May in Review: Lots of Biking, and MAJOR Strength Time PR!

May saw some DECENT numbers! Here’s what my training log looked like:

(Don’t let the red and purple in the final week scare you: the red is just noting a race, and the purple was noting some shoulder pain after trying something different in the gym - I don’t think they are related.)

I had some BIG NUMBERS for strength training and bike miles!

RUN: 91.85 miles
BIKE: 360.69 miles (outdoors)
TRAINER TIME: 2 hours and 21 minutes
STRENGTH TIME: 66 hours and 53 minutes

Total saddle time: 22 hours, 3 minutes, and 24 seconds

That’s not really super impressive saddle time, but so much of it was outside, so 360+ miles of outdoor riding is huge! That might be a top-5 month of bike miles in the last 18+ years (post-Ironman training). I had 1 bigger month all of last year, 2 bigger months all of 2024, and 0 bigger months all of 2023. And my years were all smaller before that. So this random May might have been my 4th biggest of month of biking in the last 18+ years.

And that’s a massive lifetime PR for strength time! I’ve been getting in some good longer workouts! And what has helped (artificially) bump that number even higher is that I’m doing an extra 15-20 minutes of new shoulder exercises about 5 days/week to help strengthen my shoulder issue from December. May was nearly 67 hours, and my previous PR was April with 60 hours and 42 minutes. So 6+ hours more is a big jump from a previous lifetime best!

This month will see a decrease in bike miles - partly due to more family things happening this summer, and partly due to getting a gym membership so I'm HOPING that one of my biking days each week will transition back to pool time instead.