174th ride of 2020 - Wednesday, 12/23/2020

2020 mileage: 4166.0

After taking yesterday off so that Michelle and I could spend the day visiting family and delivering gifts, I was eager to get back to it today. And with unseasonably warm weather (it was 44° when I began at 12:15, up to 48° by the time I finished—pretty astonishing for late December in Michigan), I had planned to ride to Saline. But when I headed south along the Lohr/Textile Greenway, it was right into the teeth of a brisk wind from the south (about 15 mph), and it didn't take me long at all to change my plans. Instead of going south to Saline, I turned in to Stonebridge and did a loop in there (in pursuit of my mileage goal for the day), and then continued on to ride the Platt/Packard Square (16.5 miles total) in 1:58.

My mention of a mileage goal is because last year, I rode 4165.4 miles in total, and that was my all-time high. (Even though a much higher percentage of last year's miles were achieved "virtually," riding indoors on a stionary cycle; this year, with the gyms closed for much of the year due to COVID, I've had to push myself harder to achieve miles outside.) For much of this year, I had hoped to ride 5000 miles, but with the plethora of mechanical and medical issues I faced in the second half of the year, it became obvious quite some time ago that I would fall short of that as well as my secondary goal of 4500. But I hoped to break last year's record today, and did, reaching 4166.0 miles for the year.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

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