lonegunman88240

thanks for the encouragement, like i said i figured out i wasnt ready yet, but i have decided rattlesnake knob is number 1 on my places to ride to list, hopefully soon? lol

Bone Head

Dude, I don't do snakes. Even if it was right around the corner, "Rattlesnake Knob" would be at the bottom of my list!!!

bab2000

Where is this? In North Carolina... https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...h&z=12&iwloc=A

It looks to be far from anywhere. I would also suggest making certain the bike is fit for the ride as well. The worst thing is to head some where and have a flat, broken chain, spoke break...

Bike maintenance is as important to your well being as monitoring your fasting levels.

lonegunman88240

rattlesnake knob is a small community (population 6 or 7 people) between hobbs new mexico and seminole texas really all it is is a few houses and a fuel stop, its not on a map that i ever seen

bab2000

Then all the more reason to make certain the bike is in good condition and a bag packed with extra tube, frame pump, tire levers, emergency tools, water and some energy type foods. Cell phone is also good idea, if coverage is available.

Then make it an adventure. Keep the tires down and the skin on your bones. Helmet is also good idea.

c_m_shooter

I think you will knock this ride out sooner than you think. Make sure you plan it for a day when you don't have anything else planned so you don't have to rush. You don't have to go fast, just keep the pedals spinnin and you'll get there. Before too long it will be your daily ride before work. I started out the same way, first wondering if I could make it to a town about 7 miles away (I do that loop the long way most days now for 20 miles), then to Decatur 15 miles away to meet my wife for lunch, then 40 miles to Fort Worth where I work, then I got nuts and loaded my bike with camping gear and rode to the Red River one weekend, and then a week long ride to Corpus with a few other inmates. I am running out of goals though, I may need more vacation time to go any further.

Wogster

The typical rule, take your total weekly riding, you can typically after a few weeks do that amount in a single ride, but that's really pushing it. For example if a rider rides an average of 100 miles a week, they can typically do a 100 mile ride, but that is going to be the absolute limit. You can typically increase you weekly distance as follows:

Under 10 miles per week, by 20%-40%
10 - 50 miles per week, 10-20%
50 to 100 miles per week, by 5%-10%
over 100 miles per week, by 0-5%

So for example if you ride 4 miles each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 7 miles on Saturday that's a total of 19 miles, so you could increase the weekly total by up to 20% or 22.8 miles the next week. So maybe you go 6 miles each on Tuesday and Thursday and 10 miles on Saturday (total of 22) then you can again increase up to 20%, or 26.4 miles. So maybe you go 6 miles each on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 8 miles on Saturday.

There are a couple of reasons why I put ranges on this, the typical average increase is about 10%, although when your totals are smaller, you can typically increase by more, safely. As distance increases, it becomes impractical to increase by big amounts, if you go 200 miles in a week, increasing by 10% can mean another 2 hours in the saddle, then life starts getting in the way.

Now as for your diabetes meds, you need to take your meds, and keep track of your sugars, with testing after meals and exercise to try and keep them in balance at the lower end of the normal range (5-7 on the Canadian scale, 90-120 on the American scale) . Your doctor should be sending you for an HbA1c blood test every 3 months and then using the results to determine your medication levels, if your on the low side say in the 90's then, they can reduce medication, if it's on the high side, they can increase medication. Not doing this test on a regular basis, is very dangerous in that you can end up with too much or too little medication.

lonegunman88240

thanks wogster, at the moment im not on any meds, usually the first test of the day, early mornings were around 160 fasting, since i started riding the bike nightly its now low to high 70's, last couple of weeks my highs havent been much over 100, where before they were much higher,
i do carry meds just in case along with lots of water and a couple of snacks, if i ride alone im usually within crawling distance from the house, and if i ride the trails im with at least one friend, first week was riding about 4 miles a night at 6 mph, 2nd week 7 miles a night averaging 8 mph, last night bumped it up to 10 miles (by accident) still ave 8 mph, may have to postpone my ride tonight due to severe lightning, not to mention being pretty sore, found new trails last night with alot more high and lows and for the first time my hamstrings and glutes got a serious workout as well as a much better cardio workout, where they wasnt riding on flat pavement, cant wait to get back there again!