I'm starting to think that failure is seriously under rated.

I tried to ride my bike out to Banff on Saturday.  On Friday, just as I was planning my trip, I spoke with the neighbour who reminded me that it was a long weekend and most of the camping spots would be already occupied.  So instead of being a day trip out and camping overnight, it became a ride out and back in a single day.  Instead of getting to Banff it became going as far as I could and returning home.

I failed to make Banff.  I was 40 km short when I gave up and turned around.  After riding for four hours I decided I was going to have to stop if I was going to return in a single day.  I was rather worn out at that point anyways.

Failing to reach a goal can be a huge drag.  What's the point of setting a goal and trying to reach it when you fall short?

Riding westward I rode for 4:09:57.  My turning point was Lac Des Arcs.  I travelled 96.76 km at an average speed of 23.2 km/h.  My maximum speed was 67.3 km/h.  I like downhill.  Lots.

Amazingly, the elevation of Banff is 1383 metres while the elevation of Calgary is just 1048 metres.  There is an awful lot of hills both ways, but I would have expected the return trip to have a greater percentage of downhill runs.  Unfortunately, a south eastern wind came up and I was facing a head wind returning to Calgary.

The return trip took me 5:14:26.  The distance was very similar - 96.61 km, so my average was quite a bit slower at 18.4 km/h.  Maximum speed coming home was 56.1 km/h, which was very disappointing to me after fighting to get up Scott Lake Hill.

So on Saturday I rode 193.37 kilometres in total.  It took my 9:24:23 and my average speed was merely 20.6 km/h.

That's some failure of mine.  I can't wait to do it again.

And that's success.  Isn't it?