today's ride and burning off stress

[marni]

I seem to be hitting some pretty good speeds these days in spite of some fairly challenging head winds which makes me happy.

Part of the probable reason for this increased effort is that I am dealing with a certain amount of stress.

I think I can safely attest to the fact that : looking for a house to buy and then making an offer on said house, my father in law coming to live with us at the end of May, the graduation of my son and his fiancee in mid june with their Ph.ds followed 2 days later by their marriage in California, which will require coordinating travel plans for six people from houston and New York to California, and then the process of getting my husband, his father, my self, three cats and two dogs to our new house ( assuming the offer is accepted and we can get the closing done somewhere in the time frame) , finding a new gym and a new trainer, finding dad a new doctor and getting him settled in with us, learning new traffic patterns, store locations, etc. is definitely a motivator for speed.

I have also been doing speed intervals on the precore trainer and treadmill at the gym on the days when it has been too rainy to ride which is obviously paying off. It will be interesting to see how much my average speed drops during between now and the end of the summer when I hopefully will be able to get back into some sort of reliable schedule.

Really, the buying of a house is a good thing, as is my father in law coming to live with us, and the pending graduation and marriage of son and future daughter in law, along with a chance for us to get together with brother and sisters from both sides of the family, along with adding fiances' family contacts are all excellent but in the meantime I will enjoy the speed however it comes.

Today's stats 36.4 miles and 17.2 mph, outbound leg (against the wind) 15.4, inbound leg with tail winds 19 mph.

Lance doesn't need to start shaking in his shoes yet, but for me this is a fantastic speed, both the return leg, and the average, however I can get it.

does life stress affect any one else or is it just me?

It will be interesting to see if, after all this is over, sometime in late summer,

[SLash]

Today's stats 36.4 miles and 17.2 mph, outbound leg (against the wind) 15.4, inbound leg with tail winds 19 mph.

Wow, impressive avg speeds. Maybe I need some stress in my life.

Seriously, you have a lot going on, it's no wonder you're stressed - as they say, good changes also cause stress.

During a very stressful part of my life I logged alot of miles and better than average speeds for me. During normal stresses I've always used the bike to work through it.

Good luck with everything.

Susan

[Jiffer]

My friend has made us ride on days that she needed a stress reliever. Don't know if it makes her go faster, but just getting out and riding relieves stress. We actually go slower on those days, now that I think about it, because we chat more about her stress. She unloads.

I just remembered a ride about a year and a half ago that dh and I did on the tandem with a girlfriend of mine who was going through a divorce. We had done about half of an organized event, and all three of us (mostly them!) were wiped out and decided to cut out early and ride back to the car. On the way there, which took forever, I noticed my friend seemed to ride faster every time her soon to be ex-husband came up in conversation!

My husband also has been known to take off on his bike or go running when he's totally stressed out. And I can see how being stressed could make you go faster than you normally would. You just get in a zone and go for it.

Good for you for using cycling to relieve stress. And yay that you are seeing speed improvements! I'm a stat freak, and am always trying to improve my speeds, so I'm right there with you. Do you know how many feet of elevation you climbed on that ride? Just curious.

[Jo-n-NY]

I call cycling my natural tranquilizer.

~ JoAnn

[Melalvai]

Weight loss and fitness, through stress and malnutrition. Works every time!

[staceysue]

You ROCK!

Some people have heart attacks and get ulcers - you kick a$$ on a bicycle!

[marni]

Good for you for using cycling to relieve stress. And yay that you are seeing speed improvements! I'm a stat freak, and am always trying to improve my speeds, so I'm right there with you. Do you know how many feet of elevation you climbed on that ride? Just curious.

I live outside of Houston, which is basically flat with the exception of highway overpasses and some dry earth dam berms. If I get 50 -100 feet it is a major highway overpass. Otherwise on local farm roads it is the occasional ditch crossing of a whole 7-10 feet.

I did just do a week of riding in the hill country though which was definitely challenging since I don't have hill climbing legs.

marni