Are We There Yet?

Almost!!

I am just a few miles away from having ridden 3,000 miles on my bike!

Actually, I have ridden many more than that, but this is since I began riding seriously in 2001. (I used to do two miles a day delivering newspapers, seven days a week. I did that for five or six years before I began recording my rides.) Back when I became serious about my riding, I grabbed one of the kid's old piano practice notebooks and used that to record my rides.

Each year begins with an outline of what I want to achieve that year as a cyclist as well as the total mileage for the year.

That 1,000 miles in 2005 was more than I could do, but I made it almost halfway!

This is what the logbook looks like inside:

Each line represents a day, with the date, day, mileage on the odometer, cumulative mileage from past rides, and how much I rode that day.

I LOVE riding my bike; it's the only exercise I do with a smile on my face. I fell out of habit last year, and have missed most of this summer - it wasn't even on my radar to do until the other day when I walked past my bike in the garage and realized that I needed to get going. (Summers are when I get the bulk of my riding in. Too tired and a lack of time during the school year.)

Now I track my rides on my iPhone through the app, MapMyRide.

While I miss having a notebook filled with rides that have been logged, I like how this one actually creates maps of my rides, averages my speed, allows me to write comments, and logs other things that I'd like to know. Even short rides like these chip away at the 3,000 mile goal!

So, I am back in the saddle again.

Biking Ten Miles Uphill in a Blinding Snowstorm

Sort of.

I was determined to ride ten miles today. I am getting stronger and my knees feel looser from the riding, there was no wind, the temperature was in the 70s, so there was no reason NOT to ride those ten miles.

Until I felt some raindrops when I had gone about five miles.

I'm not afraid of rain. My days of worrying about what rain will do to my hair are long gone. (Helmet hair is a side effect of cycling, so why worry about rain on top of that?)

But rain, especially the first few minutes of a rain, even a gentle one, makes the pavement very slick. All the dust that's accumulated along with oils from passing cars mixes with the water and the roads get slippery. Corners and turns can be a nightmare - I have had my bike slip and fallen over to the side in the past. Brakes get wet and do not function as well, and even if they do, you skid on the dust/oil/water mix.

(To say nothing of the difficulty of seeing where you are going when the rain is coming down!)

I weighed my options and decided I would continue at a slower pace, especially in turns and at intersections. And, since it was the Saturday of a holiday weekend, traffic was nearly nonexistent.

 I made it! 10.11 miles (that would take me to Hershey!)

 Top speed today was 14.8 mph, a little low due to the rain.

 My glasses were spattered with water when I got home - visibility had gotten difficult.

Bonus! Under the heron roosting tree was a beautiful silvery blue feather!

What makes me feel really good, though, about making the ten mile ride is that ten miles is what I used to ride on a daily basis. 14.8 mph is also a more normal pace. My legs feel stronger and my pedaling rhythm is back. 

I feel like me again, and not so much like Lynn-with-the-replaced-hip-and-knees.

A History of Riding

I have been riding for years, but it wasn't until 2001 that I actually began to formally track just how many miles I was riding.

Charis Duke had had me buy each of the kids a little notebook like this, and she recorded their weekly assignments in them for piano practice. Since no one was taking lessons any more, I pulled one out of the piano bench and turned it into my bike log.

I began each year by making a page like this:

 I'd set a goal (an ambitious one in 2006, and one not accomplished because I ended up having three ankle surgeries that summer and we moved to West Lafayette.) I would record the data for the beginning of my riding for that year and then again on January 1 of the following year so I had a total of how many miles I had completed that year. (231 miles with all that happened that year ? Not bad!)

Every time I completed a ride, I would record its data including the date, total for the day, and running total for the year.

I went through a couple of odometers (I am on my third) so the cum data varied. I also made notes throughout the year as I rode. Here are some highlights from 2001- 2012:

2001: 593.76 miles, carpal tunnel surgery on  left hand 8/24

2002: 338 miles

2003: 85 miles, flat tire, summer school

2004: did not ride, hip replaced 

2005: 459.69 miles, knee pain 

2006: 231 miles, 3 ankle surgeries on 5/19,  moved to Indiana in July

2007: 213.48 miles, cortisone injection in knee

2008: 351.70 miles, cortisone injection in knee

2009: 364.25 miles, Dad passed away

2010: 221.35 miles, new bike, Curt and Cole got married, cortisone injection, Synvisc injection

2011: did not ride, right knee replaced, 12/1/10, left knee replaced 6/7/11

2012: 62.05, still recovering from knee surgery, got Abby

Back in the Saddle Again!

The BIKE saddle, that is. Onyx and I went for a spin this morning!

It has been a while due to my knee replacements and then getting Abby last summer, but I am determined to NOT let my cycling fall by the wayside. I truly enjoy it, and it is so good for me. Usually I begin riding as early as March, and get some time in on Saturdays until school lets out and I am freer to ride in the mornings. I am definitely late getting started this year!

Normally for the first few rides of the season, I shoot for five miles at 10 mph. I was able to sustain the 10 mph, but I only got three miles in as I started getting a cramp in my thigh. I am sure that that will pass as I continue riding.

My goal is to get in 150 - 200 miles this summer (a very low goal for me, but I can always revise it) and get back to riding 10-12 miles a day at 15-17 mph.

As I swung my leg over the seat and pushed off down the driveway, a wave of warm, humid air brushed my face. The smells from lawns and trees early on a summer day are delicious, and as I pedaled I thought, "Why have I waited so long to get started this summer?"

A bit of procrastination, a bit of laziness, and just having gotten out of the habit all contributed to that, I think, but I am riding again and determined to make up for lost time.