2025 bike recap

Hello! It’s been a minute. It’s the season of reflection, so I thought I’d write a little bit about biking in 2025, since it’s become my entire personality now haha. 😛

To kind of explain where I’m at, I have to go back to 2023. Up until then, I’d primarily used biking as a way to commute and get around for fun. I had started doing a few casual group rides, but most of the time I was just biking by myself when I felt like it. That all changed when I signed up for a cyclocross race for fun. I had a blast but was absolutely gassed by the end of it. It was probably the first time I redlined since doing sprints for cross-country in high school. As painful as it was, it left me craving more.

I decided to join friends on a few faster group rides, just to see if I could keep up. I couldn’t, which was frustrating, because they were doing really cool rides and I wanted to be able to join. In the summer of 2024 I decided to gift myself the gift of a structured training program for my birthday and see what happened.

That whole summer I suffered through brutal VO2 workouts, but they paid off. I ended 2024 with having biked just over 4,000 miles–the most I’d ever done and far above what I had planned. I saw big gains in my fitness and improved in cyclocross racing, but not enough to podium and I was still instantly dropped on hills on every group ride. Still, I really enjoyed the satisfaction of completing training rides and seeing my fitness improve.

My goal for 2025 was to bike the same amount, but focus on improving climbing. Since I no longer live at the top of a hill, I can stick to pretty flat routes around Seattle and not have to climb. This year, I wanted to intentionally make myself do hills, with a goal of 250K of elevation for the year. Fortunately, for me, my boyfriend not only loves cycling, he also loves climbing. So I had a built in training partner convincing me to come out and join “hilly” rides. (In his book, they weren’t true hilly rides unless it was over 100 feet per mile. To me, a hilly ride is anything that involves more than one hill.) 

Dare I say that 2025 was my best year yet? It’s kind of fun looking back over the last 5 years (since I started using Strava), as I’ve almost doubled my mileage every year, as well as elevation. This year blew things out of the water! I exceeded my mileage AND climbing goal.  

Here’s a fun chart for you:

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Miles	1,016.6 mi	587.1 mi	1,604.0 mi	2,696.8 mi	4,129.9 mi	6,043.1 mi
Elevation	40,813 ft	23,368 ft	50,167 ft	98,793 ft	135,809 ft	278,857 ft
Feet per mile	40.17 ft/mi	39.8 ft/mi	31.2 ft/mi	36.6 ft/mi	32.9 ft/mi	46.1 ft/mi

What’s next for 2026? Well, I’m trying not to put too much focus on the numbers, but 7,000 miles sounds tantalizing and maybe 300K of elevation. I’m considering signing up for some Gran Fondos and RAMROD but events start getting expensive, so we’ll see. Otherwise, my goals are more or less the same as this year: climb more, improve fitness, and keep having fun. And, hopefully not get dropped on fast group rides.

2025 stats: 

• 6047 miles
• 278,000 feet of climbing!
• Bought 3 bikes
• Sold 3 bikes 
• 5 cyclocross races 
• Won overall cyclocross series for category 4 women’s 
• New climbs: SR20, Sunrise road, and Mt. Diablo 
• Switched to clipless pedals and did not die 

Highlights of 2025

Getting Mirkwood, my new gravel, do-it-all bike. She fits me like a dream! I was having so much pain on my previous Cannondale and did a lot or research to figure out what kind of bike would fit me best. I’ve never been so comfortable on the bike. She is so fun to ride. Cannot recommend 165 cranks enough if you are a shorter rider! (I’d go shorter if they made 155s or 160s stock.) It’s solved a lot of fit problems for me, and I have switched all my bikes to 165s.

Wildflower ride in Wenatchee with friends. Sooooo gorgeous! Definitely a highlight of the year.

Biking SR20. This one has been on my bucket list ever since I moved to Seattle. Things finally aligned and I got to ride it before it opened to cars. It was a beautiful day with friends. Kaelan and I also got to do Sunrise road–shockingly, my first time at Mt. Rainier since living in Seattle. As you can see, lots of big climbs this year!

A 336 mile bikepacking trip around the Olympic Peninsula with my friend Bridget (this deserves its own post).

Chasing QOMs for fun with my partner in crime.

Completing the cyclocross season and getting on the podium, including winning the overall cat 4 series! My favorite race was the “pumpkin smash.” So much mud through the corn fields. I felt right at home. 😛

Our Mother the Mountain ride out in Teanaway. It was my first time riding out there and reminded me why I love gravel. It also convinced me I needed a hardtail, so now I’ve got a mountain bike for singletrack!

Hoping 2026 brings the same joy and amazing bike adventures with friends. ❤