I was very disappointed when I looked at my training log for the year. I thought that I had ridden significantly less this year than last. Then I realized that I recorded my 1997 mountain biking distances in kilometers. The reason for this was that I did not own a bike computer, so I relied on the Michigan Tech trail map, which has all distances in kilometers.
After calculating the mileage, I was quite satisfied, but the hours significantly lacked:
• 1997: 212 cycling hours, 1520 miles; 292 total exercise hours
• 1998: 178 cycling hours, 1610 miles; 276 total exercise hours
I traveled 90 miles further by bike in 2008, but spent 34 fewer hours on the bike. This may be due to commuting, which covers more distance in less time than mountain biking. I did not bicycle commute in 2007. I also spent 16 fewer hours exercising in 2008 than in 2007. That really is not a huge difference, and there are some very good reasons for this. Actually, there are three very good reasons.
• I started the year off with a bang. I hung out with a friend for New Years, and drove to my parents’ house from Lansing on New Year’s Day. My family and I headed to Frankenmuth for the chicken dinner I love so much at the Bavarian Inn. As dinner progressed, so did my illness. I didn’t know it when I arrived at the Bavarian Inn, but the drive home was going to be miserable. My throat felt incredibly raw and my coughing was out of control. It took a couple hours to get home because traffic on I-75 was very slow due to the snowstorm. I was in a lot of pain. I spent the next week bed-ridden with a fever that wouldn’t break, and I lost my voice for three days. No exercise.
• At the end of January, some friends came to visit, shortly followed by my parents. I developed another illness at this time. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the New Year’s bug, but it did force me to call into work for the one shift I had the fortune of picking up.
• With March came a trip to Marquette. I love visiting my friend, Sandee, down there, because we always have fun snowshoeing and sledding. It was going to be a great week to recharge my batteries. I made it down, did a little sledding, then came down with tonsillitis for the first time in my life. 
This little hell of illness actually started in Moab during Thanksgiving Week 2007. I was sick through half of December. That makes four illnesses last winter.
This winter is off to a better start, and so is my exercise. It is going to be difficult to combat illness when the Tech students return to the Keweenaw in the height of disease season, but I will find a way to continue doing what I love.
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