Ride 400 miles in September

Well, at least I broke 300.

A couple things I noticed:
- Riding a difficult, relatively short routine almost daily that includes lots of climbing put the hurt on me far more than racking up a lot of miles on relatively flat terrain. I definitely experienced net gains in muscle mass even at these low numbers. Climbing is important, and having a daily routine that is bonk-proof (mine was 45 minutes, and 8 miles, mostly non-paved surfaces) lets you go flat out without worrying about energy conservation or nutrition on the bike.
- I need a better saddle for my road bike. It’s time to bite the bullet and get a Brooks. The cheap plastic one I put on there just to replace the ugly and tattered stock saddle looks fine, but places way too much pressure on the wrong places. I don’t have any desire to suffer permanent injury in pursuit of my fitness goals.

All that said, it was great to have a definite goal to work toward, and I don’t think I’ll have any problem completing this next September.

Overall, a good day of riding with about 50 middle schoolers. It turned into a gorgeous day – it was fabulous compared to last year’s cold rain.

I corked an intersection (twice, on the way out, and the return), at the one point where we had to cross a road. Critical Massers, eat your hearts out.

Bike repairs and adjustments completed: fixed a set of brakes, reattached a pedal, reattached the other pedal (same crappy Roadmaster), fixed a crank, and raised a saddle. Many kids have really bad department store bikes. The one with the broken crank was particularly bad – I did what I could to return the bike to some level of rideability, but really, they should take it back to Sport Authority and demand a refund.

When the Roadmaster’s second pedal fell off, the rider hit the pavement, so I administered antiseptic and band-aids.

showers and sunbreaks

It’s officially fall. On the way in, I wore a cycling sweater and was still cold in shorts and short-finger gloves. And then I had to put on the blinkie and headlight when riding home yesterday.

It’s time to put on the winter wheel (sigh).

Still off the pace. At this rate I’ll probably fall short by around 100 miles. I find that I’ve got the motivation to go mountain biking far more often than I want to take out the road bike and ride 5 to 15 miles on busy roads to get to a paved trail. Part of this has to do with the fact that the Sekai just doesn’t fit me that well.

That said, I’m riding the mountain bike almost every day, and miles on the mountain bike take longer and require more effort than miles on the road.

I’m finally reaping the benefits of some of the more gnarly rides done over the last few weeks, feeling really fit.

I made it into work in 50 minutes today, not bad, not bad.

I am way behind, but I’m hoping to make up a lot this weekend. I forgot to factor in that my mother-in-law would be visiting for the first weekend of the month + several days, which put the kibosh on any riding during that time. So, I lost an entire weekend, and a few good weekdays too.

Darn.

I’ll note my progress on Monday.

I was a little late this morning, so I simply powered it up 43rd – no shilly shallying. Interesting to see how the 10% grade felt after Sunday’s hillfest.

On the way home, I was feeling like I wanted no hassles, so I did the longer, slower trip around the top of the lake instead.

I’m only going to get to ride today and tomorrow to work – I’ve got to drive Thursday and Friday.

One of our cars is on the fritz so I have no choice but to ride.

I’ve done the shortest way to/from this, using West Lake Samm Parkway and 43rd, just because I was in a mood. It really is a lot shorter – I could shave about 40 minutes off of my total commute time if I was willing to risk my life on a daily basis.