had a pretty decent headwind the last 50 km, and I was completely toasted! Had a family-size pizza afterwards, and ate it all at once!
I guess this was the second day of rain during July. Enjoyed it as well.
August
August is always the time you start looking back at the summer. Evenings start to get darker, the tones of the nature get darker and the sky blue fades out to lighter blue. August was also the first time in 3 years that I participated in a bike race. It was hard, but really fun! Unfortunately no pictures from there.
We did the annual crew ride with Kari in August. Awesome. Simply as that :)
August brought a change in weather. More rain and cooler air.
Rainy rides with already added layers of clothing.
Autumn colors
Long shadows and nature turning to autumn mode
Dark clouds over Ohensaari
August
August marked the end-of-season ride, where we usually try to put in a longer ride while the weather is still okay. This time (again) we headed for Kimito and Mathildedal.
Crossing the bridge to Kimitoön
Strömma-kanal
Some nice small hills in Mathildedal
Silent roads on the countryside offering a headwind-tunnel
October
It seems my last ride-pics are from October. Then life happened, and I moved to training indoors, and then finally keeping some weeks off.
Last ride outdoors for 2018 was ridden October 14th
Leaves were already leaving the trees
Last ridepic from 2018. That was it.
The end of 2018 was stressful in many ways, in both good and bad. In many ways it still feels as if those things affect what’s going on today. However, now is not the time to dig into that. I will end this recap with some stats from 2018. All in all, it was a good year cycling-wise. Due to a bad end to 2018, I missed my goal of riding 350 hours, but still, I managed to ride more than during the past 3 years. And managed to squeeze in a race as well.
Comparing the total time ridden
A more detailed view on the years
A closer look at 2015-2018
The cycling year 2018 can be divided into 3 parts. First January to March (pre-italy), summer until end of August and then finally the end of the year. I was really developing a good form throughout the year, until September. The end of the year was full of comebacks and struggling to get back. And never managed to really do it. The summer could have been better, I lacked longer rides, but I managed it all decently. Would I have been able to keep that up, I would have been cycling into 2019 in the shape of my life. But as we know, that did not happen.
Fitness graph
Year 2018 infographic
It feels good putting 2018 behind now. I will wrap it all up with the Strava video, summing up the stats for 2018. Unfortunately it adds all hours from all activities, while I only look at cycling when summing up my year. So January is really not the most active month, despite Strava mentioning it in the video.
That’s it. Year 2018 is in the books. Kudos to all of you who managed to get past all the pics and text.
I’ll be back in a few weeks - over and out.
Pedalare!