Still Reaching For 2023 Goals

Thursday's ride was the big one this week.

Today is the end of my training week. Since arriving in Pennsylvania on Monday, I have completed 4 bike rides for a total of 111 miles spread over a little more than 7 hours. And I have done 5 walks for a total of 9 miles spread over a little more than 2.5 hours. That’s just short of 10 hours dedicated to exercise this week, which ain’t bad! Consider that I had to drive 963 miles from my house to Mom’s, and that I had to work overnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It's another vacation that's not really a vacation: Mom's kitchen table is my temporary office. This was a busy week.

I hit a couple of modest personal milestones on the bike here in PA. This season now ranks 15th out of 20 for total miles, and 10th for number of rides. That tells you a little something about my 2023 season: ride length is down. My average ride this year is only 27.11 miles. It will be a little lower before the year is over, as colder temperatures and shorter daylight hours conspire against me.

I’m still working toward several cycling goals. I need 44 miles to beat my total from last season. I need 275 to reach 90,000 lifetime miles, which was the goal I set at the beginning of 2023. Those are the big ones; the rest are Garmin Connect challenges that would be nice to complete but aren’t as important. The weather forecast through November 28 shows an average daytime high of 48° here compared to 38° in West Bend. While that’s not as warm as I would like—and it’s below average for this area—it’s still better than what I would get at home. I will try to take advantage of the difference, because when I return to Wisconsin in December there won’t be any outdoor riding in my plans.