In Which I Take a Break and Contemplate Inflation

Jan. 5--After riding hybrid bike for three days, I take road bike out for a spin. On ride home, parked at Cedar Lake.

So, on Jan. 8 I rode 7.47 miles. It was Monday and I rode to work.

And that was the last time for a while that I rolled on two wheels. Monday into Tuesday a heavy snowfall started in Iowa and campus was closed all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I held class Thursday, but the streets were way too snowy and icy (and the air way too cold) for biking.

And Friday a more ferocious storm, a blizzard with snow, high winds and, now, extreme cold temperatures, arrived.

In 2023, I rode 3,346.22, I’m sure a modest milage total for serious bikers, but a slight increase in annual miles for me. In 2024, I’m setting a goal of 3,500 miles. I’m still working (I retire in spring, 2025), and I hope that my bike miles will go way up in 2025, but a 50-mile increase from 2023 to 2024 seems doable, I hope. Maybe 4,000 in 2025? We’ll see.

Jan. 6--Rode mountain bike on trail near home. Hoped to ride mountain bike trails there, but it was too muddy. Still, it was a good bike to ride on limestone sections of trail.

As long as we don’t have too many weeks like this. I was able to ride early in the month, rolling 15.09 miles Jan. 6 in my longest of the year, so far. In 2024, I have 74.37 miles and holding, for now. Still, in 2023, during a milder January, I only rode almost 131 miles, and maybe, if the weather improves, I may get close to that mark this month.

Anyway, falling a little behind in month one shouldn’t mean much since this isn’t the time of year when I get most of my miles anyway.

Jan. 8--Final ride for a while was on mountain bike, parked here at Warde Hall, MMU.

Jan. 4--on Jan. 2, 3 and here, the 4th, my bike of choice was the hybrid one. I had not been riding it lately because it seemed too slow--turns out the tyres were just a little low. Inflation is a good think for bike tyres!

At the end of 2023, I was mostly riding my mountain bike, with some trips on my road bike. Over Christmas break, I pumped up the tyres of my hybrid bike, and it turned out it’s not a bad little bike to ride if one remembers to inflate the tyres. Most of the miles to work in the first week of the year were on the hybrid bike, although the longest ride was on my road bike and I used the mountain bike for my final ride before the snow pause (I was not sure when the snow would start Monday, and had ridden the bike with the widest tyres just in case--turns out I need not have worried, I was home hours before the world turned white).

I’ve been lucky to be able to get some miles in. It’ll be a while before I get back on the bike, as the first few days of next week will see temperatures below zero Fahrenheit. The streets aren’t ridable at the moment anyway.

We’ll see what the future brings—more miles soon, I hope.

Jan. 11-Snow at MMU, bikes in bike rack there. Not mine, I drove today. Riding days are over for a little while, but are coming back soon, I hope.