Nearing the end of last week I knew that if I didn’t get a bit of weekend riding in, I’d end up on the last day of the month about 11 miles short of breaking the 682-mile record I set for the month of May. I could lie and say that didn’t matter, and while it didn’t matter enough to get me in the saddle Saturday or Sunday, it mattered enough yesterday to think about taking a long way home from work so that at the end of the day I’d have a new all-time-high mark.
Initially I had plans of heading to Marina Del Rey and then up through Venice and into Santa Monica to come back along San Vicente through Brentwood and West LA to West Hollywood and across the rest of the town via Fountain Avenue.
But in the end I opted for a slightly extended homeward route that brought me up through Los Feliz Village and over to the north side of the Silver Lake reservoir where I then in total and gratuitous mileage-junkiedom chugged out three laps around the perimeter and ended up at home with 684 miles for the month.
Please make a note of it: 584 of those miles were commute related, which translates into 29 gallons of gas not consumed, which (@ $4.60 per gallon) equals $134 not spent.
Another record achieved during June is one that required nothing to be sheepishly tacked on. For the first time I biked every available commute day in a month: 21. Only about a year ago I would amaze myself if I strung together five in a row.