SalminSam
05-27-08, 07:08 AM
Well I moslty lurk around here, but the inspiration is incredible and as a relative newbie I just do not have a lot of opinions. Now I ride mostly in my neighborhood and usually do between 7-9 miles or 30-35 minutes. I got my neighbor interested in riding after he had laid off due to some knee problems (he is a clyde simply because he is over 6 feet). So over the weekend I started learning to ride with another person a more accomplished and faster rider at that. We started of with 11 miles, then did 9. But then came Monday, he mapped out a route that looked like 12 miles to him granted he was just looking at Yahoo Maps. We were less than halfway when I looked at my odometer and we were already at 9 miles, so I know we are looking at 18+. Turns out we did 21.5 miles in 1:30. I never doubted I would make it and it felt good to go that far. I learned I need to take and drink more water as the temp was 94 with a HI of 101), and stretching afterwards can be your friend. My previous record was 13.9 miles in 1:00. Although I started in January, April (152 miles) and May (101 miles) have been great months and I look forward to more. I am down 7.5lbs since April first, but my wife says I look thinner and my clothes are fitting better, so I know the rides are working.