Ok, so I did it!
37.67 miles (bike computer) or 36.62 (GPS) - either way, I still passed 35. This is the longest ride so far on the new bike and my longest of this season.
It was a pretty good ride. I left early and the roads and path were pretty empty except for serious cyclists. There are some significant hills between my house and the start of the bike path but once I hit the path, it's pretty flat. This is both good and bad. The good part is no uphills. The bad part is no downhills. It's just pedal, pedal, pedal with no breaks. By the time I got back to end of the path and back to the hilly part, I was actually glad for the change. But the other upside is being able to just ride and not worry about cue sheets, traffic, etc. So, I guess I'll stick with the this for longer rides and work in hills in shorter rides.
I think the next goal will be 42 miles. Maybe next weekend or the following one. I'd like to hit 50 by July 3rd. We'll see.
Happy riding!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
35 Miles today
Heading out in a few minutes to do a 35 mile ride, my longest so far. The weather says "partly sunny" but it looks pretty stormy to me. We shall see...
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Where is everyone??
So, here we are just a little more than a month before the ride. Where are you guys?? Anyone doing any riding?
I was doing really well on my training until... I ran in a race and injured my ankle. It took a while for it to heal. In fact, it still hurts a little but luckily I was able to start riding again after a few weeks rest. So, I lost about 3 weeks but I'm now gaining steam again. Yesterday I hit 300 miles (ok, well technically it was 299.88 miles but I'm for rounding).
My focus in the next few weeks is on increasing the length of my rides. I've been doing fine on 20-25 milers - some with fairly significant hills. But now I need to get into 30+ milers. Last Saturday I did 28.5 miles with a group of women. The route they've worked out goes right past my old house and ends up right near where I used to work so it was kind of like riding down memory lane. It was a very slow pace but a lot of hills. It helped to just give me the confidence that I can make it up even a big hill.
Yesterday, I did a ride that was helping a roller-blading friend train for her sport by showing her the multi-use path we ride on a lot. It's one of those Rails-to-Trails paths and it's quite long so it's a good place to do a long ride without dealing with traffic. She gave me a shout out in her blog: http://marathonanetdemi.blogspot.com.
While I was waiting for my friend to meet me at the start of the bike path, I found some inspiration for a possible Team Charlie outfit. What do you guys think?
PS - umm... anyone notice that I am like totally ahead in fund raising?? I'm just sayin' is all.
I was doing really well on my training until... I ran in a race and injured my ankle. It took a while for it to heal. In fact, it still hurts a little but luckily I was able to start riding again after a few weeks rest. So, I lost about 3 weeks but I'm now gaining steam again. Yesterday I hit 300 miles (ok, well technically it was 299.88 miles but I'm for rounding).
My focus in the next few weeks is on increasing the length of my rides. I've been doing fine on 20-25 milers - some with fairly significant hills. But now I need to get into 30+ milers. Last Saturday I did 28.5 miles with a group of women. The route they've worked out goes right past my old house and ends up right near where I used to work so it was kind of like riding down memory lane. It was a very slow pace but a lot of hills. It helped to just give me the confidence that I can make it up even a big hill.
Yesterday, I did a ride that was helping a roller-blading friend train for her sport by showing her the multi-use path we ride on a lot. It's one of those Rails-to-Trails paths and it's quite long so it's a good place to do a long ride without dealing with traffic. She gave me a shout out in her blog: http://marathonanetdemi.blogspot.com.
While I was waiting for my friend to meet me at the start of the bike path, I found some inspiration for a possible Team Charlie outfit. What do you guys think?
PS - umm... anyone notice that I am like totally ahead in fund raising?? I'm just sayin' is all.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Welcome to Team Charlie 2010!
Well, here we are... another year, another ride. Time to get out those bikes and dust 'em off (or maybe dry them off in the case of Hoot and Sarah (sorry about your basement guys)!
Most of you know I finally bought a new bike at the end of last summer. It turns out it's the same kind of bike as Polly has. I'm super excited to ride it in the Memory Ride this year and hope I'll have a much better ride with it. At the same time, I realized that last year I just simply hadn't trained enough. Having over-trained the first year, clearly I under trained in the second. Maybe that's typical - I don't know. But anyway, I'm determined to do a better job of training this year, particularly on hills which was my biggest struggle last summer.
So, I officially started my training a few weeks ago. I really wanted to get a ride in by March 15th but it didn't happen until the 17th. It wasn't much - just 4.73 mi., but the point was just to get it started. Since then I did a few other short rides just to get back into the feel of riding.
Last Friday, the weather here was just beautiful and I got out and did my longest ride so far - 17.75 mi. Most of that ride was fairly flat except for a few pretty big hills (at least for me at this point in the season). But I was pleased I made it up all the hills except for the really steep one on the way home from pretty much all our rides. Before the steep hill, which I walked up, I stopped to take some pictures of the cherry trees in the park with my new Android phone.
Feeling pretty proud of myself, I did another ride Saturday along the river drive. This was a flat ride and I told myself I would just take it easy and "recover" from the ride the day before. But when I came to my nemesis hill on the way home, I thought, what the heck and gave it a try. I was definitely huffing and puffing but I made it! So, now I told myself that I have to take the hill every time and not be a wuss! :)
Happy spring and happy riding to all!
Most of you know I finally bought a new bike at the end of last summer. It turns out it's the same kind of bike as Polly has. I'm super excited to ride it in the Memory Ride this year and hope I'll have a much better ride with it. At the same time, I realized that last year I just simply hadn't trained enough. Having over-trained the first year, clearly I under trained in the second. Maybe that's typical - I don't know. But anyway, I'm determined to do a better job of training this year, particularly on hills which was my biggest struggle last summer.
So, I officially started my training a few weeks ago. I really wanted to get a ride in by March 15th but it didn't happen until the 17th. It wasn't much - just 4.73 mi., but the point was just to get it started. Since then I did a few other short rides just to get back into the feel of riding.
Last Friday, the weather here was just beautiful and I got out and did my longest ride so far - 17.75 mi. Most of that ride was fairly flat except for a few pretty big hills (at least for me at this point in the season). But I was pleased I made it up all the hills except for the really steep one on the way home from pretty much all our rides. Before the steep hill, which I walked up, I stopped to take some pictures of the cherry trees in the park with my new Android phone.Feeling pretty proud of myself, I did another ride Saturday along the river drive. This was a flat ride and I told myself I would just take it easy and "recover" from the ride the day before. But when I came to my nemesis hill on the way home, I thought, what the heck and gave it a try. I was definitely huffing and puffing but I made it! So, now I told myself that I have to take the hill every time and not be a wuss! :)
Happy spring and happy riding to all!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)