First ride over 5 miles...I'm skeered!

[schnitzle]

I know, what a baby! It's just a casual ride with a couple of friends who don't ride that often, so I keep telling myself that it's no big deal. I'm the biggest most out of shape person though, and that's what worries me.

The ride is 8 miles there and back and is relatively flat, but I know from experience that sometimes there are small hills that kind of wind me. Soooo I have my partner ready to pick me up at the end in case I can't make it back.
Trying to drink a lot of water before hand and taking some snacks to keep me going. Getting thirsty from breathing so hard is my worst problem though.

Wish me luck!

(to make things more exciting I was putting a baby bird back in it's nest a few minutes ago and fell off the ladder. Landed on my *** and tweaked my ankle a bit. Yippee! hahaha )

[KnottedYet]

Good luck!
You'll do fine. Coast and take breaks when you need them.

We gotta do a TE coffee cruise on the B-G before the summer is over.

(8 miles, hot dog! Do you remember when you were worrying about 1 or 2 miles? You rock!)

[Zen]

Relax.You'll be laughing about this later.

[schnitzle]

Thanks so much Knotted and Zen! I hope it will just be another "notch on my belt" I wrote it wrong, it's 8 miles each way. We shall see what happens! hehe

I'd love to do a coffee cruise some time, now that we're getting some good weather!

Ok, fingers crossed!

[KnottedYet]

Next Saturday is the Fat Tire Brewing Company bicycling extravaganza at Gasworks Park.

Will you be there? It is a lot of fun.

http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat

[trista]

Good luck, you'll do great! I used to marvel at my dh's ability to so easily ride 20 miles. One morning I had a 16-mile ride mapped - my furthest at the time. I got lost and ended up going 20 miles. I truly enjoyed it and I felt so empowered. Now I do it all the time (and don't marvel at dh anymore, lol).

Have fun!

[Selkie]

You are not a baby.

As the others have said, you will do great. Just be patient with yourself, take it slow, and enjoy. With time in the saddle, you will get more confident and able to go further.

[tctrek]

We're cheering for you! Let us know how you do!

[sarahspins]

Wanna know a secret? Even 20 miles is not all that different from 5 The main difference is that it takes longer... if you are comfortable for 5, anything longer should be a piece of cake.

I remember how long it took me to get up the mental courage to DO a longer ride (for me, the mental block was the 20 mile #), then I did, and I was like "what, that's it?" - I expected it to be much harder, and it wasn't.

Take extra water with you if you think you'll need it.

[Zen]

let us know what happened.
We've all been there.

[Trek420]

schnitzle, Congrats on a personal best. Let us know how it goes. Enjoy the ride and hope you have fun.

[channlluv]

Yep. There will come a time when 8 miles will hardly be worth getting your bike out of the car.

I rode my mom's Earth Cruiser this morning for 6 miles from the rental car drop off back to her house. I had one insulated bottle of iced tea and only finished about half of it. It took me 34 minutes. It was hot and muggy and I worked up a good sweat and my muscles feel thoroughly warmed up, if not fully worked out.

You'll do just fine. No worries. Take a water bottle and a snack if you think you'll really need one, but you probably won't if you eat decently before hand.

Have fun!

Roxy

[zoom-zoom]

Did you do it yet? If so, how was it? If not...don't let the ankle tweak get you down. I sprained mine badly 6 weeks ago (while trail running) and after a week of doing pretty much nothing I found that biking didn't bother it much at all (hitting bumps kinda made the tendon painfully vibrate, if that makes any sense), but other than that the pedaling motion didn't hurt. It actually felt good to get blood flow and movement to the injured area. I credit biking with my good healing (especially since I did everything wrong in that first 24 hours after the initial sprain and could have really delayed the healing).

[Catrin]

You will do just fine, and congratulations! Like someone else said, if you can do 5 miles then you can do 16 - just keep pedaling Be sure to let us know how it goes! As a new rider myself it is fun to go longer than you did before, just do it at your own pace.

[Lesley_x]

I'm a new cyclist and I was like you. I found the barrier to longer rides was largely psychological, and once I passed that 'I can't do it!' phase, I felt like I could cycle forever.

Just ensure you fuel and hydrate your body appropriately and you'll be good to go Oh, and listen to your body. If you need a break, take one.