johde

Yesterday I did my first 20 mile ride (21 actually) on my new trek 7.2fx. I bought the bike May 17th so I've owned it about a month and a half. So far I've ridden a little over 150 miles on the bike. 112 in so far in June with hopefully some commuting miles tomorrow. In addition to the running I've done 27 miles of run/walking this month. At this point, I've nearly got the bike outfitted. I've got bottle racks, bike lock, and underseat pack with emergency tools, spare tube, patch kit etc. I still need to get a frame pump.

My 20 mile ride became a little more interesting when I happened upon this.



We had had storms the night before and the tree had fell across the trail. Earlier I'd heard a limb crack and fall in the woods. Otherwise the ride went fairly smoothly.

Last week, I was riding down the trail and happened along this.



The deer stopped in the road and didn't want to move. I stopped there for a minute before deciding to turn around and go back. I had a similar thing happen yesterday. I didn't get a picture but the deer crossed in front of me. I didn't think much of it but when I got up there, the deer was standing in the woods not 20 feet away. Fortunately I just kept on biking and she just watched me pass. It was almost as if she knew we wouldn't get off the trail.

WonderMonkey

Nice! How much did you have to push yourself to get the 20+ ride in? Could you have gone further and how tired were you? When I push for a new distance I mosey towards it much slower than I probably need to.

volosong

Well done! You ride in a nice environment. You need not worry about deer. They don't bite, and will move when you get close enough. The danger is when you're going so fast that you cannot avoid them when they pop out of the bush and you collide. Otherwise, they are pretty benign. We have a small herd here at work and they pretty much ignore us when we walk past.

MRT2

Great work. Hopefully, the first of many 20 mile plus (and probably much more) rides in the next few years. And hopefully, a deer is the most dangerous woodland creature you will run across.

How is the bike working out?

johde

WonderMonkey - I didn't need to push too hard. I probably could have gone further. My pace was also about normal. I wasn't too tired the rest of the day but was tired this morning even after sleeping in a little longer than normal. I seem to average about 12mph most of the time. A little faster on the trail a little slower around town with stop signs and lights. I

volosong - Most of the time, I let the deer do their thing. I see them quite often. This one was just the first one that stopped in the middle of the trail and just stared at me. Unfortunately I've been in more than one losing battle between my car and a deer. So while I'm not scared of them, I do have a health respect for them.

MRT2 - So far the bikes working out very well. Just a couple of minor things. Last week I took it into my LBS to swap out the 10 degree stem with a 17 degree. It's helped quite a bit with numbness in the hands. With the 10 degree stem I was riding too far forward for my current core fitness making it hard to ride one handed and the numbness. The only other thing was when I installed the bottle cage, it ended up hitting the front derailer until I bent it out of the way.

kc0bbq

I really get a kick out of setting new distance records. Good job.

lenny866

Nice job, now for 25!!

Flying Foot Doc

Jodhe, Good for you for breaking that barrier! I just broke the 20 mile mark yesterday after having been off since November & just getting back to it. Last year after I got comfortable with 20 I realized my next barrier. I figured if my daughter & son -in-law could each run 26 miles I should be able to ride 26...so that's how I got there. Congratulations on your 20, it IS 20 MILES! Andy

ChiefTJS

Great Job!! 20 miles is a good milestone and shows the beginning of the addiction.

Street Pedaler

Congrats! I remember the first time I broke 20 like it happened only yesterday. It was a huge milestone for me as, I'm sure, it is for you as well. keep up the good work!

digibud

Why would you turn around because of a deer? I turn around because of moose...but I wouldn't even turn around because of a herd of caribou. I guess deer can/do attack? We have no deer around here so this a real question. Do you have to worry about deer being aggressive?

kingsqueak

If a deer is panicked, injured or cornered they can attack but this is really odd behavior. In season a buck can attack out of territory but a lot of these issues are from hunters spraying doe estris on themselves...again rare.

It's much more of a risk that you run into one vs them coming after you.

I used to do 24/7 security patrol on a military base nearly entirely in the woods with a deer population that was huge due to it being a protected paradise for them.

Dealing with deer injured or ensnared in fencing you had to really watch the hooves. They are quite powerful.

They don't bite...they kick.

Street Pedaler

It's been my experience, at least with the Southern White Tail that we have down here, that having them attack isn't really a concern. What's more of a concern is that they can be extremely unpredictable in the direction that they'll "bolt". Sometimes they break away from you and sometimes they break directly into your path. I've had a lot of close calls with them over the years. Rutting Bucks have been known to be aggressive but, like I say, my own experience is more a fear of them literally jumping into me because they freak out.

RWBlue01

Nice job on the ride.


Don't worry about the deer. They know that 99.9% of the bicyclist never do them harm and stay on the path. If you are lucky, you can get some nice photos of deer and they will not mind. The rabbits around here will let you get within a foot of them as long as you are on the bike and moving.....but when the bike stops....they are gone. The deer not as much....about 10 feet.

johde

On Sunday, I ran into the one, not literally fortunately, that didn't get the memo. A friend of mine is going RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) this Saturday. On Sunday, I called and asked if he wanted to go for a ride. He convinced me to do thirty miles. So another new record. On the way back, we saw a doe and fawn crossing the path way up ahead. As we continued biking up to that point, something must have spooked the fawn because it came back across the road kind of stumbling 5-10 feet in front of us. It made it across OK but was a close call.

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful other than it started thundering while we were about about 4 miles bike. We made it back before the it started raining. But I decided not to do the extra 1.1 miles to make a metric half century because of it. Overall things went well. It took us about 2:40 including stops. Without stops I was averaged 12.5MPH, with several stretched on the trail of 15MPH. It was faster than the 20 miler last weekend. He's significantly faster than me, so I picked up the pace a little to keep up with him and he slowed down quite a bit for me, he had done the 27 miles of the trail in 1:30 earlier last week.

From a cardio perspective, I did fine. My previous running helped out there. Towards the end, I was getting some discomfort from the saddle and a little in the quads, we were pushing the tempo at the end because of the thunder, and biking uses the quads differently than biking.

digibud

Congrats on that. Keep pushing yourself if your goal is longer/faster. Finish your ride totally wiped out occasionally . I can recall doing a 30mi ride and just dying the last couple of miles (not bonked...just butt sore and sore muscles). Good you have a buddy that will ride at your pace.

johde

Most of the time I do my thing and he does his. We've started out together twice, and a couple of times he'll let me know he's almost done with a longer ride and where to head out to meet him.

jimmyj726

Congratulations on breaking the 20 mile barrier. I just broke it today (21 miles). I just got back on the bike 2 weeks ago but I have been walking 6 miles and working out on an elliptical machine. Down from 310 pounds in February to 236 this morning. What a great feeling.

digibud

Congrats ! 74lb down jimmyj !

IAMAMRA

Congrats! I just hit my longest ride to date a few days ago, it's exciting to say the least.

Randolfo

Congratulations.

Jarrett2

Congrats man. We have the same bike and doing the same pace. I just did my first 25 last weekend. I'm up to 481 miles as of this morning's ride, but I'm not running also like you are, just racquetball in the evenings for me. 56lbs down today.

jimmyj726

Thanks Digibud. Hard work but well worth it. The weight loss certainly helps with extra miles on the bike.

Notgrownup

I did 8 miles last Sunday morning... the only reason i turned around was my A$$ hurt... I wasn't really tired and could've kept going so i can't wait to get my shorts and maybe a different seat to push myself a bit further... The cars is my biggest danger factor here.... Congrats on the 20 miles stone...lol