The second-most-fun kind of math

Normally I'm more of a word person than a numbers person, but once I started biking and (later) running, the stats bug started to bite me.

Mostly, it's the feeling of progress and accomplishment: look how many miles I ran/rode. Shortly before RAGBRAI, though I knew I was prepared, I was curious about just exactly how prepared I was.

When it came out to 933 miles done specifically for RAGBRAI training, I was shocked, then impressed, then more curious to see how much riding I'd done.

See ... from purchasing my road bike in spring 2011 through the end of 2012, I'd only done 667 miles on it.

In two years, 667 miles; in 3.5 months, 993. How much more could I emphasize how little I'd ridden The Shrimp before this year?

Fort Madison welcomes us to the end of RAGBRAI.

Well, during my half marathon training, I'd actually even ridden about 105 miles. And during my four days of RAGBRAI, I went 241 miles.

That means I've already biked 1,279 miles this year. (None of those came after July 27, in case you were wondering.) Which in turn means I've nearly tripled the mileage on my bike in 2013.

I was impressed. I am impressed. (I don't expect more serious bikers to be impressed.) This is more fun with math than anything not related to baking!