My New Bronze Medal

With a 23-mile ride around West Bend this afternoon I did just enough to make 2018 my third-best year ever for mileage. Here’s the new Top 5:

1. 6,236 miles in 2015
2. 5,620 miles in 2016
3. 5,237 miles in 2018
4. 5,236 miles in 2014
5. 5,113 miles in 2011

This season won’t rise any higher in the standings. Only 17 days remain, and you can bet most of them won’t be warm enough to draw me outside. Yesterday and today represent my first back-to-back rides since October 24-25. I have ridden only 55 miles so far this month, so I’m not going to find another 384 to surpass my total from 2016.

But I’m not stopping at 5,237. We might hit 40° tomorrow, a temperature we haven’t seen since November 24. We might get to 40° again on Sunday. The whole weekend should be sunny and dry. Even next Tuesday and Wednesday look OK … then winter officially arrives on Friday and the forecast shows a commensurate drop in temperature. I don’t ride in sub-freezing temperatures, so that might be start of a little break for me.