It's all relative.

2. 1. World endurance record for distance cycled in a single year

In 1911 the weekly magazine Cycling began a competition for the greatest distance cycled in a single year. The first holder was Marcel Planes of France, with 34,666 miles (55,790 km). The record has been established nine times. ^[2] A tenth claim, by the English rider Ken Webb, was later disallowed. ^{[n 1]}

Year	Record holder	Country	Distance
1911	Marcel Planes	France	34,666 miles (55,790 km)
1932	Arthur Humbles	Great Britain	36,007 miles (57,948 km)
1933	Ossie Nicholson	Australia	43,966 miles (70,756 km)
1936	Walter Greaves	Great Britain	45,383 miles (73,037 km)
1937	Bernard Bennett	England	45,801 miles (73,710 km)
1937	René Menzies	France	61,561 miles (99,073 km)
1937	Ossie Nicholson	Australia	62,657 miles (100,837 km)
1939	Bernard Bennett	England	65,127 miles (104,812 km)
1939	Tommy Godwin	England	75,065 miles (120,805 km)

I've been tracking my mileage all year against other riders on the League of Illinois Bicyclists' website. As of today, here are the standings:

2009 Mileage Totals for All Users
Rank	User name	Home town, state	Miles
1	Bill	Alamo , TX	12,936.0
2	Bentrider	Wilmette, IL	12,669.0
3	PBM	Palatine, IL	8,544.4
4	AttitudeOfGratitude	Neptune, OH	8,475.0
5	BigBlackDog	Marion, IL	8,430.0
6	safetydon	Gardner, IL	8,416.0
7	WECoyote	Chillicothe, IL	8,189.2
8	Pedaltoo	Normal, IL	7,538.9
9	MathiasBareback	Milan, IL	7,499.4
10	erp4599	Naperville, IL	6,657.9

I'm the BigBlackDog. I've been as high as number 3 and as low as number 7 all year. But compared to Tommy Godwin, I've not been riding my bike at all. At the bottom of the list (I only copied the first ten riders) are riders who are only showing 10 - 30 miles for the year. I've often wondered why they bother to post at all. Then I saw the list for the world record holders. Now I question why I even bother at all. I suppose it's just because I like cycling.

There is no prize for high mileage (and as you can see, my mileage is not that high). There is no money involved (except for the money I spend to keep doing this). But there is satisfaction for me. And at the end of the day, that's all that keeps me moving forward. Satisfaction.

A high mileage year requires a fair amount of deal of deal-making. I have to fit all those miles (at about 15-16 miles per hour) into an already full schedule. Since my work schedule is not something that can be compromised, and I need 8 hours of sleep per night to stay healthy, then the time left, let's call it "home time" is the time which I take to ride. Hence the deal-making.

This year, I hope to hit 9000. I set a goal for myself of 8500, and I'll do that this week. But to hit 9000 would be nice. Next year, I want to ride more, but I may need to schedule off time during the holidays to keep from feeling pressured when "family time" encroaches on riding time during visits.

In any case, you can see by the first chart that no matter how many miles I ride, no one will care but me. And I do care.