First club ride in well over a year!

[Jiffer]

Today was epic for me. I embarked on my first club ride in over a year, since fatigue and dizziness took me away from riding fast and far. My last ride with them was in May 2011 and that was a "test" to see if I could keep my heart rate down enough if I did the short and relatively slow route. It didn't really work, so I've been riding alone ever since, other than a handful of rides with my friend or husband. Before that, my last "real" ride with the club was in March of 2011.

My newest experiment is to see if I can ride just one hardish ride a week with plenty of recovery before I do it again. This is my 3rd such ride and, so far, it seems to be working okay. However, each hard ride has gotten a little harder and longer. Today's ride was a 29 mile ride with 1,200 feet of climbing. Since I've been basically not climbing at ALL this is big. The fact that I did it with a group is even bigger and something I've been longing to do all this time. My average pace was respectable for the route, 15.9. SO close to 16. It's faster than I used to do it when I first started riding, so that makes me happy. My fastest time on that ride is 17.8 and I only did it that day cause I wasn't feeling well enough to do the "long" ride with a ton more climbing.

Anywho, September 8, 2012 is an epic day for me, the day I actually got to do a club ride again . . . in the newly designed club kit, no less, which I bought a long time ago and haven't been able to wear with them!

[jyyanks]

Congratulations Jiffer! So happy that you are riding with a club again and that you're progressing. I respect that you're taking it slow, listening to your body and still performing well. Congrats on a great ride!

[Bike Writer]

That is just so fantastic! Congrats and good job all the way around. After recouping it feels nice to have something to be really proud of.