Riding Update

Greetings from 2/3 of the way through our 10% tour!

I intended to blog almost every day but adding 1-1 1/2 hours of biking to my life every day has proven to be a bit of an adjustment. Most days we can complete the "required" mileage in around an hour. But, in order to keep it fun for the 2 & 5 year olds, we tend to break up the ride. We ride the furthest on our way to a park, have a play stop, then bike the rest of the way home. I'm not complaining about this. I want this experience to be a positive one for all of us. And, I'll admit that in the beginning, there were a few days that I had my doubts as to whether or not it would be positive for me :)

But, I have to say, I am AMAZED at how my strength and endurance has increased over the course of the last 18 days. Let me give you an example.

Four days into our journey, I mapped out a 13 mile route. My husband introduced me to this cool website mapmyrun.com. You can chart your route and it will tell you how far you are traveling. It will also show you the elevation changes of your route. I didn't know about this feature on day four. But, when my husband got off work, I had the kids all set and we were ready to go. I was fine for the first mile. The second mile got a little harder, but I was still making it. Then came mile three. I was on a road which I had driven often. Unfortunately, I never noticed it was a hilly road. There are a few words that come to mind when I think of that third mile that day: hyperventilate, embarrassed, hyperventilate, out of shape, hyperventilate, struggle ~ you get the idea. As I approached the top of the hill pulling the tag-a-long, I barely made it to the side of the road where it took me about 3-5 minutes of concentrated breathing to bring my heartrate and breathing somewhere in the vacinity of "normal". It. Was. Bad. Very bad. The only positives in my mind were that I didn't stop at mile 3 (we continued on to complete 11 miles that day) and that there was nowhere to go from there but up.

Now, let me tell you about today.

The kids were not horribly interested in riding with us today. So, I took my turn first. As I set out, I decided that I was going to tackle the "Day 4 ride". Now, there are a few things that have changed for me. First, I no longer think that 10+ mile rides sound "long". Second, I can still feel my butt and legs when the rides are over. Third, I am now consistently riding on the "big front gear" on my bike. I started this "tour" only being able to manage on the middle front gear but the last few days, I've been able to move up to the big gear and not die. So, my logic was that if I got into trouble on this "Day 4" ride, I had a middle gear range AND a small gear range that I could move through. So, off I went.

And, guess what. I made it to mile three! And, guess what else? I didn't stop! And, what else you ask? I completed FOURTEEN+ miles for the day. Did I mention I didn't stop? Not only did I conquer "Day4", I blew it out of the water. And, I only had to drop to the middle gear for the very hardest part of mile 3 and then right back into the big gear for the rest of the ride.

YEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!