about me

I am a self-defined amateur cyclist, and really have no business riding in a 150 mile bike ride whatsoever. But as the daughter of a person with MS, I also have no business sitting around on my duff while a cure needs to be found, better treatments need to be researched, and an increased quality of life needs to be made possible. So, while holding down a job and hanging out with my husband and our trusty mutt, thus begins my saga of training for Bike MS 2008.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Maps!

Got another ride in last night - man, was it nice to go from low 30s to upper 70s yesterday. This St. Louis weather has been crazy, but I'm beginning to feel that I will have less and less complaints about the cold and rainy days and will find myself whining more about how hot and muggy it is as we get into May.

Last night's ride found me out on the roads of St. Charles. It was my dad's day off, so I met him out at my folks' house after work and we rode through the city, down Kingshighway to the new N 5th Street, and out to the Little Hills Expressway/Mueller Road. Not much of a shoulder there, which made things interesting when a rather aggressive fuel truck came barreling by, but again, I survived. The return trip meant a more than moderate climb up Zumbehl Road. Much to my surprise, I was able to stay on the bike the whole time! Did the entire climb in the saddle.

Finished up feeling good, but like I had really pushed myself both in speed and in tackling hills. This morning I'm hurtin', but in the way that makes you feel like you did something right. I don't know if I'll be riding again tonight - even so, I feel ready for at least the shorter of the two routes this upcoming weekend.

In the meantime, I came across this fairly cool website, www.mapmyride.com, where you can do just that. I'm going to see if it works here:

04/30 Ride Wrap-Up:
Dist: 13.98 miles (my map skills are approximate - I'm going with my CatEye numbers here)
Avg: 12.3 mph (hills brought this number down)
Mx: 28.7 mph
Time: 1.07.40

2 comments:

hebchop said...

Awesome!

I love the accountability that comes with journaling something like this. Good luck, I'll be checkin in. I've been shopping used road bikes, maybe I'll join ya!

Anonymous said...

Good post.