My First 50 miles Ride......Surprised and Proud !!
I went yesterday to my first big ride (50 miles) .....I did the first half with my dear friend Catrin. Thank you for waiting for me even though I was a little late.
I was a bit nervous because I really didn't have the chance to ride the new roadie enough to test the new (used) to me Terry Gellisima saddle. I did use it for a couple of days of commuting and it feels wayyyy better than the stock saddle but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to complete the whole ride because this was going to be my first long ride with it. My tires were way low in pressure so I asked I guy that was checking his bike to do my the favor of making sure I have the right tire pressure. Ok so..everything went very well...We rode the first half at a very nice and relaxed pace. It was a bit cold but as soon as we started riding I got warmed..I had a thin jacket over my cycling shirt and cycling shorts.... my legs were ok with the temperature. I get more cold on my upper body than my legs. So like Catrin mentioned on another post of hers...she wasn't able to continue with the other half of the ride. I decided to continue by myself. I ate lunch with her..relaxed a little bit and said bye to my dear friend. Got rid of my jacket.... started riding and right after about 2 minutes I start feeling this evil wind and I was like : oh oh!... do I really want to continue with this ?...and by myself?...I was saying to myself...hey with this wind it might take me at least 2.5 suffering hours to complete the ride "IF" I finish. :(
So ....I kept riding and for the next 5 minutes I was still debating if I should quit..because the winds were pretty mean. Then I realized that despite of that , I was going at a very good pace and even passing other people...women and men. So I said to myself..I can do this. I came here to do it and I am....+ this is a good opportunity to play with shifting gears and find out my comfort zone and how long is going to take me to complete the next 25 miles. So I kept riding. To my surprise I climbed every single hill (of the whole 50 miles) and continued with pretty good pace after climbing each one. Well..the winds kept picking up ...but by the time I realized it I was passing people like crazy. Riders that I could see from a far distance I ended up passing them after a few minutes. I calculated that I passed maybe 15-18 riders that started way before me. I wasn't trying to go fast just establish a good pace and survive ...lol. The moments when the winds hit hard I tried to maintain my momentum and the same pace and work with my breathing especially climbing...go down on the gears but keep the same speed when spinning and try not to think too much about the winds and then go back to my comfort zone when convenient. My legs just kept spinning kind of like automatically... I felt pumped ...and I know having lunch before that second half really helped. It felt good passing other people.... my first big ride been able to pass other riders that looked in better shape than me and had nicer bikes; was a big motivation. I thought my speed wouldn't go anywhere above maybe 13.5mph which have been my average with my commuter and for the past days was the same speed with this aluminum bike which I been using to commute in the past few days and didn't feel any difference on the speed. Well...to my surprise I finished the 25 miles in 1 1/2 hours. Yay! I don't have a computer and my phone by the end of the first half of the ride was already dead. But I checked the time I started and the time I finished and I was like...for real?. are you kidding me..is this watch working???...25 miles in 90 minutes with all that wind ? to me thats a HUGE :)....Does that mean I averaged about 16.6 MPH?....I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. Someone correct me if I am wrong about the MPH please. I was averaging 12-13.5mph before this ride with little to no winds. ..maybe 14mph pushing it.
Now I know what a difference it makes to be more comfortable with a saddle (even though I still need to keep riding to get more use to it)..having right air pressure in your tires (mines were about 40psi) yes!...no wonder I couldn't notice any speed difference between my 2 bikes. ...also the importance of having a positive attitude even when things like weather don't look good. BTW I finished pretty strong....nor out of breath nor exhausted. No soreness until later in the evening and until this morning but by noon today I was ready to go out and ride again!... and wanted to. But I know I need to rest. :)
Hey!!..16.6MPH ?...yessss!!!
PS: Thanks Catrin...it was a great experience and hope not the last.... I hope your knee feels better soon.
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