Nice Milestones

I have surpassed 4,000 miles of cycling this year. I reached that milestone today with an Eisenbahn State Trail ride to Eden and back with my friend Jim. On July 17 I reported to you that he had just bought a bike. In the last two months he has emailed me several times with questions and progress reports. Today I got to ride with him for the first time and he was up to the challenge: at 47 miles, today’s ride was his longest ride ever. And combined with 30 solo miles yesterday, Jim completed his biggest weekend ever. He’s beginning to reach for loftier goals and, quite without any prompting from me, is looking into his options for indoor training during the winter. It’s great to see someone go from non-cyclist to that level of commitment in such a short time.

So, what’s next for me? I’m 403 miles away from my second-best mileage total ever. That’s not a bad goal, but I’m not going to kill myself to reach it. No, from now until the end of the year I’m a fair-weather cyclist. If it’s raining, snowing, freezing or gusting, then I’m not interested. We’ll see what October brings, but once November gets here I’ll be hiking, stair climbing and redoubling my efforts in the weight room. In December I’ll dust off my CycleOps Magneto and, hopefully, talk Jim into joining me for the trainer party series.