This is my girlfriend's second season cycling. Last April for her birthday I bought her a Lemond Reno. Well I'm pleased to say that it was a match made in heaven. We've been increasing her mileage each week, and last weekend she did her first metric century.

Well, today we did a loop that we're been doing regularly for a few months. It's 53 miles, but today I threw in a detour that made it 57. Around 1/5th of the way into the ride, there's a significant climb that starts off at around 11% and approaches 14% at the steepest point. I grind up this thing in a 39x27, and am happy to get it behind me. The last time we did this ride, I paused at the top for 3-4 minutes to wait for her. Today I got to the top, looked over my shoulder, and she was right there, around 200' behind me.

This pattern was repeated for the rest of the hills on the remainder of the ride. In the flats, she used to pull around 17-ish. Today I spun a flat part at around 24 - 24.5, and she was able to hang with me. Needless to say I'm very jazzed about her progress, so I wanted to brag.

Aside from the training, I think one thing that had a lot to do with todays performance was that I've finally convinced her to eat more. She's taking a liking to chocolate Gu, and she was eating one every 45 minutes (as compared to maybe 1 every 2 hrs during our last ride). I think the extra fuel has been key, and we're keeping her hydrated as well.

As her reward, I'm taking her to Outback tonight for a huge steak. I think she earned it!