It currently “feels like” 15° F.  For my European and Canadian friends, that’s a balmy -9.444° C.  Folks, it’s freaking cold outside and I won’t lie, I want to ride outside about as much as I want hemorrhoids.  It’s 5:30 am and I’m trying to work up the gumption to at least take the mountain bike out this morning but it’s not easy.  It was even colder yesterday morning:  It felt like 10° F or something like -12° C with 10-15 mph winds out of the west.  That’s just a bridge too far for this guy.  I rode my 5200 on the trainer all week long and crossed the 9,000 mile mark (14,484 km) on Friday.  In fact, I hit it exactly, only having ten miles to go, I stopped at a half-hour just so I could say I did the ten miles:

My buddy Mike likes to complain that trainer miles don’t count but I don’t care – I rode ’em, they count.

So, will I ride outside this morning?  It’s doubtful, but if I can convince Mike and my wife to take the mountain bikes out, I’ll be a ridin’ fool.  One thing is for certain:  Mountain bikes outside or 5200 on the trainer in the comfort of my living room, either one beats polishing the couch with my butt.

Incidentally, I just passed another neat milestone.  Going back to when I started keeping track of mileage in 2011 (shortly before I started this blog), I just crossed over 44,000 miles (70,800 km).  I once thought about canning the tracking app.  In fact, I didn’t actually keep track of 2014, that 6,000 miles is a low-ball estimate – I’m quite certain I rode just as many miles as I did in 2015.  Now that I can see the total mileage, I’m glad I decided to go back to tracking it.  It’s nice to see the overall.  It’d be a stretch to say it’s motivational, but I do find it neat to check up on now and again.