spazzerina

Hello Everyone! I am a Newbie by all meanings - new to cycling, new to bikeforums, and new to these fabulous smilies

I live outside of Philadelphia (north)... and some coworkers talked me into the MS150 in September. Always up for a challenge, I registered and then decided to give cycling a serious shot.

I used to do spinning at the gym, and I liked that so I went back to it before I bought a bike, to try to get the cardio going. A little over 2 years ago my rowing career ended with graduation and I moved too far away from the river to keep up with it. So I got lazy, put on a couple of pounds and now I work and am studying for a master's degree at night.

In my all-out attempt to get into this, I picked up a Cannondale and all the necessary (and some unnecessary) gear. The fun purchase was a Victory Brewing Co. jersey (victorycycling.com)


So, advice is good, especially from women who do long rides. I'll probably check in everyday since I'm really into the learning aspect.

Other things about me - I'm 24, I live at home, drive a Saturn, have a dog, and I don't leave the house without water and sunscreen (or SPF makeup)... :cool:

Last week I did 27 miles along Route 29 in New Jersey. Tons of bikes there (motor and road).

:fun:

a2psyklnut

Hey ****z, welcome to the Forums. Sounds like you're having fun.

BTW, what kinda dog? Whatcha studying?

L8R

spazzerina

I'm having a good time so far. I have a Yellow Lab - he's almost 3 and still a puppy. The masters is an MBA with International Business. Started over a year ago and still about 2/3 of the program to go, but I guess when you go at night it doesn't mean it happens overnight.

a2psyklnut

Here's my baby!

She's about 6 in the pic, that was about 1.5 ago. Tried to breed her. This was taken after one of her heat cycles that didn't take (none did and we gave up trying).

L8R

pointyhead

Cool. What team did you row for? My daughter is on the crew team at Georgia Tech, and loves it! We are always "discussing" which sport produces the best athletes.

pointyhead

And she medaled at Dad Vail this spring!

spazegun2213

****z, I love yellows, right now we have 3 black labs, and i can tell you from experiance, they grow in size but they will always be a puppy at heart welcome to the forum! dont worry by sept you'll be ready for the MS 150

-Ross

yikes

Hey ****!

I live outside of Philly too, west though. I actually live in Downingtown, right near the Victory Brewing Company. Good luck on the MS150!

Phatman

hey hey! fellow saturn driver right here!! 1991 saturn SL, manual shift, no airbag (auto seatbelts instead!) and power steering. Plus those dent resistant panels!!

khuon

I'm glad my wife's Saturn SC2 doesn't have those automatic seatbelts. I've been in a car with those things before and got strapped in backwards as I tried to reach for something in the backseat when the driver decided to start the vehicle. BTW, a roadbike fits rather nicely with room to spare in the SC2.

https://www.neebu.net/~khuon/gallery/2003STP-1/PICT0001

spazzerina

Wow! The people at this site are so cool... let me answer questions and stuff...

a2psyklnut - Your pup is adorable. What's her name? I don't have a digital pic of mine right now but his name is Harley (after the 600+ pound cycles)... what a sweetie though! Thanks for sharing the pic.

pointyhead - I rowed in the Dad Vail in 2001 for Drexel. No medal, 5th place, but it is an incredible race. So many people go there. I actually went to Europe with some kids from Georgia back in '96 and one of the guys said he was going to apply to Georgia Tech - don't recall his name but small world. I will argue that rowers are the best athletes, but we always did massive cross training so we were very well rounded. Running around center city Philadelphia on Saturday mornings, high-fiving the food truck guys and the bellhops at the Ritz Carlton. Nothing like it.

****egun2213 - puppies at heart, yep! Our first one was a female and all of her 10 years she was a big baby.

yikes - Downingtown - excellent. I have been to Victory many times. Love it there (great food and beer) is beer good for training?

Phatman & khuon - Saturn SL-1 blue with grey bumpers... 1999. Love the dent resistant. Used to cart the crew team back and forth to the river back in the day.

Is this a good place to ask you folks more about yourselves?

khuon

Ummm... sure. Since you opened your kimono I guess it's only fair we show you ours.

I'm 31 and hail from the "Emerald City" (well... at least the vincinity). I'm what many people would probably call a network architect and work for a startup company based out of California that supplies routing software for companies making routers.

I've been into biking ever since my parents got me a blue with white trim Columbia single-speed cruiser back when I was six years old. I spent most of my formative years and my 20s primarily mountain biking but crossed over to more road biking a little over two years ago. I've gradually put on a bit of weight myself due to a more sedentary lifestyle (read: geek who spends too much time in front of an electron gun) and a love of rich food. My other vices include beer... especially english stouts, craft and microbrews and ultrapotent coffee as in anything made with espresso... including espresso beer. Although I'm not considered overweight (I don't think), I could stand to lose a few unnecessary pounds. However, I generally don't regard my rides as being for fitness as much as for fun. I love to travel and see new things. I do try out some training techniques to improve my riding but I'm not really diligent about it.

When I was growing up in the midwest, I used to spend my summers with my friends trying to ride all over the place... going from small town to small town... hitting as many offroad trails and unimproved or less travelled roads as possible. I liked the idea of offroad cyclotouring. The point was to make ourselves feel like we were exploring someplace new. I have recently discovered that one can do the same with some of the roads around here in the PacNW so I took up road biking. Some of my favourite rides involve the islands surrounding Seattle. Most of my rides however are on the mainland and usually are between 30 and 50 miles with longer ones reaching to 100 miles or more. I really like the varied terrain where I'm at. I have everything: water, mountains, valleys, hills and of course traffic congestion which perversely enough can be fun in its own right. The ride I now look forwards to each year is the Seattle to Portland (STP) Bicycle Classic which is 200 miles (give or take... this year it was 206) and can be done in either one (double-century) or two days (back-to-back centuries). Granted I've only done it twice so far but each time, I had a lot of fun. This year was certainly more fun than the first time since I had a group of people to ride with... although last year I did manage to hook up with someone for the second day of the ride.

Anyways... I've rambled on enough... Oh... by the way.... welcome to the Forums.