Bike Riding Progress

Saturday (yesterday), I had the opportunity to actually do a bike ride with my coach. I wasn't alone. This was a group ride. There were about 20 of us of varying levels of fitness and experience. Some riders were faster than others, so they went on ahead. Those of us that were slower stayed closer together. Since Kathryn, Cheryl, my coach, and I were all going to be doing the New Balance Half Ironman together, my coach choose to spend most of her ride time with us. With all of us there, we would be making a day of it. A single loop was 55 miles, a double loop was 110.

To say the loop is hilly is an understatement. After all, it IS an island and islands in the Pacific Northwest aren't known for their flatness. Below is the elevation profile for this particlar ride.



What is significant about this ride, at least for me, was I didn't walk a single hill including the one they referred to as a "knee-popper." Knee popper. Terrific. One of my knees is already bad, and I don't (k)need (okay, bad, bad, pun) to make it worse. Even now, as I sit here and contemplate the 2-1/2 hour run I must still do today, said knee is not terribly happy (it's the one which had surgery a few months ago and also the one that slammed into the pavement during my little mishap a few weeks ago). Ah, well. It is what it is.

All in all, I felt like my ride was a tremendous success. My coach indicated I had made some real progress in my cycling skills since she tested me last December. That was good news to hear. After all, I didn't walk any of the hills. Granted, I went up a few of them at a whopping 4.0 mph, but that was usually only at the steepest part. Some of the downhills were a real rush. I think I maxed at just over 40 mph on one of them. Going down another, I was hitting about 30 mph when a gusty crosswind caught me by surprise and almost blew me over. I'm glad I wasn't aero at that point as I had more control.

There was another time when my coach and I were speeding down a road doing more than 30 mph and we slowed just enough to make a wide left turn. My coach was in front of me and I watched her back tire slide sideways on her. She recovered without falling, but seconds later, I was behind her. I'm happy to say, I had just enough time to slow my momentum down even further, but I still slid a bit, but not so much that I wasn't able to recover. So, twice, in the same day, I had more near catastrophes. I admit I'm just a wee bit skittish these days, but that doesn't seem to stop me from speeding down a hill at over 35 mph. More evidence, of course, as if doing an Ironman wasn't enough, that I should have my head examined.

I'll try to post more pictures later so you can get a sense of the scenery I had to put up with on my ride, but for now, I've got to go do a long run.