It's been a while since I've written about my monthly bicycling mileage totals, but July represents a good all-around biking month for me.
My monthly “tale of the tape” was a common topic of this blog back in 2008 when I was shooting for a 4,000-mile year; I finally achieved it by plowing my bike through the snow on the last day of the year.
With no goal in mind for 2009, I bicycled 2,496 miles. So far in 2010, I've covered 2,046 miles on either my road bike or mountain bike.
Friendly competition
I don't have a hard and fast goal set for 2010, except for one objective: Stay ahead of Barry.
Barry is an old college buddy who now lives in Portland and also tracks his mileage using the Bike City application on Facebook. I didn't think much about it until early this spring when he passed me and wrote that I “better get my butt in gear.”
That's probably as close as you'll get to trash talk between sextegenarian recreational cyclists.
So I did get my butt in gear and put a few hundred miles on him in May and June. Well, it turns out that he and his wife were moving out of their house and into a condo during that period, and he underwent some light surgery. In retrospect, it was like Alberto Contador attacking Andy Schleck after he dropped his chain.
With the move and other complications behind him, Barry is the peloton chasing down a break away that's running out of steam. I can see him now whenever I check my virtual helmet mirror.
[Update, Aug. 2: Barry just pedaled past me in the virtual bicycling universe.]
July stats
I got out on my bike for 18 rides last month, covering 351 miles. Half of those rides were “errands” to the grocery, hardware or video store that turn into 10- to 20-mile rides when I take the least direct route.
Eight of my rides were on my Lemond road bike and 10 on my Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike, a few with the trailer.
Upgrades
I've been upgrading my “Craiglist special” Rockhopper to a decent bike for touring. I think I've completed the task with a couple of sets of new tires, riser handlebars, seatpost and Ergon handlebar grips inspired by Kent's Bike blog (Tour Divide – Stuff that worked – Ergonomics).
Of course, the total costs of the upgrades have more than doubled what I originally spent on the bike.
I'm hitting the road later this week for an extended road test up to Port Townsend and the San Juan Islands.
Long rides
My longest ride this month was a 106-mile overnighter up to the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, via Issaquah, Preston, Falls City, Snoqualmie and North Bend.
The only ride out of King County was a ride up to Edmonds with one of my blog readers from St. Louis who was visiting his daughter in Seattle.
It's always fun to hear impressions of Seattle bicycling from people out of the area; they always have positive comments about the area's bicycling facilities.
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