The First Decade
 

Well, if 100mi is a century, I figure 10 is a decade.

Mrs. Zoxe and I just got back from our first 11mi ride. The previous personal best was an 8.5mi ride last weekend.

Now, I know a lot of clydes ride more than 11mi one way to work each morning, but we've only been at it since late July and agreed early on to be a little conservative with how fast we added mileage.

This morning we left our subdivision and headed south towards a swanky golf course / country club gated community with a public bike path around the outside of it. It's nicely landscaped and at times we are pedaling between multi-million dollar homes. Makes us feel humble. :) But the golf course is beautiful at 7:30am, and the traffic on the roads to/from the course is pretty light. This is the same loop we did last weekend -- except we added a few miles to the end and went down a country road between corn and soybean fields before returning to our subdivision. Sorry no pics, but it was a nice quiet ride.

With all the touring talk, I just had to brag a little bit. :innocent:

Well, congrats! Ya both done a good job! :D

Congrats on your progress. My fiancee and I haven't ridden for about a week now and are itching to get back to it. On another note/rant, there's no need to feel humble amidst the McMansions that serve as "status" now. I never understood why the average "rich" person feels the need to be cramped up in an over-expensive house shoved onto as small a lot as possible with all of 5 feet of yard between themselves and the neighbor. I guess growing up in the sticks gave me a strange distaste for crammed developments with non-sensical names.

I'll stop now before I offend too many people or derail your thread.

Again, many congrats on the increased mileage! Ride safe, and have fun, that's what it's all about, right? :D

Haha, derailing is fine. In fact, I'll continue to derail. I agree on the McMansions comment. Mrs. Zoxe and I make good money (I'm an engineering manager, she's a database developer).

'Humbled' is probably the wrong word. Having been a middle class guy all life, I keep feeling like someone is going to jump out of the bushes along the path and tell me I don't belong there. (It's a fully public path, but that's not the point). Mrs. Zoxe said she felt the same. But it's still nice scenery to pedal through, and we intend to keep going. :P

The really bad part about the McvMansion is that most such developments are far enough away from anything, that the only way to get anywhere, even to the corner store for a box of beer and a pack a smokes means driving 40 miles in the CAR.

There are only 2 places that I would like to live, just about opposites too....

1) Back in the bush where you can live off your own crops, and hunting and fishing, to add to your diet.
2) Right in the middle of downtown in a big city, where you can spit and hit nearly any amenity you could possibly want. Friendlier for bicycling most assuredly....

Awesome! And adding mileage slowly is the best way to go, I think. Less chance of getting burned out before you work up your endurance.

You've started. I plan on reading your century report next summer!

Woo Hoo every ride no matter how far is a victory! I find them all very exciting. Great job!

Riding around golf courses is great, especially early on the morning. Granted, I'm a golfer, well I own clubs and spend money on the game, and I have always found courses a most serene place in early morning.

Congrats on your Decade! It's really nice that you and Mrs. Zoxe are riding together.

If you keep at it, 10 miles will seem like nothing. But you're right to celebrate those milestones!

Day 2! Back to back decades! :P

Despite a stiff headwind on the longest leg (which is also a gradual incline, ugh), we repeated the same route this morning for a combined weekend total of 22mi. I need to check my log but that might put us over 50mi for the week, which would be pretty cool.

Thanks for all the encouraging replies here. We are noobs and we know it, but we're finding the best way to keep us motivated is to set those little milestones ... "this week we oughta... and if we can do X, then we should be able to do X+Y."

And as far as riding together ... I wouldn't have it any other way. The roads we ride aren't dangerous, but both of us feel better knowing we're using the buddy system. And our skills/stamina are pretty equally matched, which makes it fun (not stressful/frustrating) for both of us.

Probably the biggest motivator is the "events" we're training for. We've made some plans with family for this fall to a state park with lots of bike trails. We intend to make use of them. :)

I posted this thread 2wks ago and wanted to come back and update.

We've continued to add mileage to our weeknight rides and are knocking on our goal of 10mi/night.

We've extended the weekend route to 12mi around the same golf course and have been riding 6d a week. The weather here has been great for it, so we've been trying to take advantage before cooler weather hits.

Now, the best part is I need to lose another 1/2 lb to hit the -15lb mark, and have tightened the belt a notch (one more and I get to poke a new hole in the belt!). Since I have gained weight like clockwork through the years, this puts me back to where I was in late 2006 ... it's nice to unwind the clock a little bit! I get upper back pain if I'm on the computer too long or sleep funny, but that's all but evaporated as well. Mrs. Zoxe is down 10+lbs too. Not bad for a month's work.

You two rock. Look who's the inspiration now? Keep it up.

Gah, you're making me feel guilty about only doing longer rides at the weekend - my commute is only 3 miles... ;)

Congrats on the progress - it's always good to see updates of this kind :)