Well folks, the way I see it I’m finally getting up into the “crazy miles” category. Sure if I were retired already I could be doing a lot more but I faced the fact long ago that God simply doesn’t want me to have that much money – it just is what it is. Last week was my best week ever between riding a bike and running. In fact, the week of my last century was my previous best at 179 miles in seven days…and I beat that by 33 miles. Also, with ten days left in the month I should be close to challenging my best month total of 634 miles.
To put that in perspective, my best month last year (and my first year cycling) was only 384 miles. In fact, by next month I’ll have doubled my total all-purpose mileage from 2011. I’m so much happier for it too. Even if I were to discount all of the good times I’ve had riding with my wife, and all of friendships I’ve made over the last year, and all of the good times I’ve had riding with the guys in the cycling club, I’m a lot better just for the miles. Life hasn’t gotten any easier in since either, but I’m handling the adversity a lot better. I’m not claiming to be perfect, but some of the things I’m handling today would have really thrown me for a loop last year.
I’ve written about this before in a post about depression in my “Maladies” series, and I’m here to tell you, I don’t know what I’d have done without cycling over the last year. It’s been a blessing indeed.