9.4mi

May’s been a big month of changes for me, and two milestones have been passed.

The first was in cycling. With tonight’s ride, I’ve put 121.4 miles of riding under my belt this month. It’s been over 25 years since I’ve cycled, so I count that as a great success for me. Beck asked tonight if my brain “turns off” while I’m riding — I have a problem with having my mind settle down, which causes me sleep problems, and some level of distraction when doing tasks. However, when I’m cycling, my brain stops floundering on all the things at work or home, and I get very focused on my pace, my music and the ride. That alone would be worth all the effort, but I’m also finding that I sleep better and that I sleep all night. Both of those are great improvements in my quality of life.

The second was here on the blog. Akismet crossed over 10,000 spam-kills today. That’s amazing. This blog gets so little traffic, and yet I appear to have made the cool spam lists, based on the number of spambombs I get nowadays. If I hadn’t turned on Akismet, I’d be sifting through soooo much junk. Again, a quality of life impact, as monitoring this thing so closely is not as required. I can spend time cycling, massaging photos and living my life while writing about it.

Yes, May was a good month.

So, goals for June?

The first would be to put another 150 miles of cycling behind me. I think that’s very doable, as I’m riding about four times a week, with my average ride being about 10 miles.

I’ll also start tennis again this month. We move outside on Thursdays, and I expect to be rejoining my tennis folks tomorrow, weather-permitting.

I also hope to see some weight shed in June. I think my weight hasn’t changed dramatically this month, despite all the hard work. Beck believes that I am moving fat to muscle, and that’s why the weight hasn’t changed dramatically. There’s probably some truth to that, but I expect to see some changes in June.

My last goal has to do with my photography. I need to be shooting more, and I would like to have my images ready for the August show at Stage Left before June escapes.

Good goals, I think. Stay tuned, and we’ll all see if it happens!