I Think I'm Starting to Like Cycling

After how much I enjoyed riding over the weekend I decided to attend a beginner ride that a local bike shop was hosting on Monday evening. I went to the ride once last summer and had a great time so I was looking forward to returning. When I went on the ride last year there were only two other riders but this time there were fourteen of us in all. I was really nervous when I saw how many people were there but it turned out to be not such a big deal.

For the first few miles of the ride I hung towards the back since I didn't know how fast everyone else would be going and I didn't want to get in anybody's way. After the first few minutes my nerves went away and I was able to relax a bit. One of the things I really liked about this ride is the general lack of cars. After hearing of a few too many bikers being hit by cars down by school I am extra picky about where I will go riding. Although there were a few roads that were a bit more busy, for the most part we were able to take the whole road without thinking twice about it.

Once I got comfortable riding around so many other people I started to work my way up the pack. Since I had absolutely no idea where in York County we even were I didn't want to be too close to the front but I also didn't want to go slower I had to. What surprised me the most was how well I did on the very few hills. I have always thought of myself as the worlds worst hill climber but I am starting to think that maybe I just don't know how to pace myself on hills. Even though the ride was on the slower side for what I would have liked I am hoping to go back at least for the next few weeks since I had such a great time.

Wednesday I also had a great ride. I took my road bike out for the first time by myself and did so much better than I expected. Since the roads near by house are some big roads with some crazy driving I typically drive somewhere else to ride, and on Wednesday I decided to go up to Pinchot. I did a lot of training at Pinchot last summer so it was nice to go back to see what kind of work I need to do.

I ended up doing the course for the Keystone State Sprint Triathlon, which is 2 laps of a 9 mile loop with 2 big (for me) climbs each loop. I tried to take the first lap easy and then go harder on the second lap. While the first lap wasn't entirely easy because of the two climbs, I still felt like I had plenty of energy going into the second lap. Although I struggled a bit on the climbs during the second lap the whole ride went incredibly well.

Not only did I ride faster but I also felt a million times more comfortable on the bike and even hit 33 mph on a downhill (which scared the shit out of me). Last summer I would typically average between 40-45 minutes for one lap while my lap splits on Wednesday were 34:22 and 33:21. This was also the first training ride I've done where the total elevation gain was over 1000. These might not seem that magnificent but for me this ride was a big deal. My confidence on the bike is starting to rise and I am excited to see how much improvement I can make before the end of the summer.

Training Update

Since the semester ended and I came home for the summer I've been making the switch to triathlon training. I was a little hesitant about jumping right back into training and even more hesitant about this whole triathlon thing. I tried to get myself excited about it but it just wasn't happening. Not to mention my running for a few weeks was pretty nonexistent and when I did run it was just terrible. Although I swam competitively for 10 years, I don't always love swimming now and then there's biking. Oh, biking. Biking does not come naturally for me at all. I've always known how to ride a bike but besides the basics I have very limited knowledge. Couple all this together and you get one uncoordinated and unmotivated triathlete.

Things have been starting to get better during the last week or so. I was riding and swimming consistently and even started strength training again. Running was still the problem though. Friday night I needed to get a run in and decided to head to a local park to do some trail running. Trail running = no pressure to go fast. This was not an easy run but I felt pretty good. There were a few times I had to walk because the trail got too technical but in general I felt much better than I had been feeling during runs. And I more than made up for the lack of hills I've been running. I'm pretty sure I ran straight uphill for the last half of my run.

Saturday marked another turning point for me. I finally took my road bike outside for a ride. I've ridden it plenty of times on the trainer and had been riding my hybrid until I could bring my road bike back home. HOLYOMG what a difference! I wanted to take the bike out for the first time with my boyfriend since he bikes pretty regularly and would be able to help/answer the millions of questions I had. We drove up to Pinchot State Park, about 25 minutes away, to ride somewhere I felt comfortable. Although there are some decent hills, there are generally not many cars and a wide shoulder making me feel a lot safer.

I should've probably mentioned that biking kind of scares the crap out of me. I have no idea why but it does. Once we got there we rode around the parking lot for a few minutes and then headed out. I couldn't believe how much faster I was going. Especially on the downhills, which still terrified me. And the uphills, which normally would destroy me were not nearly as bad. By the end of the ride (which was only a short 10 miles) I actually felt comfortable on the bike. Now all I want to do is ride! As my boyfriend says, I got bit by the biking bug.

Back when I got my bike. I'm pretty much 

obsessed with it now

I am around 4 weeks out from my first race of the season and am really excited to get to work and see what I can do. I'm still not entirely sure which races I'm doing this summer but I've definitely decided on the York YWCA Women's Sprint Triathlon on June 30. I will most likely do the Culpepper International on August 3 but am not completely sold yet. I also just discovered a small sprint triathlon about 20 minutes away the weekend before the Women's Sprint. I might do both but do the first one as more of practice. The water will be 67-69 and I don't have a wetsuit so that could be a deciding factor.