Saturday, June 12, 2010

I did it!

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!

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.