Newbie weekly achievement thread

[hebe]

COngratulations on the weight loss! I have about another 7lbs to go, which hopefully will be gone by Christmas.

That bike computer thing is infuriating isn't it? My last ride I had the Garmin working ok, but the chain came off my bike and I had to walk home. The ride before was excellent, but the Garmin was in my seat pack and switched itself off.

The weather here has turned miserable, and my dh was home for a week before flying out to Berlin yesterday until the weekend. I'm hoping to get out on Wednesday if the rain stops. I ordered a bundle of clothes from minx-girl.com and it has all come, I need to exchange the jersey for a larger size but everything else looks pretty good and comfy.

[Bike Writer]

... but the chain came off my bike and I had to walk home...
.

Oh Hebe, that stinks when it happens. Happened to me twice recently, the first time a couple of bikers came along and helped me out and I was really grateful because I was a few miles out from my vehicle and I was really struggling with it, the second time I tried it myself and after a bit of a work I got it back on. It's a wee bit harder because I have a chain guard but turning the bike upside down really helps instead of being all hunched over and trying to do this we me upside down. If you put your hand behind the derailur and push it foward, it moves forward a couple of inches and gives you the necessary slack to get the job done. It is a VERY messy process but beats walking back.

[hebe]

Thank you for those tips, I'm glad it's not just me. It came off the largest cog on the rear deraillieur and got wedged under that pie plate thing at the back, so even with as much slack as I could get it wasn't coming unstuck. Wheeling it home did seem to help though, I got it sorted in the back garden.

Weather is sunny but cold tomorrow, so I'm going out in my new tights! I'm starting to worry that I'll forget how to ride if I leave it another week.

[hebe]

Well, my new tights worked, I made it all the way up one of my nemesis hills (singing "Straighten up and fly right" in an effort to keep focussed). I did better on the other one too. It was cold - 41, so I was properly wrapped up, and it was great not to feel the chill.

Can anyone tell me about riding in mud? I was going up a new bridleway which ended up with my wheels making squelching and sucking noises as I went through ankle deep mud and puddles. I headed back when the mud started going uphill as I wasn't sure my comfort bike was up to it, but I do want to head back that way when I have my mountain bike. Any tips would be very welcome.

Today was 6.22miles, top speed of 16mph. I'm just over half-way to my 25mile target for November.

[jelee1311]

Good job! I love that you sing that song going up an evil hill,my hill climbing efforts usually result in four letter words

[Roadtrip]

Hebe - Have you considered a Cross Bike when your ready for your next new boke? Does it have to be a Mountain Bike? Will you be doing trails where your doing stump jumping and that sorta stuff??

Sorry no suggestions on the mud. I'm a little too chicken to try slogging through the slippery stuff

Shannon

[Bike Writer]

Well, my new tights worked, I made it all the way up one of my nemesis hills (singing "Straighten up and fly right" in an effort to keep focussed). I did better on the other one too. It was cold - 41, so I was properly wrapped up, and it was great not to feel the chill.

Can anyone tell me about riding in mud? I was going up a new bridleway which ended up with my wheels making squelching and sucking noises as I went through ankle deep mud and puddles. I headed back when the mud started going uphill as I wasn't sure my comfort bike was up to it, but I do want to head back that way when I have my mountain bike. Any tips would be very welcome.

Today was 6.22miles, top speed of 16mph. I'm just over half-way to my 25mile target for November.

Great job on the hills and mileage goal! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun in the process. I sometimes sing up hills also. One of mine is to the tune of "here we go a caroling" "here I go a pedling - up the hill I go" then it morphs into "row, row, row your boat" "pedal, pedal, pedal - life is what I know". Goofy but it helps, it makes me laugh and not think so hard about the hill.

Riding in mud? Sorry, don't have experience and don't want to, you're brave to traverse it!

[hebe]

Thank you! I did wonder about a cross bike, but they seem quite pricey here and I can get a Specialized Myka for rather less. It's easier to avoid mud than hills, I suppose, and I can talk to the bike shop about the best bike for the type of riding I do. I absolutely love getting away from it all, up a track that has just the odd dogwalker or horserider, and my time fellrunning in the Peak District left me with a deep appreciation of the views that you get after slogging through all that mud and up those hills. Also, as a fairly reluctant exerciser, I found that concentrated hill work brings real benefits to muscle tone and cv fitness, and I'm finding the same with cycling. I'm not sure about getting to technical tracks Roadtrip -maybe in the future, but at the moment my riding time is only in 60-90minute chunks and there aren't any trails close enough to fit in with that. It is something that I'm thinking about for the future though.

There was a lovely hill song posted on here, I can't remember who by , but it went "We are climbing, We are climbing, Yes we are Yes we are, This is not a real hill, This is not a real hill, No it's not, No it's not" (to Frere Jacque).

How are you getting on, Kerry?

[Bike Writer]

16 weeks of riding since I bought my bike and I finished this week with 49 miles and 5 days of riding. We were very fortunate to have a very mild streak of weather all week. I'm not where I want to be with hill climbing but I've improved a lot and my stamina has really grown along with my strength. More importantly the stiffness from arthritis has improved dramatically along with flexibility. I am more flexible now that I ever imagined that I could be.

Wish I could say that my klutziness has improved also but I took my hardest fall yesterday. My elbow met the ground sooner than the rest of me and the momentum jammed my shoulder. I saw stars accompanied by shooting pains, luckily I fell on soft grass. Several good Samarians came by to lend assistance. I am surprised at how little pain I am in today, it's mostly just tender. I'm lucky I didn't dislocate my shoulder.

[jelee1311]

Hebe I'm so happy for you,a new bike how exciting! What a great thing to look forward to. I'm strictly a roadie but maybe next spring.......

[Kerry1976]

Not much new on my end....just passed 100 miles for 5 weeks on my Trek Pure Lowstep. Getting the fever though and wanting a road bike....

[Roadtrip]

Not much to report here either. Today was a really nice day and we got out for a ride around the neighborhood and ended up being MUCH more stressful then it was worth. Adding air to tires was a challenge (I HATE Presta valves) and once we got on the road (I assumed since it's a Sunday not so many cars-- yeaaaaaa right) we had a challenge dealing with cars vevving the engine at stop lights and basically being unkind.

Me and DH aren't all that accustomed to road riding, but I didn't want to load up bikes and such either to go to the MUT, plus we need to work on getting used to the road. I don't always want to pack up the car if I want to ride.

Just stressed out... got a good workout in a short time as the four miles we did, half of it was up hill, so it was a good challenge and feeling it in my legs. I also can't wimp out on the hills so need to learn to cope with those too.

PS. We had the final weigh-in with the 10 week weight loss challenge and I logged 16.2 pounds lost in slightly less then 10 weeks. Wooo Hoo!!

Shannon