For the first time this year, I’ve been able to ride the bike four days in a row. The weather wasn’t great, but it was good enough. We had one really nice day, two decent days, and one iffy day. I ended up getting rained on a bit on the iffy day, but it was still a good day to ride.

Today started off with a rain/snow mixture, and the forecast is calling for more cool temperatures, clouds, and rain for the next four days, so it may be mid-week before I get on the bike again.

So I’m glad I was able to ride this week. The mileage wasn’t huge — 114 miles, and the pace was pretty pokey, but by the end of the week, I could certainly tell I’d ridden. It may be awhile before I’m built up again to the 500-600 miles-a-month level I expect by mid-year, but I’ll get there.

Compared to last year, I’m feeling pretty strong, having done quite a bit of hill work already. On March 1st, I did a short but very tough ride, heavy on the hills and wind. That was painful, but it seems to have served me well. All part of the process…