Woman Hollering Creek on the Shiny New Blue Bike

I was super excited to be doing a more "normal" distance ride (for me) on my shiny, new, blue bike. Pete and Vicky reeled me in though and told me we should try the 35 mile route on the bike and add mileage in a week or so. Ok, sometimes I'm a little overly excited. I just know that I need to double my comfort mileage and I need to defeat my Sunday sluggish ride issues.

I'm still a little slow up the starting hill. No warm-up time on this route, even though it's a short hill, and I'm just not ready to push up yet. I do take it a lot faster than I normally do and I was with the group well before the light to cross the highway turned green.

Now it's time for the long slow climb the width of Randolph Air Force Base. This is one of the most boring parts of this ride for me. I don't know if it's because it's a long straight with no scenery, or if it's the constant incline for the 3 (or so) miles. At any rate, I manage to get through and I'm not as tired as I have been in the past. I needed a quick stop to fix my Bento Box. The clouds are still fairly thick this morning, so I put my sunglasses in the Bento Box. It was too much weight and my Bento Box velcro straps were not tight so it was sliding around and scratching my leg.

We take off and I fall in place behind Pete. I'm enjoying the scenery and taking time to get a better feel for the gears. I see a bend in the road and ask for confirmation that this is the low water crossing. It is, so I get myself into the big ring and get ready for the attack. I tell Pete to go in front of me. As I start down the hill, I'm on the attack, but I'm gaining on Pete. I gain speed and start to feel some of the bumps in the road that I haven't noticed before. Suddenly, I'm ready to close my eyes and hope for the best. But, I can't do that, I tighten my grip on the handlebars and keep on rolling as scenes of Tour de France crashes flash in front of my eyes. I quickly shift to the middle ring and start climbing. The shifting isn't smooth, but it's not as rough as the Schwinn. I manage to pop up over the hill with a gear or two remaining and I'm not that behind Pete. Erica catches up and asks me how I liked that hill. I believe my exact words were, "That hill scared me to death!" Apparently she still doesn't like downhills. I know that I have to get used to it and I'll only do that by hitting the hills and getting more comfortable with the speed and the angle of the descent.

After our next break, I take the lead and pedal for a comfortable speed and cadence. I don't know what that speed or cadence is yet, so I'm going for comfort. I feel like I'm really moving down the road - definitely a higher speed than I've ever moved down this road. We turn the corner and find the headwind. Pete quickly comes around and takes the lead to pull me and Erica through the wind. We stop at the speedway for another break and Pete tells me I was moving back there.

I manage the overpass well and even get up the hill where my chain got locked last week. I start to get tired and ready for a quick break, but I know we're within a mile of the pie place and a cool break. I figure we'll catch up with Vicky and the rest of the group at the pie place. To my surprise, we roll in and there are no other bikes parked outside. Wow! We must not have been moving as much as I thought we were. Of course, all of my little breaks add up too.

We break at the pie place, hit the restrooms, cool off on seats larger than a bike saddle and watch the time. We managed a restful break with calorie intake and emptied bladders in 20 minutes. We gear back up and as we're ready to take off I remember I have my cleat covers on still. Oops! I quickly pull these off, drop them in my jersey and we're off.

I feel much better as we head out today than I did after the 45 minute break last week. Pete coaches me on an attack for the next hill as there isn't much of a downhill from which to gain any speed. I shift for the attack, watch him and start my attack as instructed. As I'm ready to shift rings, I can't. I try again. Nothing. I'm quickly losing speed. I try for a lower gear rather than a ring change and realize that I'm creeping to a stop. If I don't switch rings now I'm going to fall over. I unclip and get my foot on the ground before gravity took over. As Erica passes me, I tell her I can't change rings, but I'll get there. I look at the bike and it looks fine. I try to change gears and suddenly realize I wasn't pushing the button hard enough to switch rings. Now that I'm in middle of the hill and at a complete stop, I switch to the small ring and push the pedals to make sure it's comfortably in the small ring. Just then, Pete doubles back to check on me. As I tell him what I did, he shifts the gears down a few for me and I'm ready to chug my way up the hill. I made it and learned a lesson on thinking about your shifting! Erica is impressed that I didn't fall and I'm happy that I managed to figure it out myself.

The rest of the ride is uneventful. I feel good, but we were still slower than the other riders who started with us. I need to strengthen my core and the endurance of my butt so I can stay on the bike for more than seven miles at a time. I'm improving though, and I can feel that and it feels good. Vicky beat us to the truck by an hour, but made use of the time by working on her turns. I'll have to make it a goal to keep up with Vicky in the coming weeks.

Goals
Today's Miles: 35
Total Miles Achieved: 474.9
Financial Investment: $1781.14
Total Weight Loss: +1.2