May 12, 2013

We left from home for the very first time as a family...it was a big deal for my wife to go that far: just over 18 miles!  Of course, one of the last stretches of the way home is a hill...I think we've concluded that we're uphill from about everywhere.  It was unavoidable, though it could've been mitigated better.  I thought there was something wrong with my bike as I'd shifted all the way to 1 and was about to switch to the granny-gear, but it does occur to me after that it was probably gravity working on the 80 pounds I was dragging!  It was a good thing that, among other things, we had stopped for a picnic!

I've had the road bike for a couple months now, but I've pretty much kept to my usual routes on the paths.  In fact, we did our first long family ride yesterday, taking the hybrid and attaching the kids in the trailer to go to the local farmer's market via the trails.  However, the city is using the greenway trails for an event (CycloFemme), so it behooved me to get out of my comfort zone and go a new route that was completely road.  I'd even driven the chosen route on Thursday after work, thinking it wasn't too bad (a few hills, but manageable .

Despite its being Mother's Day, I set out early (maybe because of the day?) and headed toward the new trail that would take me on a road out of town to meet up with a highway that runs along the foothills.  Really, logic wasn't on my side or I would've thought about how UP that would all have to be.  I'm pretty sure it was mostly climbing for five plus miles in there, so I was pretty warn out in a new way when I finally reached the highway, which still left me just under twenty miles to get home!

But when I finally got to go down...well, I remember when it was a big deal when I was reaching twenty, but I didn't even check until after to know that I hit about 33mph heading down toward Lyons!  I admit, it was terrifying and totally fun all at once as I made my way down all that altitude I'd gained.  There were a few more hills on the way home on Highway 66, but I made it.  And now I'm sore in ways that I haven't been in some time; plus, I'm exhausted.  Oh well, now I've done it and now know that I can!  It was only about 30 miles as opposed to the 40 I've been aiming for, but those 30 were much harder fought than 40 tootling around on greenway trails....