One of the worst years for mileage goes for me, but the best in every other way. Work is going well, I met the woman of my dreams and we're engaged to be married next year!

For cycling, though, it is a far cry from last year. I trained all season last year for my first century at the Hotter than Hell 100 in Texas, and rode down into the 30s fairly regularly, ending the year with somewhere around 1500 miles.

This year has had only around 500 miles, with about 100 of those on a mountain bike, which is fairly new to me. Turns out that now I don't have the time anymore to put in bigger miles on the road bike.

Even though it is way too small for me, buying my Schwinn Passage and reading blogs from Jan Heine, Velo Orange, and others really rekindled my love for C&V steel bikes, so over the winter I am hoping to reshuffle my quiver of bikes, hopefully ending up with a fendered steel randonneur/light touring ride. I would love to try some of the southern Wisconsin brevets next year.

Finding this place has been eye opening, I haven't found a forum with a community like this in a long time. All of you seem to be a really great group.