Sunday, September 20, 2009

Sunday Sunday Sunday!!!

Today I wanted to fit in a decent ride before the Eagles game was on at 1. I went with my brother and my buddy who are doing the City to Shore with us in TWO WEEKS! I wanted to redo the ride I missed because of the broken spoke yesterday. We went out with a mission. I felt GREAT. My bike finally felt right, and I was excited to ride. We got to the hill that my spoke broke on last time, and I had a little apprehension about going up it for some reason. I made it to the top, then got to go down the hills... my reward. We ended up crossing over a street we'd already done, so I suggested we do it again, because it was a decent up hill ride and I knew there was another way to go down.

BOY WAS THERE! We shot down like bats outta hell. It was fantastic. I love going fast. But I had to climb that same hill again, where my spoke broke. I considered it exposure therapy. I'm not afraid anymore. haha. We found an arrow for the Iron Tour we did a few months ago, and started following them. We found about 7 arrows in the same intersection. I just picked a direction and the others followed. We climbed a MASSIVE hill only to go down the other side on a steep hill that ended in a 90 degree turn, so there was no speed... our breaks almost didn't hold it was so steep.

Once we got down the hill, we ended up right where we got lost, at the 7 arrow intersection. We took the only direction that we didn't know, and found ourselves on a very familiar road... about 2 miles from home, so we ended our ride at 20 miles. Good ride, lots of climbing, low average speed.

Stats:
Time: 1 hour, 23 minutes, 1sec
Distance: 10.12 miles
Av Speed: 14.5
Max Speed: 40.4

Saturday, September 19, 2009

3 in 1

Because I haven't had much time to post lately, I'm going to make one really long one that includes three separate thoughts! COOL!

So I just moved in with my brother about two weeks ago. We haven't had much time to ride together because I am super busy, but we're trying. We had gotten out to do a quick 30 minute, 10 mile ride. We averaged over 18mph. It was absolutely insane. I was in a bad mood that day for some reason and decided I wanted to pull the whole time. He had just gotten back from the gym so it worked out fine. I think I want to make that my new time trial route. It's a little shorter than the last one, but I can get a lot of speed on it.

Last weekend I went to my fiance's house and did a "50 Mile" ride as a benefit for the local library. We signed up, 20 bucks a head, and it was great! The ride itself was beautiful and fairly well marked, but there were probably only 20 riders out there. So, essentially we paid for a marked route, a water bottle, and a sandwich at the start/stop point. It was nice to get out and ride with her again, though. It was a very relaxed ride and we got to spend some quality time together doing something we both enjoy, which was really the whole point.
Stats from that ride:
Time: 3 hours, 46 minutes, 50secs
Distance: 57.54 miles
Average Speed: 15.2mph
Max Speed: 46.3mph

Today, I went for a ride with my brother and his neighbor. I'm getting over a cold, but I want to get some miles in because the city to shore is in two weeks! We started out and things were going great. They had decided they wanted to show me a different route that they'd taken before that has a lot of down hills... my favorite. Of course, to get to ride down hill, you have to ride up hill for a while. That was fine, because I appreciate the pay off. At the top of one of the last hills, MY SPOKE POPPED! I had to call my dad to pick me up, waited for 30-40 minutes until he got there, and then I took my bike to the LBS (local bike shop) to get fixed. Phoenix Cycles is the best. They fixed some of the gearing problems I've been having FOR NOTHING! They also fixed the spoke for 10 bucks. Can't beat the price. I was about to put my bike in for a $45 tune up just to get the gearing problems fixed. I think he even lubed my chain up for me.

Anyway, I only got about 6-7 miles in today because of the spoke. I'm hoping to give it a shot again tomorrow before football. I want to get at least 30. We'll see how that goes.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

FINALLY! AN UPDATE!

So for all my loyal fans... which I'm pretty sure consists of my fiance, my dad, and maybe a handful of other people... I'm updating. FINALLY.

I haven't updated for a few reasons. Originally, it was because I went on vacation. When I came home, I started apartment hunting. I was really exciting, packing, and planning, and then became depressed when I realized that I couldn't afford the apartment I wanted... you know, because of the whole grad school thing. Anyway, I am moving in with my brother this weekend which is going to open up a whole new world of cycling for me. I'll get to find routes to all sorts of different places. We got to explore last weekend and got totally lost. We ended up turning a 15 mile ride into a 30 mile ride that took us about two hours to complete.

I haven't updated my weight in a while, but it hasn't changed much to be honest. I started eating poorly and drinking too much again. SHOCKER. But since school started up, work started up, and my internship started up, I've stopped with the hard-core boozing. I think that when I live with my brother, I'll probably drink less too. This is a good thing.

So, my mileage is up at 1477.8, which means I've got ABOUT another 500 miles to go... so outside of the century, I'll need to complete about 400 miles in training. I'm not overly confident that I'll make my weight goal, but never say never.

I'll try to update more.