I haven’t given actual numbers on my mileage for a while. The good news is that my weeks are back over 100 miles and that feels good. I’ve had draggy days and while pushing to get back to where I was, I’ve had some of the physical problems that come from inconsistency in training (like muscle cramps, the beginning of tendon and nerve issues in the feet, and endorphin ups and downs). I’m not really sure how fast it is recommended that you build mileage back if you were recently at a higher mark. It seems like you might not need to stick as strictly to the 10 percent per week of someone who’s venturing out in new territory, so I’ve been pushing as hard as I can. The 10% recommendation is certainly an “average person” number and the physical issues are settling down before they got very bad.

My child care obligations will stop being full time once pre-school starts in the fall. Thinking I was going to start this before that happened wasn’t exactly insanity, but the stress levels it would have created wouldn’t have been pretty and the number of rides that had back up footage would have been fewer. Take into account all the illness of last year, and I’m thankful that we did not pull the trigger and submit a video/project sooner. Riding for a goal has made all the difference in the world to me/us through the last year, emotionally and physically. But it might have been too much if we had tried before we were ready.

Russ trains up faster than me, which is good. He’s been working too hard on myriad obligations to ride much with me. Thankfully, now that we’re both fully vaccinated, I can ride in places that are safer to ride alone, meaning places that are less remote, more crowded, have more frequent patrols, more frequent access points and trailheads and some trail cameras. So, my current discomfort in riding alone is that Russ really can’t become any more prepared to support the project while working full time. His help with gear, equipment and technology to provide safety, moral support and backup camera footage makes the project a great deal more likely to be a success. Ideally, he would be able to make complete rides soon after we get the kinks worked out of our set up. The sooner we’re both optimizing our resources, the more reliable the project becomes, and the more likely we are to finish in closer to a year instead of 18 months. By the end of May, the biggest renovations to the house should be complete and he can take advantage of the long summer days more often.

This post came up in my memories. I’ve worn out a few tires since then, and I can’t tell you how many. But, I pay better attention now. I change them out before they look like this! It was funny to see that goal. I didn’t ever expect to actually meet it when I wrote that, but (if we meet our top goal) can do most of our support by bike, who knows? It’s possible.