Wow! What encouragement from all these replies... Thanks - That means a lot!

In fact it was kinda funny.... I'm a computer guy and although I'm not on-call right now, I needed to run to the office for a few minutes tonight (to swap a tape for an archive I'm making). I had just read these replies before I left and they had me so inspired I was ready to get the bike out and ride to the office!

Trouble is, 1) it's pitch black out there and I have no lights on my bike, and 2) that very ride -- to the office -- is what did me in this afternoon (see below)! So, I drove instead.


Well, as long as we're coming clean, here's a bikely.com graph of my ride today, all 5.5 miles of it:



(the graph looks pretty good until you look at the actual values! )

There's a loop of roads around a local airport and rec area that's very convenient for training in that there are several segments (intersection to intersection, etc.) that are either exactly one mile, or a half mile there and back, etc. It's easy to keep track of distance and I've ridden 8+ miles there, but with rests. For some reason today I just bonked. Once I reached the office and rested, I started to return home. But given how badly I was pooped, better sense prevailed and I had my wife drive over in my truck (we drove back together with the bike in the bed). I know that despite how I felt after resting, I wouldn't have made it far. But there's always next time.

One thing I've noticed is that on hills I tend to kill myself on the downhill side to try and offset the next upcoming rise with my speed. But, all I actually "accomplish" is to just start up the next hill more tired than I would have otherwise been, so I need to concentrate on cadence, proper shifting and consistency instead. At least that makes sense to me.