Biking Uphill....Both Ways!!

Even with some wind, rides of 30-40 miles at an average speed of 15 mph don't seem to present much challenge anymore....good for me! I now need to practice three things: 1) increased distance (rides in the 70-100 mile range), 2) rides on two consecutive days, 3) hills, hills and more hills. The MS150 ride will have plenty of all 3 of these challenges!

This past weekend, I figured I'd work on the last two items on the list. Saturday, I woke up and cruised about 38.5 miles in about 2.5 hours. Then, since the Houston area is as flat as ...well, you can make up your own analogy...I decided that I would bike back and forth over the Kemah bridge (see the picture below) on Sunday morning. The bridge has a cloverleaf-like intersection at each end, so you can start biking at one end of the bridge, and after about 2 miles of pedaling up the bridge, down the otherside and then up it again from the other side, you're back where you started without having to ever stop. A lot of runners and bikers in the area use this bridge as 'hill training'. Although there is lots of car traffic on the 4-lane highway bridge, fortunately, the shoulders are very wide, so it's a great place to ride and run.

Since I've never biked hills much since I've started training, I didn't know how difficult this may be. I had planned on only 3 round trips on the bridge. However, after the 3rd circuit, I felt like doing it again! I wasn't as tired as I thought I would have been, but later in the day, my legs knew that they had been pedaling up hill for the first time! I look forward to riding this bridge each weekend between now the MS150.

Total distance for the weekend: 46.3 miles. Total distance since I started: 359.8 miles

One Tenth of the Daytona 500!

Today I participated in my second organized group ride. It was the Ride To The Rescue bike ride starting at Tom Bass Park on the southern edge of Houston. I didn't get the exact count, but there were several hundred riders participating in todays ride. The ride was a fundraiser for area animal rescue groups. There were three routes to choose from: 30 miles, 50.1 miles and 63 miles. My neighbor and I chose the 50 mile route. Until today, my longest ride had been 35 miles, so I was anxious to see how I would handle the increased distance. As it turns out, I did just fine! In fact, my average speed for the 50 mile ride (15.0 mph) was faster than the average speed for the 35 mile ride (12.7 mph) from 2 weeks ago! I completed the 50 miles (one tenth of the distance of the upcoming Daytona 500) with an average speed of approximately one tenth of the average speed of last years Daytona 500 winner (152 mph). Watch out Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon...here I come!

After todays ride, my tally of total miles on two wheels since I started this adventure is: 313.5 miles.