My First Big Test

Well, maybe the wine ride was my first. So, my second big test then. What a day! Miguel and I hit the road by 9am and we got about 2 blocks away when I realized I forgot my helmet. Doh! Turned around and got it and then off we went. At about mile 5 I was warmed up, which is perfect timing as that's about the time we leave the "city" behind and start on the country road. To give a sense of the area I snapped a picture of some cows.

It was a bit chillier than I expected, the sun was out but the air was cool. We rode along, passing the Indian Valley Golf Course and then Stafford Lake. I learned how much more beautiful an area can be when you see it from the seat of your bike instead of through your car window. I conquered most of the hills without too much difficulty but there was one that kicked my ass. It started with a short, steep incline (well, steep for me) and just when I got to the top of that a long (only slightly steep) incline started. I was already breathing hard and my legs were burning. I made it about half-way up that long hill when I had to take a break. It took me quite a few moments to catch my breath. Whew! After that I was happy to hear from Miguel that we were done with the hills, until the ride home of course.

We stopped at a cheese factory and took in the surrounds. This really was a dream. Did I just ride here? Wow. After high-fives and big smiles we took a break and I ate a couple Shot Blox (Black Cherry so I could have caffeine). I was wearing my heart rate monitor and noted I'd burned about 700 calories.

After checking the bike computer I realized I miscalculated the distance and unless we changed our route the ride was only going to be about 23 miles, not 30. This was not acceptable. I asked Miguel if we could check out some of the side roads. We road down the road to Marshall for a bit and then toward Petaluma. After getting enough extra miles in we turned and headed home. Miguel is such a good sport.

The ride home was a lot easier than the ride there. We were flying on some of those hills! Our max speed was 35 miles per hour! That freaks me out a little bit. We got home around 12:30 but I know we weren't riding for all that time. The bike computer showed riding time was about 2.5 hours. My body didn't feel too bad. My butt was hurting sometimes during the ride but it felt fine as soon as I got off the bike. I'm going to take quite a few more rides and see if I can toughen it up even more before considering a new seat. So, how far did we ride? Check out the picture I took of the bike computer.

My heart rate monitor showed I burned 1640 calories. Whoa! And I was starving. But those Shot Blox really gave me a boost during the ride. I'll be having those on hand on all future rides for sure. Anyway, I was fantasizing about a hot bath when Miguel asked if we could run some errands before his soccer game (yes, he had a soccer game in the afternoon after our ride!). So we ran some errands and then I went grocery shopping during his game. By the time I sat down for dinner it was 7:30pm and I was really wiped.

Well, that was my big ride. I feel really happy and proud of this accomplishment. During the ride I made my next goal. I want to ride to Point Reyes Station from my house. Maybe even do a loop and come home through San Rafael. I'm going to do today's ride 4-5 more times before I tackle that though. It's just unbelievable what my body has been willing to do. I'm very lucky. So it's off to bed before the work-week. I'm already starting to look forward to next weekend!