Ow.

I woke up this morning and hopped on my laptop to check Kansas City Weather and peek at the radar. A band of rain appears to be either on top of me or on its way shortly. Then, Twhirl, an application I use to keep my pulse on the Twitter universe pops up with a message from Chris.

So, not only is it actually raining, but I'm going to have company on my ride in this morning. Weather, wind and tired legs be damned, I'm pretty much obliged to ride all the way. If Chris can do it (he lives a good 10 miles further out than I do), then so can I. Right?

I told him to give me a call when he got closer to my apartment, then quickly shifted my efforts toward re-packing my panniers, water-proofing items that needed water-proofing.

The Brookside riders were somewhat quick last night, so I was feeling it pretty good this morning already. Chris, though, being the hammerhead that he is, dragged me into work this morning at a pace that at times rivaled my personal best of 19.2 MPH. We were close to that by the time we hit Boulevard Brewery, but it dropped as I slogged up the hill on Main St. I was the glutton of my own punishment. Chris offered to take it easy and he let me set my pace. The pace which I kept was as high as I could manage. It was quick for me, but he happily spun along, ready to go as fast as I could manage and plenty faster if need be.

Chris, JR, Lorin and I partook in our morning beverage, then waited for the rain to settle down a bit before heading our separate ways.

No photos this morning. My digicam doesn't get along with rain too well.

Stats and numbers:
May is winding down. Dave and I both have a goal of hitting 5,000 miles this year. While Dave is training for races while he commutes, I just want to get from point A to point B. Dave's tactic is to ride 13.7 miles per day average. And if you think my spreadsheet makes me look like a numbers freak, you haven't seen Dave's stats. By now, I think it's fairly obvious that I think I am in competition with Dave, whom I communicate with often but have only met in person once. I don't know if he knows I am in competition with him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't care, or maybe he thinks it's funny because I'm currently way behind him in miles for 2008. But... And this is a big deal to me: I'm ahead of him for May, even if it's only by 20 miles. Knowing him, though, he's got an 80 mile training ride planned for tomorrow anyways. Even if he doesn't see this, he'll blow past my meager 610 miles or whatever I end up with for May. My competition is really with myself, but knowing someone local with the same mileage goal and a completely different cycling paradigm makes Dave a target for me to chase, however elusive and sneaky he may be.

All of this to say I decided not to bracket my miles on a per-day average, but rather to try to appropriately guess how many miles I could pack on in a given month. This month, my goal was 600 miles. I'm 2 miles away from that goal right now, but I'm still more than 500 miles behind where I want to be this year. for reference, I have a goal of 600 miles per month all the way through August. September's goal is 400, October is 300. November is 250 and December is a scant 118 miles to take me all the way to 5,000 miles for the year. The reason I'm currently 540 miles away from my goal is because March and April were particularly brutal this year, netting me a little over 300 miles each month when I figured I could cover 500 miles per month. Silly me.

I refuse to revise my goal slope, though. How it sits is how it will be, and now I get to play a game of catch-up over the coming months. Commuting alone is only going to give me 500 miles per month if I don't take any vacation days or use the bus at all. Errands and recreational rides will have to round out the mix. Fortunately, I have a couple of mile-fests in store for the summer. I won't go on any of the organized club rides, but a few friends and I, if you can't tell, have some fun night rides and perhaps a double century in the pipeline.

I think I'll make 5,000. I know Dave will.

Oh, and Dave? Just in case you are finally figuring out for the first time that I'm watching your miles just as closely as you are? Game on, brother! It's been fun, but I have a feeling you're going to widen the gap in the coming weeks.

Random Tunage:
Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
Information Society - What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)