Work Ethic

America prides itself on allowing anyone with ability to get ahead at least in part through hard work. Through the course of my career I realized success depended more on working smarter, not necessarily harder. Still, one must be willing to put in the requisite hours and sometimes hard effort to realize whatever goal we’re striving for.

Nowadays my hard work generally takes the form of turning pedals as I cycle down the road or trail. Bicycling is an unforgiving taskmaster that forces one to ride often, and sometimes hard, to develop some level of fitness. Of course what is hard is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case the pedal turner.

Genetics also plays a large part in success and I could ride hard all day and would still routinely get passed by folks on their two wheeled steeds that make cycling hard look easy. Recently though I was reading “Adventure Cyclist” magazine and came across an article that took the concept of hard work to a whole other level. In this world of ultra endurance this and ultra endurance that there apparently are folks who aspire to something known as HAM’R, which stands for Highest Annual Mileage Record. What could be simpler? Just get on your bike and turn the pedals for as many miles as you can in 365 days. The record for HAM’R was broken this year by a young woman named Amanda Coker, a 24 year old from Florida.

Just for fun, wanna take a guess as to how many miles she rode? For some context, I ride anywhere from 4 to 6 thousand miles in a year. Some pro racing cyclists ride triple that amount. Some folks ride across the U.S. (approximately 3 to 4 thousand miles depending on the route) and you can even cycle the perimeter of the U.S.A. clocking 12,000 miles (the record holder - yes, they actually track these things - did it in 180 days). And yes, there is an official record to cycle around the world - 18,000 miles - currently held by a Scotsman who did it in 78 days while the female record holder took a more liesurely 144 days.

So, what number would you guess for Ms. Coker? Throw out all the numbers above, they’re not even remotely close. Over the course of 365 days Ms. Coker rolled a jaw dropping eighty six thousand five hundred and seventy three miles. And since she was so close, she kept at it to hit the big 100,000 mark in 423 days. To break the 365 day HAM’R record Amanda averaged 237 miles per day and her highest monthly total was over 8,000. Not bad for a young lady who suffered a traumatic brain injury when struck by a car while riding her bike in 2011. I won’t hazard a guess as to what she’s going to tackle next, but when it comes to work ethic she’s definitely got it. I can only empathize when she is called on to defend her record when someone inevitably tries to break it...