Total Miles to Date: Target: 3288 miles. Current mileage: 3122.

How is your mileage goal coming along so far?

Here’s how some of our 10,000 Miles in 2018 members are doing:

-Phil I. (Sutton Coldfield, England): Currently slightly behind, just over 2,500 miles ridden; however, mileage will start to increase now, as weather (hopefully) improves & ‘Chase the Sun’ training kicks up several levels...

-Carl A. (Wilmington, North Carolina): Ahead of schedule by 872 miles

-Marcus C. (Aurora, Colorado): 5 miles ahead of schedule

Total Number of Strava Group Members: 290

Challenges: I am happy to say that April was a pretty smooth month overall. The weather is improving and I am getting better at fitting in the 27 mile/day average with my training schedule as I start to ramp up towards some races.

One ride was particularly frustrating - about a week ago I set out for a nice long Sunday solo ride- the sun was out, I had an open day and the wind for once was not howling like crazy. About the time I was as far away from my house as I could possibly be, I clipped out of my pedal at a stop light and felt my cleat break. I continued on attempting to rest my shoe on my pedal, and tried to take a "short cut" through Chatfield to the closest bike shop that would likely sell the cleats. Sadly, Chatfield is all torn up and I found myself facing a giant field of dirt where the road once was. I had to reverse those miles back to a logical place (Waterton Canyon) where I realized I had no choice but to call an Uber to get home. After 20 miles of resting the shoe on my Speedplay pedal I knew I wouldn't be able to do that another 30 miles home to Golden. Calling an uber to get bailed out on a ride was a first!

Another interesting "challenge" was finding a yelp review someone left about my law firm online. It appeared to be from insurance defense counsel (i.e. opposing counsel in our cases). The post made a point to criticize my #10000milesin2018 goal -actually suggesting readers find my group on Strava and shaming me for attempting such a goal ... I found the commentary really interesting- apparently it is acceptable to spend 2 hours a day car commuting, but not 2 hours a day bike riding and commuting? All that post did was fire me up even more to hit this goal!

Highlights: April was also #30daysofbiking !

Last weekend I enjoyed 2 back-to-back sunny days of miles with a friend and we didn't have a single motorist issue, a single flat, or mechanical- nothing but those enjoyable, blissful miles in the sun. Those make me so happy -they charge my battery for days and days.

THIS MONTH’S QUESTION: Is this goal easier or harder than expected?

I found it getting pretty tough in February and March but now I'm finding a groove and heading into summer and some events ahead, I am hoping I can enter the fall and winter with some banked miles to get me through the cold months ;)