Seven Twelfths

The always affable Jeff Wren was all smiles after today's 13-man group ride in West Bend.

July was good to me. That is often the case. In a typical season, July is the month with the biggest mileage total. The days are long, the afternoon temperature is usually to my liking, and it’s easy to find the motivation to ride outside almost every day. This month I rode 717 miles. It was my first 700-mile month since August 2023, when I rode 711 miles. And 711 miles was a good total, but July was still my biggest month that season: 742 miles. My personal record for miles in one month is 1,020, set in July 2011.

I now have compensated for a rain-soaked May to get back on pace for this year’s mileage goal: 3,161. I have ridden 1,611 miles, year-to-date. That is exactly the number I wanted to hit by this date. (Yes, I made sure to get the last 35 miles I needed today. I would have done “hill repeats” on my driveway to hit that number if it had been necessary.) Here is the schedule I established for myself before the season began, with projected miles in black and actual miles in red:

To reach 3,161 miles, I will need solid but not spectacular output for the next three months. I’m not asking myself to do anything I haven’t done before. And I’m not asking myself to ride outside during the cold weather months. When we come off Daylight Saving Time, I want to be done with outdoor rides until next spring.

All those miles in June and July had a predictably positive effect on my already good health. Since returning from Pennsylvania at the end of May, I have lost 9 pounds. I had a very good blood test last Thursday as a precursor to this morning’s annual physical examination. My doctor had nothing but good things to say about my health and the habits that contribute to it. She recommended only that I keep doing what I’m doing and that I get the pneumonia vaccine this autumn, in keeping with CDC guidelines for people over 50. That’s good advice, but I won’t worry about autumn until autumn. Give me a scorching hot August and watch my fitness continue to improve!