Is it milestones or stepping stones when my cycling mileage reaches a certain total?

Today my road bike\’s long-term mileage hit the 30K mark. Yesterday the hybrid reached 16K miles; and the long-term total for trike plus hybrid plus road bike reached 56K today!

Are these milestones, or stepping stones? They seem like milestones to me; but they\’re also stepping stones to further cycling. Sometimes the more you accomplish, the more you want to do; and I\’m always wanting to reach for just a little more.

Today I rode 42.20 miles; and for once there was hardly any wind. It would have been a great time to work on my pace; but I usually don\’t do that during the Sunday long ride. On top of that, I felt strangely unenergetic for the first hour or so. After I got a break from pedaling during my pit stop, my legs felt a little better.

This also was one of those maddening days when I have trouble getting a bottle in and out of its cage. I even dropped the bottle once; and I had to stop; go back; and pick it up. Such a nuisance!

I read so much about the cool-down at the end of a ride; and the last mile seems like a good time to do it. No such luck today! As I approached that last-mile mark, a freight train was entering that same mile; and it was heading in the same direction as I was. For a while I was pedaling like crazy, so I could beat that train to the crossing where I leave the path. Soon I saw that I didn\’t need to work to keep at 15-16 mph; and I let up a bit.

Weighing In

When I got back from Spokane post-Ida, my weight had climbed to 110.5; a gain of some eight pounds from a month or two earlier. This morning I was back down to 105. Milestone, or stepping stone?

It\’s good that I got that excess weight back off, which is a milestone; but keeping it off is going to be a constant battle; and that makes it a stepping stone. I also have to keep the specter of prediabetes in mind.

Milestones or stepping stones? I guess that depends on how you look at it. Oh, and another milestone: today makes eleven years of cycling!😊