There's still another six weeks or so of "good" riding weather left, so the season hasn't yet reached its end. Bottom line, though, I'm pleased. When this year began, I wasn't sure I would ever log any significant mileage again. I'd been off the bike for 16 years after back surgery, two bouts with cancer and an assortment of lesser physical setbacks. I did my first outdoor ride of the year in late April, a 7-miler. Today my mileage log reads 698.2 -- not great, but not bad considering how ridiculously wet our summer was here in West Virginia.

At 63, with my medical history, I probably won't ever be a 3,000-mile-a-year rider again. Even so, this feels pretty darned good.