riding into June and the beginning of summer

Yes, that SW corner along the Mississippi is truly lovely country, though quite different from our north woods. Nice folks just about anywhere in Wisconsin, though. Come for a visit.

I broke 900 miles for the month of June, today. That's on a par with my best years and I'm pleased, of course, that I can still manage it at my age of 66. Wasn't sure I had it in me. Now I know. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it's taken its toll. I can feel that it's past the point of what I can maintain and still be healthy. Have been here, before, and know the feeling. Does take longer, now, for my body to catch up to a lot of strenuous miles and I do worry about bringing on an injury that would keep me from biking. That would kill me. Will probably cut back to a more moderate 600 or 700 miles for next month and see how that goes. I also plan more mountain bike miles for the remainder of the summer riding season, too. I do like MTB biking, even though that is not my strong suit. Doing more gravel roads and trails might be a good compromise, rather than attempting a lot of gnarly, strenuous single track.

Nwg…..yeah even though mileage goals can be motivating sometimes it should just be keeping it interesting and doing what your body is comfortable with.

I only really keep track of miles when it’s part of a training plan to peak on a particular ride. The rest of my rides are just personal challenges, commutes or just wanting to ride….just keeping it interesting

eta...for me a slow moving cool down spin of 15 or so minutes at the end of a hard ride helps my muscles and my tiredness.......and a good recovery massage ftw :)

NW, I hit 1,000 miles about 2 weeks ago, almost a month earlier than I usually do. Mostly because of riding through the mild winter, not riding more, per se. But, since then, I have been exhausted, and gave myself a self imposed rest week. Not total rest, of course, just doing stuff at the gym more, instead of riding, a 3 day vacation that included a 25 mile "tour," and more days of just doing nothing. The tiredness started after I had a +125 mile week. I know for most people here, that's nothing, but if I do the miles over a short time frame, like 3 days, I know what will happen.
I do take recovery seriously and at our age, it is necessary. I always feel stronger when I get good rest.

ETA:
So, I was going to ride to work today, first ride to new office site. Unless I do a go-around, it's shorter, but in rush hour traffic on main roads, coming out of the village center. I ride through here all of the time, but not usually at rush hour. I decided not to ride and do a group ride tonight. I got here when the door was still locked, and I don't have my key yet. So, I went back to the village to get some coffee. There were tons of cyclists, both recreational and commuter, including large numbers of teens riding to a summer program. As I was waiting to pull out of the coffee place, 2 cyclists went by. As I was then waiting at a light, I saw police lights and had a bad feeling. This is all in a short distance, but with lots of cars. It's in front of a Dunkin Donuts (extremely popular here with a certain set of old timers) and a fire station. As I got by, sure enough, there was a road bike lying on the ground. It really shook me up. The bike was not mangled, but I was almost hit here once, by someone trying to turn into the DD, when I was on a ride with another TEer. I definitely would have been in the lane here, as I have to turn at the next light, but I now know I will do the go-around. It's a half mile longer and at least I won't be sitting in traffic.
Oy. The counselor needs counseling.

That is a lot of miles in a month at any age, NWG, congratulations! I didn't ride half that, and I am "only" 55. But yes, riding that many miles will take its toll, especially as we get older, so be kind to yourself. As Crankin says, recovery is important. You actually get stronger during recovery time.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. :D

Thanks, all.

Has always been my personality to go whole hog when it's something I love and, of course, that has its downside, too. Yup, will give myself a bit of a rest.

My riding the last 10 days has been pathetic. High 90's and into the triple digit heat always kills my riding - Ha. The DH is leaving tonight (well tomorrow actually as it will be 3am) to start his two week tour. I will meet him and our DD in Dillon, Mt on Tuesday and the 3 of us are riding the Pioneer Mountains scenic byway. We will take 3 days for that. Then it's off to Bozeman via car to celebrate some 60th birthdays. I have graciously volunteered (HA) to return to Boise to work while he continues on to Missoula for the Adventure Cycling 40th anniversary of Bike Centennial. Once again, I will get behind the wheel and drive to meet him. So I expect I will have record driving miles, not riding miles in July!

Catching up... I had record driving miles in the last half of June. From northern VA up to NY, overnight at my parents' house, then through CT and RI to the vacation house in Plymouth MA. Nine days of back and forth between Plymouth and various towns on Cape Cod, with some detours south to Wareham and finally up to the historic section of Plymouth on our way back to NY. Spent a couple of nights there, then returned to NoVa by way of JFK airport to pick up a friend and take her to her home in central NJ. After 9 years and 113,000 miles I remain pleased with my Prius.

As for cycling... there was no room in the car for my bike and not enough time to get in all the sightseeing we wanted to do, so never a thought to renting a bike while I was there. We did see a few cyclists battling headwinds on the paths on either side of the Cape Code canal from our tour boat. Also we saw a handful of cyclists on the roads riding flat-bar bikes, way more when we visited Martha's Vineyard for an afternoon, and I saw one lone roadie in the neighborhood where we stayed. I did think that was a good area for cycling, with low speed limits and roads winding around small ponds. But not many others seemed to agree. On the other hand I was not impressed with the conditions I saw on Martha's Vineyard, with buses passing wobbly tourists on bikes with little room to spare.

Now that I'm back home, I went out for a ride after work two days ago, my first since June 11. I didn't leave the office until after 7, started riding around 8 and finished around 10. I'm glad the sun is setting late these days because I do prefer to ride when it's still light out, even if darkness falls before I finish. I did a version of my usual ride with fewer of the steep hills because my legs felt like spaghetti. Otherwise it was uneventful. The weather was near perfect, in the 70s with low humidity.

For most of the ride I was listening to a baseball game on my phone. My nephew is studying broadcast journalism and is spending his summer calling games for a college league. I had my phone in my pocket with the volume turned up rather than using earbuds. I wouldn't do that while riding with others because it would no doubt be annoying, but since I was alone it was a nice diversion, one that I hope to enjoy for the rest of the summer on my post-work rides.