Pushing the Pedals

I went for a ride on Sunday with Michelle.  She lives up in North Andover and so I drive to her house and then we head out.  We didn’t have a lot of time so Michelle thought up a route that took us about 14 miles around NAndover and Andover. 

 Sunday was a pretty day, a bit chilly but we dressed for it.  Except … 20mph winds.  Really?!?!  Oh, and Michelle’s route turned out to be hill, hill, hilly!  We maintained an average speed of 14.5 (we CRANKED on the downhills … in an effort to ride the speed back uphill as much as possible, ha ha) … I was pretty pysched with that speed.

 Today, I was going to meet Melissa for lunch and she works 9.2 miles from my house out in Waltham.  Totally bikeable.  So, I set out to ride and realized that my bike pump was pooped.  So I was over to Quad Cycles to fill up the tires and get a new pump.  Off I ventured to meet Melissa … in my head I thought, “hmmm … Trapelo Rd is one big ole hill … how much is this going to suck?” and sure enough I got to Trapelo Rd and got my ass worked.  I checked Google Maps and Trapelo Rd is 3.7 miles (the section I travelled along) and there are three very steep hills along a route that climbs the entire way.  There were a couple of great downhills (I saw speeds +28mph) but then you have to come to a screeching hault at big intersections.  You give up all your speed and then climb uphill again.  oh joy!

 It was good work.  I realize that I am just logging time/miles on my bike and the real training begins once I start riding with TNT.  At least I am getting better with my gears and clipping in and out of my pedals.

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