You know what I was looking forward to as this weekend began? Sweating. July arrived with back-to-back days in the 60s. I took an overdue rest day on Wednesday. On Thursday I enjoyed a fast group ride with the guys from the high school parking lot, but I would have been miserable without arm warmers.
We got back into the 70s on Friday and I celebrated with 3 fast laps at New Fane: 25:07, 25:43 and 24:45. And I didn’t feel like I was really pushing myself. That’s a very good sign.
On Saturday I celebrated an 81-degree Fourth of July with a personal record on the Eisenbahn State Trail, covering the 15.6 miles from my house in West Bend to Main Street in Campbellsport in just 51:17 (18.3 mph). That beat my old record of 53:00, set on August 4, 2012. I continued up to the end of the trail in Eden, then turned around and finished the day with a total of 47 miles in 2:39:02 (17.7 mph). That’s moving on a mostly-gravel trail, and it’s a workout I really enjoy. But I do understand why almost none of my friends train on the Eisenbahn. You have to be in the right frame of mind to keep the effort up for that long on a trail that offers few visually stimulating distractions.
Saturday’s ride left me just 37 miles short of 3,000 miles, year-to-date, so today nothing short of 37 miles would suffice. I did 50 miles to surpass an even more interesting milestone: 6,000 miles in the last 365 days:
I had never done that before. My highest total in a calendar year is 5,236 miles, set in 2015. If you add my best January, my best February, my best March, and so on, my “ideal” year would be 6,800 miles. So, 6,000 in the last 365 days is pretty good.
We got to 81 degrees again today, and—I kid you not—some of the natives are complaining about the “heat wave.” Tomorrow might be even warmer, but on Tuesday and Wednesday we could be stuck in the 60s again and I will be picking my ride times carefully and avoiding Lake Michigan to enjoy the warmest conditions.
The week to come should be a good week for cycling, but for me it probably won’t end with the state road race championships. I can’t justify the cost. I spent the last half of June anticipating a job offer from a big company right here in West Bend, but my hopes were dashed on Thursday morning. If I don’t find a job very soon, the WORS Cup STXC will be the next event to disappear from my calendar. It’s a shame. With the fitness I have right now, I should be racing.
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