Friday, April 29, 2011

Against the Wind

Last night we repeated the Bride Ride - almost exactly 8 miles. I had a rough start and it wasn't until we were way in the middle of Williamsburg that I realized it was REALLY windy on the trails. My hill speeds were low last night but it appears we made it up on the flat sections with an average riding speed of nearly 10 mph.

Today and tomorrow we'll be participating in the neighborhood garage sale and working on homework. Sunday begins 30 rides in 30 days. I'm praying for dry afternoons and evenings, it can rain all it wants, early in the morning! For this challenge, ride distance doesn't matter as much as getting on the bike every single day. I'll track everything of course, because that's what I like, maybe by the end of May I'll have a couple hundred miles under my belt!

The biggest excitement for me was that after last night I am now over 50 miles for the ride season. I know that for a lot of people that's their daily mileage, and for even more that's their weekly distance. We'll get there =) We didn't really get any rides done in 2010 so this marks an excellent start.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Go By Bike

Last night we rode just over nine miles. After a long day at work, and some quickie errands we slurped down dinner and loaded the bikes onto the Tribute. After bell practice we hopped on and rode home. It is GREAT having another driver! It was a little cool (I think we were in the low 50's) but we made it.

We have decided to do a metric on our own Saturday July 9. That's just over 8 weeks away. I feel a little nervous at the moment since I didn't feel very strong during last night's ride but I plan to keep right on pushing. We'll see how things go once we get to 50 cumulative miles a week, apparently that is a turning point for many cyclists. Our next planned ride is Thursday, before we set up the garage sale and then we're planning to spend some time out on Sunday cheering for friends who are running the half marathon. 10,000 runners this year so the only way to get close to them will be to ride in.

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Tale of Two Rides

Friday after a lot of housework, and a vegetable laden meal Brian agreed to a quick ride. I didn't realize until we were a mile away from the house that my body was considering this a recovery ride. We did 8 miles in 45 minutes and my legs were tired the whole way. I drank plenty of water when we got off the bike and thankfully (since we had 11 for Easter dinner Saturday night) I wasn't in any pain Saturday morning.

In May we will be doing 30 rides in 30 days. As part of the challenge you are supposed to use your bike for errands in place of your car. I decided that we should give this a quick try Sunday afternoon to get the meat and cheese for dinner (we had my mom and Roger over for sandwiches). Our total distance was around 4 miles. I didn't take the time to figure out speed or time on the bike. It was fairly windy here so the ride to the store was rough, but on the way home I rode up the big hill without stopping or crying. 4 years ago we went on a ride and I refused to turn around and come home the way that we came because I was afraid to ride that hill.

Cummulative miles for this week are 22. That's pretty cool for this early in the season. This week there is a lot of rain in the forecast but we still need to get our miles in. I'm hoping it will be dry at least three days for us to get out. My goal for this week is to hit 25 or more cummulative miles.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A Little Brisk

Last night after getting Erik's tux picked out and fitted for prom Brian grilled salmon and after dinner we hopped on the bikes for a quick 10 mile ride to the zoo. It was sunny and just a tiny bit windy, but with a high of 57 yesterday it was a bit cold on the bikes! There were tons of other riders out and we made it back home just as the sun was starting to set. There are supposed to be more storms today and maybe Friday so we are trying to plan a way to ride our bikes to church for bell practice on Saturday morning. I would really like to see cummulative mileage this week close to 25 miles!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Long Weekend

We didn't get any rides in this weekend. Friday night we had storms off and on and miserable winds gusting to 40 mph. I shouldn't complain though, because in Western Nebraska they had 6-8 inches of snow to go with the wind, and places throughout the country had deadly tornados! Saturday we spent 5 hours cleaning out the garage and getting ready for garage sale weekend. Erik took two car loads of stuff to the mission for us (thank goodness) and we have a medium sized stack of garbage plus 4 cans full to go out with tomorrow's trash. After all that, the garage looks MUCH better and we suspect that once the garage sale is over we'll be able to park at least one car in it. The hope is that we'll get two in by winter! Novel to park the cars in the garage =)

Sunday morning we went to church and then worked on homework, mowing and getting ready for Southeast to host the annual district music competition. Monday, we spent 10 hours at the high school, rearranging furniture, running concessions, keeping the judges and directors happy and trying to manage a school full of students from a variety of schools. I don't think my bed has ever felt better than it did last night! Today we're all back to our regular work and school schedules. Hopefully I'll get re-hydrated and tomorrow we can slip in a training ride. Saturday it's supposed to be nice and we're hosting for Easter so I'm lobbying for a 10 mile ride. We'll see if I'm successful =)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Musically Inclined

This week hasn't been great for riding. Tuesday Erik had a concert and I mowed our house and my mom's so I did a quick 4 mile with medium hills and then we spent the rest of the evening at the school. Wednesday I worked the long shift and Erik had another concert. I had hoped for a longer ride today or tomorrow but Lincoln is being plagued by rain and storms. If it's dry when I get off work I may try to get a quick ride in. In addition to today's storms the weather channel is predicting a 100% chance of precipitation for Friday so it looks like it may be the weekend before I can get some time in again. I know that the serious riders say to train when it's raining because it might be raining the day of your ride. I'm willing to wind train this year (which I've never been interested in before) but I'm not ready to get caught on my bike in a Nebraska spring storm... at least not yet!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Oh Blog I'm So Sorry

I've decided that for the time being we'll use you this to blog about our bike rides. I have decided that I want to ride 50 miles this summer and Brian wants to ride a metric century (62.5 miles). Sunday morning we rolled out of bed, gulped down some cereal and while Brian checked bike tires I filled up water bottles. We had strong Southwest winds fighting us the whole way but we managed to do 8.5 miles in 50 minutes. The weather forecast looks rough this week with the possibility of snow on Friday. Who wants snow in April??? We are hoping for a short ride tonight, before Erik's vocal music concert, and another ride this Sunday morning. Starting next week I want to get in 3 rides every week! The article that I read today on preparing for distance rides says that you should train so that your weekly rides accumulate to your single distance mileage goal for a one day ride. This week I think I'll set my weekly goal distance for 15 miles. We'll see how far I can make it tonight!