Ride to the Rescue!

Today was my first ever group ride! In the triathlon I did in October, there were all kinds of bike rules about not drafting, etc, probably cause it's a bit more competitive in the triathlon. Because group riding is so very different, and the MS150 is a group ride, it was about time for me to get some practice in that! =)

Ride to the Rescue is a ride that benefits local animal rescue organizations and is one of the BP MS150 recommended rides. I knew I had to ride it as soon as I heard about the animal thing. =) I woke up around 5:30 this morning to get ready and get out there; I knew it was supposed to be cold, so I wanted to make sure I was bundled up and had a good hot breakfast. We swung by and picked up my friend John, and were on our way.

The start of the ride was pretty interesting; nothing at ALL like the triathlon. People just kinda started grouping up, and the "officials" would let gorups of people go at a time. No particular rhyme or reason, no pace groups, just get out and ride! So John and I took off at 8am for our bitter cold ride...temp was about 37 degrees when we left.

My feet were the first to get cold, and that was even before we hit the first rest stop (at 10 miles). I kept trying to wiggle them to get some blood flow to them, but no luck. We grabbed some food at the first rest area (banana and two cookies for me, along with some Gatorade!) and headed out for the next 10 miles. During this stretch of the ride, John pulled away from me for a bit, and I fought the strongest wind probably during this time. My fingers would go from cold to warm and then cold again...probably because of the wind. Around mile 20, I began to get concerned; I hadn't seen the next rest area yet! My arms and legs were feeling "numb;" when I would try to move my arm a bit to change positions, they felt slow to react, and very heavy. But I pushed on through to mile 22, where our final rest stop luckily was waiting.

John was waiting for me as I pulled in, and I grabbed a quick 3 sandwich squares (peanut butter and banana, mmm!), more cookies, and a handful of pretzels. I was RAVENOUS; I can only assumed because of biking and also burning energy just to keep warm. John and I decided to do the final 7 miles together, and so we took off for the finish line. The trip in was enjoyable other than the wind; we were able to chat some, though, and that was nice. But then, with about 2 miles left, we suddenly got off the trail. We ended up on a highway, and saw some bikers on another part of the road, so we turned off the road and walked across the ditch separating it. We started following these other bikers, but we concerned when we saw no arrows. Two bikers stopped to check the map, and claimed we were on the right path, so we just followed them. Sure enough, soon we returned to Hwy 6 and thus made our way to the high school.

I have learned since, in looking at this map on Map My Ride, that we were INDEED on the wrong road, which explains why we saw no more arrows the entire last couple miles of the ride. But luckily, we made our way back to the high school safely, and enjoyed some chili hot dogs and water. After spending some time in the car warming up, that is. =D Total time was 2.5 hours almost to the minute, which included our 2 rest breaks.

Next month my goal is to get in a ~45mi group ride/race, just to keep increasing my distance as I get closer to the goal! =)

MS150 Spinning Class

Yesterday I decided to try out a Spinning class at the YMCA, since the class was called "MS150 Training Ride" or something like that. I was up late Friday night, so I didn't want to get up at 7am to go ride with Bike Barn people, so I chose the 10:30am class instead. =)

The class definitely kicked my butt! About halfway through, I had to stop doing the "standing" part of the class. The instructor will call out for us to stand up in the bikes and work. It's excellent aerobic activity, but was just a little too much for me; I began overheating and definitely needed to tone it down a bit. But I just cooled down, got back on the cycle and started doing the drills sitting instead of standing. It was still a tough class, and I'm glad I went! I'll try to fit in a bit of Spinning during various points in my training, just to make sure I'm getting some good legwork in. =)

What goes up must come down!

This is a day late, sorry! Did this workout Thursday the 28th.

Decided to try a bit of a hill workout during the week this week, and I have to admit the wind could have been a bit more cooperative. I headed out eastwards on 96, and I knew the wind was going to be tough. In general, I was able to average 12-15mph even into the wind, but there were definitely some times the wind was trying to knock me over!

I got to Hwy 3 and saw the overpass that would be the best I could hope for a hill in my area. After the light, I built my momentum and started climbing. I was doing all right, downshifted, and felt the burn in my quads as I neared the crest of the hill. And then the wind just SLAMMED into me. My bike wobbled a bit with the strength of the wind, but I managed to keep control of the bike. I pedaled harder, barely going ~8mph as I finished the climb to the top of the hill, and then tried to enjoy the coast down the hill. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong there wasn't much to enjoy; I barely got to 15mph on the downhill (on Sunday John and I were going well over 20mph down the hill). Nonetheless, I used the momentum as best I could, then got over into the left lane to turn around.

And as soon as I started heading west, It was as if the wind didn't exist. I pedaled easy, building up speed and momentum as I approached the hill again. Needless to say, it was MUCH easier to get up the hill in the westward direction! =) I climbed the hill, able to maintain a slightly higher speed in this direction, and then coasted back down to the light at Hwy 3 to turn around again.

I did the hill a total of 5 times in each direction; it was interesting to see the traffic slowly increase over the time I was biking. As I got further into my ride, I tried to work myself harder on the hills; do one less downshift, so stay in a slightly higher gear while climbing the hill, to try to build some good climbing quad muscles. I'm sure this pathetic little overpass "hill" is nothing compared to what I'll face on the ride to Austin, but at least it's better than nothing!

I'm going to go check out the MS150 Training Class at the YMCA tomorrow; supposedly it's a "red" level class, which is the toughest/most intense. But I figure it would be a good thing to do; I might try the Bike Barn ride tomorrow instead, but I think at this point it's kinda late to try to get up early enough for that. We'll see what the morning holds. =)

Coming up Sunday: Ride to the Rescue in Manvel, my first true bike "race!" I'll let you know how it turns out!

Always better with a friend!

For today's ride, I was joined by my friend John. He's riding in the Ride to the Rescue! ride with me next weekend, so we figured it'd be a good time to get some distance biking in. (He's training for an Olympic distance triathlon in April.) I mapped out a 19.5mi route, meeting John's requested criteria of "18-20 miles."

The day itself was beautiful; sun was shining, and cool enough that we weren't dying while riding. The ride started out amazing; I was certain that it was a "calm" day, with not a lot of wind, because we were cruisin' around 20mph. When we made our first turn onto South Shore Blvd, we both knew it was going to be a HORRIBLE ride home...the wind was just killer! But we didn't even fully know how bad it was until we got onto 646 and were pedalling into the wind... We were thankful that our next turn, at 1266, was not very far at all.

Our joy, however, was short lived as when we turned onto 1266 we were greeted by one of the roughest roads in existance. The entire ~1 mile we were on that road, our entire bikes were shaking. We were thankful when we got back onto smooth pavement...and I think that made up for the hell of going back west and into the wind. But perhaps the worst wind was coming back north on Hwy 3; or maybe it was simply that we were at ~10 miles by that point and it just FELT like the worst.

We took a quick break at a gas station, hydrating and stretching. I also, luckily, remembered some energy this time, so I downed the gel. We headed back west on 646 and came to the overpass over 45; oh what fun. Uphill into the wind. My quads were unhappy with me! I remembered this time, though, to stay on the road on 646, even though it was frustrating some of the cars behind us (since it's only a 2 lane road, and technically no passing).

RIGHT around the same place I ran into the mud the last time I was on 646, suddenly I couldn't pedal. We pulled over, and my chain had not "caught" right. We fixed it quickly and easily, I did a quick ride in the parking lot, and we headed out again. But not long after we decided to change our route slightly, cutting off about 1.5 miles (so we thought) and heading back home. Although my legs were not quite as bad as the last time I rode that road, it still sucked because of the wind! Nonetheless, we made it back safe and sound, and then went out to enjoy some lunch. =)

Until next time!

Thwarted by darkness...

I decided to try a speed workout today, mostly because trying to fit in a distance workout on a weeknight would be quite difficult. I originally intended on trying to get in ~10 miles, but alas I didn't get onto the road until just before 6, and so after about 2.5 miles I decided that I needed to just turn around and come back home.

The workout was still a good one, for me to understand where I am fitness-wise; I varied from ~15mph during my "rest" periods and ~20mph during my speed periods (basically just every stop sign along the road I swapped between the two). I found that I've lost a lot of my cardiovascular fitness compared to my triathlon training last fall; I was really having a hard time breathing towards the end of my speed periods! So I'm definitely going to have to make sure I focus on overall cardio training, too.

That's all for now! I plan to try a Group Ride this Saturday, to try to give me a little group biking experience in preparation for my "race" next weekend (Ride to the Rescue!). Stay tuned! =)

On the road again!

I finally got back on the bike today after 3 months; I haven't been out biking since my triathlon in October. I decided to try to do about a 20 mile bike, as one of the groups that have some "structured" training plans had a 22 mile bike scheduled for this weekend. I heard about this great website called "Map My Ride" (http://www.mapmyride.com) that does just that; helps you to map out some routes, tells you the mileage, etc. After mapping out my first route, I got out the bike equipment (including my new bike shorts; thanks Grandpa! =) ) and headed out.

Things started off with me turning the wrong direction out of my subdivision. =) I was also having some issues with my iPod; I forgot to turn Shuffle on, but prevent the motion Shuffle from happening, and the volume was just a little too low once I was actually out on the road. (Don't worry, I only keep one headphone in; my left ear can still hear and pay attention to traffic. ;) ) And then about a mile down the road, my pant leg started getting caught on one of my spokes, even though I specifically tied it close to my ankle before beginning. But once I got all these minor issues taken care of, I was on my way!

The first 8 miles were down Hwy 96; overall, the road was pretty good for biking. There's a hill just past Hwy 3 that gave me a bit of a hill challenge; I've decided I'll try to make a route for myself on that hill, just going back and forth a few times, to get a hill workout later in my training. Otherwise, there were nice large shoulder the entire length of the road after Hwy 3, so no major traffic issues. Hwy 146 was also decent; the shoulder was not as large as 96, but the traffic was a bit lighter. And I was able to speed up a bit on 146, because the wind was more at my back; that was nice. =) The final leg was Hwy 646; at this point I was about halfway through and still feeling pretty good.

Around 15 miles, though, I became very thankful for my biking shorts; my butt started to get sore. But overall, it wasn't that big of a deal; I knew I was almost done. As I continued down 646, I started considering whether or not to stop at a friend's house, who lives right off of 646, to take a quick potty break, or just push through til I got home. Well, the universe made that decision for me...

Along 646, once I had passed I-45, I was riding on the sidewalk. that portion of 646 is under construction (I don't know if I've ever known that road to NOT be under construction...). I suddenly notice that a ~10ft section of the sidewalk just does not exist. It ends abruptly at one point, is just mud for 10', and then starts again as if nothing happened. So I think fast and just barely come off the sidewalk into the grass and begin guiding myself back towards the sidewalk. However, I was too concerned with dealing with the immediate gap that I didn't pay attention to the general path of the sidewalk as it continued; it began turning to the left. So as I came back up onto the sidewalk, I tried to quickly turn my bike to head to the left...but my momentum was too much for my balance/control. I went straight over the sidewalk and into the awaiting mud puddle...and sank down about an inch.

After putting one foot down in the mud to keep myself from falling (also sinking that foot into the mud, I pulled my bike back out onto to relative safety of the sidewalk. Unfortunately, from pulling the bike out of the mud, a bunch of mud had collected at the forks of my bike and the wheels were fighting the friction of the mud. I cleaned it off the best I could and tried to set out biking again, but the mud was just too much. I could either call James to come pick me up, and "wuss out," or I could do my best to get to Jes' place and hose down the bike. I chose to Be Tough!

Thankfully, Jes was home and she helped me spray down my bike and my shoes, allowing me to make my way back home the final 4 miles. This short break, however, must have been an indication to my body that it was done; prior to the break, I was feeling fine, no muscle soreness, able to maintain 13-15 mph. Those last 4 miles were killer; my legs felt like they were shaking, and it took everything I had to keep up 10-11 miles an hour. But I made it home, and rewarded myself with a nice hot shower...and then a Big Mac from McDonald's. =D

Until next time!