Training ride #1

I've been moping about how much solo cycling I do. While I cherish my alone time on the bike, I do occasionally get a little lonesome putting in all those miles by myself. With that in mind, I jumped at the chance to ride on Sunday with friends who are also training to ride in the ADA Tour de Cure in June.

Bel, Bob, Scott, & me with our trusty Specialized steeds.

My route was slightly shorter than my planned fifty mile ride, but I still managed almost 37 miles by riding from Sterling (mi 22.5) to Idylwood Park in Falls Church (mi 8.5) , backtracking to Hunter Mill in Reston (between mi 14.5 & 15) with Bel, Bob, & Scott then riding back to our meet-up spot in Falls Church (mi 8.5) and continuing with Scott up to the spot in Arlington where the W&OD meets the Custis (~ mi 4), and then back to the park in Falls Church where the truck was waiting to carry us back home. I am so thankful that Scott drove the truck to meet me at the park. While an easterly tailwind got me to Falls Church in an hour, that same wind was a killer going westbound. My legs were killing me on the final leg of our ride and I wouldn't have made the slog back to Sterling in that headwind.

Elevations from Shirlington (0) to Sterling (22.5). Source.

During the ride, I took my first clipped-in spill. I unclipped on the left and promptly fell to the right on to a, thankfully, super soft patch of grass. Also thankfully, I remembered to leave my right foot clipped in so I wouldn't possibly sprain it or worse. Bob and Scott were horrified, but I threw my arms in the air -- after crawling out from under the bike -- and hollered "Whoo hoo! I'm a real cyclist now!" Circe was fine and I was merely covered in chain grease from my knees down. My pride wasn't even bruised; I was too jazzed that the fall wasn't anywhere as painful or scary as I had imagined it would be.

Scott took his Crux off-road and disappeared in the bush.

The training ride shook my belief in my being able to ride a metric century, much less a full one. But I have to keep reminding myself that this was the first longish distance ride on my new bike and I have six more weekends of training -- I'm out of town Memorial Day weekend -- before the big event. There's plenty of time to continue training and the ride will be okay.

Ice, ice, baby

This morning's commute was pretty easy even with the "wooden" (I suspect Trex or somesuch) bridge being covered with crunchy ice. I followed Rootchopper's advice to "stay loose" and crossed the bridge without incident. I'm sad that my helmuffs don't work as well under my Bern helmet, but my wool cap works just fine and keeps my sweaty hair covered during the walk from garage to cube. Happily, the fog was merely damp and not of the frozen variety.

Got buzzed by a cement truck who passed me on a blind corner and then made a right turn directly in front of me. Couldn't wait the few seconds for me to pass your turn, dude? Thankfully, there were no cars (or people) coming around that curve.

I discovered that the MapMyRide app was shorting my commute distance by two-tenths of a mile. Yeah, that doesn't seem like much at first, but it does add up. I've recalculated my commute mileages and have added five miles to my end-year total. Whoo hoo! (Shush. I've got a mileage goal I'm working toward [and am not going to hit, darnit!])

So anyway, here are my 2011 stats. I'm looking forward to comparing them to the end of 2012. I'm sure these don't match up with any of the lovely bike bloggers I follow, but there's nothing wrong with that. (It's not a competition. It's not a competition. It's not a competition.)

CC the Schwinn
May: 22.99
June: 14.58
July: 3.54

Rose

July: 47.33
Aug: 53.81
Sep: 105.67
Oct: 229.37
Nov: 159.65
Dec: 160.36

Rose total: 756.19
All total: 797.3

Yet another bike goal reached just before year's end

Sometime back in the summer when I started biking regularly, I thought it would be a fun activity for Scott and me to ride out to Purcellville, stay in a B&B, and ride back home the following day. I mean, it's nearly 23 miles from our house to the end of the trail; there's no way we could possibly ride there and back in one day!

Except, we can. Or rather, I can. And did. Today. As part of my race to ride the distance to Mom's house before Rose's and my six month anniversary, I hopped on the bike and rode the 45.95 mile round trip to Purcellville and back. According to my new computer, the trip (minus stops) took 3 hours, fifty minutes (the full trip time was just over four and a half hours). Less than five miles shy of fifty miles, y'all. I'll totally be riding half centuries with ease next year. But first, I need to chase down that 850 miles by January 11.

I took lots of pictures and have some shout outs for great gear which will go up in a separate post.

Mileage

As of last night's commute, I have put 620 miles on Rose in the five months I've had her. Wow. That's almost the distance from my house in northern Virginia to Nashville, TN. Another 230 miles would be the door-to-door distance from my house to my Mom's in Germantown, TN. I don't know if I can get that mileage in before our six month anniversary, but it'll be fun to try.

The funny thing is, earlier this week I thought my mileage was 400, maybe 450 miles. Scott argued that I was way above 500. And that's just on Rose. My total mileage since May -- I was on CC the Schwin from May to 10 July -- is 662 miles. Oh, wait. That was only since I started using MapMyRun/MapMyRide for calculations. There were a LOT of one and two miles in early May as I was getting the hang of being on a bike. So I might be closer to 675. Wow. And to think I was struggling to get out of and back into my neighborhood only seven months ago.

Mileage stats

I was tallying up my bike mileage to see when Rose is due for her post-break-in tune-up and I was surprised to see the following stats:

May: 22.99 miles on C.C. the Schwinn
June: 14.58 miles on C.C.
July: 46.88 miles on Rose the Specialized
August: 53.4 miles on Rose
September: 104.95 miles on Rose
October: 106.12 miles on Rose (that's in less than half of the month!)

I'm at 311.35 miles, as of yesterday evening, on Rose and it's time to schedule her tune-up. :)