I am capping my night with some wine and a piece of 86% dark cacao chocolate. Yum. I deserve this. I earned it. After all, I have been on the wagon for over a week.

I started road riding to get back into cycling shape. The following is my progress:

• March 6 – 15.91 miles

• March 7 – 18.56 miles
• March 9 – 27.4 miles
• March 11 – 30.52 miles
• Today – 30.04 miles.

My goal for March 11 was simply to log more than 30 miles. After that ride, I decided that I would hold at approximately 30 miles for the next few rides to evaluate how I felt and to see if there was any improvement. Both March 11 and today were quite windy. Both days had me traveling into the wind at 9 mph. Of course, the return trips were a blast…at least for last Thursday. Today’s Northeast wind seemed to get me on almost every road.

I love heading away from the wind because I can get up to speeds over 20 mph. There is something about going that fast that makes road riding so much better. It’s exciting. It spurs thoughts such as, “Wow, if I wipe out, now, I’ll get some pretty massive road rash.” Even with fleeting thoughts of pain and failure, I can’t help trying to go faster. I would like to hit 50 mph, someday. I’ve come so incredibly close (47.6), but I just couldn’t break 50. I would be really surprised if that happened in mid-Michigan, but that isn’t going to stop me from trying.

I almost didn’t reach my goal of 30 miles. I got to my road and knew that the .4-mile ride home would not get me to 30. Even though I really wanted to punk out, at the very last minute, I decided to continue. I rode to the next intersection beyond my road and back to reach 30 miles. I even had to do a very short out and back beyond my driveway. I did it, though. Even though I had given myself permission to punk out at 28 miles, I feel much better about myself for going the extra miles.

Today’s ride took a lot out of me. It was quite challenging, especially since my upper body was fatigued from yesterday’s workout. I really should not ride tomorrow. After all, I do show big improvements when I take rest days and eat well. I might head out to my personal trails and work on those some more. I need to do a little benching. Of course, you probably know nothing about that because I haven’t shared anything about my newest project, but I will share at another time.