All day I thought about the fact that I needed to get on the bike again after yesterday's 25 mile ride. And all day I kind of dreaded it, especially anytime I sat down into or got up from a chair. Oww.
BUT... I did it -- hoorah! I took a nice little 10 mile ride on the bike path along the river tonight (in my fluorescent green windbreaker -- no granny sweater tonight!). Of course, our bike path is so short that I had to ride the length of it six times and ride back and forth the event center to make 10 miles, but no matter. It worked.
Okay, so.. things I loved about the ride tonight. First, the bike path is flat, which was a huge relief after the climbs of this week. It gave me a chance to practice my shifting, which I sorely needed to do (no butt bone pun intended). I realized yesterday that I am a completely inefficient shifter, which makes climbing even harder. So this morning, I posted a question about how to shift better on this awesome cycling forum (forums.adventurecycling.org) and several much more experienced riders than me posted answers throughout the day -- how cool is that?!?! What's not to love about mentors when you are learning something new? I am way jazzed about all the advice, council and information I am going to glean from this forum -- a new resource.
The experts confirmed my suspicion that I was waiting too long to shift, and also got me to reflect on the fact that I have only been shifting with the back derailleur (ie. just on the right side of the handlebars). So, there is some work to be done, and it was great being able to shift up and down, up and down riding on a flat road before I try it out on hills.
Another good thing about the ride was the scenery. The route runs along the Hams Fork River and the Fossil Island Gold Course. It is a whole lot of pretty and such an easy ride that I can actually enjoy the pretty.
One thing I wasn't crazy about... lots and lots and LOTS of bugs along the river. I think I spit out at least 6 gnats throughout the ride, which on the gross out scale rates pretty high for this sissified city girl. (I am pretty sure I only swallowed one, though...... I know -- ew.)
Anyway, the point is, I got back in the saddle! And, I am sitting at 57 miles for the week. Tomorrow I will break 60 miles for the week, despite traveling. My goal by the end of June is to be clearing 100 miles a week -- I am on my way to that goal!
Night, blog.
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