Where did I ride? I rode here*.
Ride Stats:
Total Distance: 36.42 km (22.6 mi)
Moving Time: 1:55:23
Average Moving Speed: 18.94 km/h (11.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 46.83 km/h (29.1 mi/h)
Elevation Gain: 713 m (2339 ft)
Recorded: Sat Feb 05 08:13:37 EST 2011
Falls: 3
The Ride:
40 degrees, overcast, rainy and 8am on a Saturday morning....yikes!! That was my first ride.....and overall it was GREAT! There were about 50 cyclists who gathered at Riverside Park to begin the ride. The ages ranged from early to mid 20s to what had to be late 60s and possibly even 70s.
The rain concerned me, since it was my first ride with clip in shoes I was worried I might try to clip in and my shoe might be wet and just slide around. This only happened once, and I was able to recover and not fall. Not that I didn't fall....oh I fell, you could say I became a pro! I fell a total of 3 times....and twice was going up the same hill! Overall, despite the falls, I believe my new cycling shoes are awesome. I was glad to be around some more experienced cyclists to both help me get up from the fall and give me some tips on using gears, going up hills, etc.
Before the ride started, everyone gathered around the head coach and he gave us a little pep talk. He spoke about Warren our Honor Hero. Warren road in the Race Across American raising money for LLS. Because of a relapse of his non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, he was unable to ride with us on the first ride. As it turns out we have several other heroes on our team, one was there on the first ride and he told us all his story. It was inspiring. Here was someone who is actively in treatment for blood cancer and he believes so much in Team In Training that he's here riding with us.
When the ride started, it truly felt like my face was going to fall off...it was so cold between the rain and the air. Eventually my face (and the rest of me) warmed up and it really wasn't that bad. The first leg consisted of 2 hills - neither of which could I objectively describe - in my current state of "out of shape" they were horrendous. On the second hill, I was pumping and trying and as I went to guide my bike closer to the edge of the road to make room for a car, my bike started to tip and I completely forgot that my foot was now attached to my bike. BAM! Fall #1. My friendMegan, who I've known since attending Georgia Tech, was there to witness it and cheered me on. Fall #2 was a simple case of Val being clumsy, once again the whole foot-attached-to-the-bike thing didn't occur to me until it was too late.
The goal for the ride was to put in 15 miles. Despite the 2 aforementioned falls, I decided to go out for an extra ride with my mentor Rod and another woman named Cindy - along with the head coach (I think - he was very bundled up). I explained that I was terrible at climbing hills, and the direction they were heading was towards the hill we went up on the first leg (yea the one I fell at)...I could use the practice. By this time, the sun had started to break through but it was still pretty cold. We took off adding some mileage and then headed for the dreaded hills on Eves road. Cindy gave me a quick tutorial of how to use my gears - and some things to keep in mine. Rod said something great as I was struggling up the hill, he said "I used to try to BEAT the hill, and then I realized that's not how to do it....when you walk up a hill you walk slow and steady, it's the same with biking". I, too, was trying to beat the hill, so I slowed down and made it up the first hill. I looked up at the next hill, the one I fell on some 90 min earlier, and I didn't think I could make it. Cindy talked me through it, and about 3/4 of the way up the hill, almost the exact spot I fell in earlier....my bike stopped moving despite my intention to keep pedaling and I tipped over. I was done - but I was glad I tried and even more glad I had Cindy and Rod there supporting me.
When I came home after the ride, I showered and required a 3 hour nap. I have a couple bruises and 2 skinned knees but still feel great about riding with Team In Training.
*I use My Tracks to track my stats and create the Map, recently the upload to Google Maps was deprecated from the Google Maps API and will not work until the next release of My Tracks. I exported the map to a .kml file and the imported it to My Maps - unfortunately it broke the map up into 3 different legs. On the left of the Maps page you can click next to see the rest of the ride
Ride Stats:
Total Distance: 36.42 km (22.6 mi)
Moving Time: 1:55:23
Average Moving Speed: 18.94 km/h (11.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 46.83 km/h (29.1 mi/h)
Elevation Gain: 713 m (2339 ft)
Recorded: Sat Feb 05 08:13:37 EST 2011
Falls: 3
The Ride:
40 degrees, overcast, rainy and 8am on a Saturday morning....yikes!! That was my first ride.....and overall it was GREAT! There were about 50 cyclists who gathered at Riverside Park to begin the ride. The ages ranged from early to mid 20s to what had to be late 60s and possibly even 70s.
The rain concerned me, since it was my first ride with clip in shoes I was worried I might try to clip in and my shoe might be wet and just slide around. This only happened once, and I was able to recover and not fall. Not that I didn't fall....oh I fell, you could say I became a pro! I fell a total of 3 times....and twice was going up the same hill! Overall, despite the falls, I believe my new cycling shoes are awesome. I was glad to be around some more experienced cyclists to both help me get up from the fall and give me some tips on using gears, going up hills, etc.
Before the ride started, everyone gathered around the head coach and he gave us a little pep talk. He spoke about Warren our Honor Hero. Warren road in the Race Across American raising money for LLS. Because of a relapse of his non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, he was unable to ride with us on the first ride. As it turns out we have several other heroes on our team, one was there on the first ride and he told us all his story. It was inspiring. Here was someone who is actively in treatment for blood cancer and he believes so much in Team In Training that he's here riding with us.
When the ride started, it truly felt like my face was going to fall off...it was so cold between the rain and the air. Eventually my face (and the rest of me) warmed up and it really wasn't that bad. The first leg consisted of 2 hills - neither of which could I objectively describe - in my current state of "out of shape" they were horrendous. On the second hill, I was pumping and trying and as I went to guide my bike closer to the edge of the road to make room for a car, my bike started to tip and I completely forgot that my foot was now attached to my bike. BAM! Fall #1. My friendMegan, who I've known since attending Georgia Tech, was there to witness it and cheered me on. Fall #2 was a simple case of Val being clumsy, once again the whole foot-attached-to-the-bike thing didn't occur to me until it was too late.
The goal for the ride was to put in 15 miles. Despite the 2 aforementioned falls, I decided to go out for an extra ride with my mentor Rod and another woman named Cindy - along with the head coach (I think - he was very bundled up). I explained that I was terrible at climbing hills, and the direction they were heading was towards the hill we went up on the first leg (yea the one I fell at)...I could use the practice. By this time, the sun had started to break through but it was still pretty cold. We took off adding some mileage and then headed for the dreaded hills on Eves road. Cindy gave me a quick tutorial of how to use my gears - and some things to keep in mine. Rod said something great as I was struggling up the hill, he said "I used to try to BEAT the hill, and then I realized that's not how to do it....when you walk up a hill you walk slow and steady, it's the same with biking". I, too, was trying to beat the hill, so I slowed down and made it up the first hill. I looked up at the next hill, the one I fell on some 90 min earlier, and I didn't think I could make it. Cindy talked me through it, and about 3/4 of the way up the hill, almost the exact spot I fell in earlier....my bike stopped moving despite my intention to keep pedaling and I tipped over. I was done - but I was glad I tried and even more glad I had Cindy and Rod there supporting me.
When I came home after the ride, I showered and required a 3 hour nap. I have a couple bruises and 2 skinned knees but still feel great about riding with Team In Training.
*I use My Tracks to track my stats and create the Map, recently the upload to Google Maps was deprecated from the Google Maps API and will not work until the next release of My Tracks. I exported the map to a .kml file and the imported it to My Maps - unfortunately it broke the map up into 3 different legs. On the left of the Maps page you can click next to see the rest of the ride
how the hell do you upload this stuff?!
ReplyDeleteAlso, you ROCK! And, I am glad that I (literally JUST) decided not to use this template for the blog haha
are you having problems uploading a map too?
ReplyDeleteYou don't want to be bloggie twins? :-)
Haha we could totally be bloggie twins, but now we can't because it'll be premeditated, and I can't function like that.
ReplyDeleteI dont know how to upload from the phone at all!
haha...well first off, can your tracking program do it? Let's take a look Saturday. I used My Tracks - it used to be a 1 step process where you just "upload to google" and it gave you a spreadsheet with a link to your map. But now the map part is bunk...boooo. So I have to export it in a certain format (.kml) and then go to My Maps on google and upload it. We'll get you uploading this weekend!
ReplyDelete