This past weekend we experienced, here in my small part of upstate NY, a summer weekend. Highs were in the mid 70s which is not normal for this fourth month of the year. That along with a need to get items to certain people prior to my move led me to a lot of bike miles over a five day period of time.

To be fair, this five day mileage is not all that much. The focus is that I have not ridden my bike since the 25 mile Tour de Palm Springs on January 23rd. I hope to build up to the point I was at last summer where my weeks were close to 100 combined miles cycling and running. With that in mind, here was my beautiful weekend.

Thursday, I rode my bike to Maine, NY. I needed to take some samples of wood, labeled with what type of tree they came from, to the Science Olympiad coach. I dropped these at the school he works at and headed to the post office in the hamlet of Maine to mail the power cord to my HP 2-in-1 to my son in Buffalo. Prior to my ride of 9.24 miles, I ran three miles. It was sunny and bright for the ride but a bit cool. I overdressed on the upper part of my body for the ride.

Friday, I ran.

Saturday, I ran three miles. Then, I worked at clearing out my garage for approximately an hour. Then, I jumped on the bike for another trip to Maine. This trip had nothing to do with anything but the first ice cream of the year. The ride was 8.7 miles.

Sunday, I only rode. This time I was aiming for more than 15 miles. I ended up with 18.84 miles. On top of that, I did more work in the garage along with catching periods two and three of the Penguins game on TV.

Monday dawned and it was still summer. I worked writing until 11 and then got ready for a ride. I went for 8.73 miles.

In the last five days, my cycling mileage is 45.41 miles and ran 6 miles. My legs, on yesterday’s ride, felt heavy. I guess I need to work into consecutive days of riding easily.

What signals the end of winter for you? Bike riding? Ice cream store opening?