Oh my goodness, I'm becoming one of those bike people. I keep acquiring the gear, bit by bit. I now have 3 bike jerseys, 2 bike shorts, 2 sets of bike gloves, and 6 water bottles. The biggest additions to my bike gear... my new clip pedals and bike sandals. I also just got a new bike computer to keep track of my progress.
Kari and Kait have been talking to me about bike clips for at least a year now. After the triathlon, I realized that I needed to make the switch. It will give me more power while I pedal and it just looks cool :) The cool part isn't the reason, I just needed to throw it in there. Anyway, the day I decided to switch to the clips, I got an e-mail from a local bike store about their HUGE sale. They had Keen bike sandals for $30 off! Yipee! I figured the bike sandals will be so nice to have in the heat. Plus, they are a lovely shade of blue and look cool (is there a theme brewing here?).
I've been using 2 different bike apps on my iPhone to track my mileage and routes. I had some doubts as to their accuracy, and they were draining my battery. If I went for more than 1 hour, I'd need to charge my phone.
So, yesterday I went to a St Paul bike store and picked up a trek computer, on sale! It was tough to figure out how to install it, but with the help of the internet, I figured it out. It's pretty darn cool! It tells me the current time, elapsed time, speed, average speed, top speed, odometer, and temperature! Plus, it looks cool!
I really wanted to get a 20+ mile ride in to give me a bit of confidence for RAGBRAI. It was supposed to be in the mid to upper 90s and humid, so I needed to get started in the morning. I hit the road at 10am (not morning to most people, but I had be here for Greg at 10am). It was an awesome ride! I saw places I hadn't seen before. My bike computer kept me motivated to bike a bit faster than I would have done without it. I even got up to 28mph on one hill! On the other side of that down hill was an up and I went 4 mph up that beast.
After all was said and done, I got in a 25 mile ride in just over 2 hours. I'm pretty pleased and feel better about my RAGBRAI preparations now.
1 comment:
Woo hoo!!! You're quite the cyclist these days, chica! And we all knew you were an athlete. It's just a matter of changing perspectives for each sport. Isn't that 28mph addicting and exciting?!
So how are the clips working or have you braved that yet?
I'm supposed to be doing a 100 miler this weekend, but the 100 degree heat is scaring me a bit. I think I'm still gonna aim for the 100, but seriously consider the 75 if it's too much heat. Either way, it's a reality check for next month.
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