Biking - Over the top on a brisk afternoon

I'd planned to help out with some local trail work today, but when I woke up with a sore back, I thought better of it, and hoped I could get in some other exercise in the afternoon.  After running a bunch of local errands and having lunch, I decided to get the bike out one more time.

Every year, I set a mileage goal to work toward, not in any calculated way, but just to have some number to shoot for and keep me motivated.  This year, I started out hoping to reach 2,500 miles for the season.  But come September and October, I lost the urge to keep pushing toward that number, or even to keep biking in general.  Still not sure why.  So, in November, being within reach of a lower goal of 2,000, I started looking toward that instead.  I had biked off and on through last winter with its dearth of snow, so there was no reason now not to keep going until conditions prevented it.

Recently, I've been doing short rides on the bike path on a beat-up old mountain bike, which I would someday like to start using as my around-town transportation bike.  Need to get that idea going somehow if I can get past the convenience of jumping in the car.  But anyway, today's ride put me over that 2,000-mile hurdle, as I biked from Blatnick Park to just short of the Northway and back on the Mohawk River Bikeway.  Last year, the season after my cross-country trip, and being somewhat burned out by it, I came up short of 1,400 total miles, so this was a significant step back in the right direction toward longer rides and more touring.  As if to reinforce that feeling, I met a loaded bike tourist on his way to Boston from California, and we had a nice chat.

Time to raise this year's bar to 2,100, and next year, 2,500...