Holy Hill

Note: this post is completely random and tends to go from one thought to the next quickly. But I’m a pretty random person so it just comes natural. Feel free to skip over my rambling wherever you feel is necessary. Yesterday was my first time to successfully change my bike tube all by myself! I’m pretty proud that I did it myself without any help but all it takes is a little patience and time. I must have had a really good tube because it lasted for about 400 miles. Anyways today I had a 30 mile bike ride planed for after class since I had already ran quite a bit before class. I thought 30 wouldn’t be bad at all but I decided to do this on a new trail (actually it was a highway with cars swooshing by but it had a pretty good shoulder so I’ll call it a trail). Well it ended up being the single hilliest ride I’ve ever done in my life. Arkansas really is hilly compared to where I’m from (Texas for all of ya’ll who do not know). It ended up being pretty hard but I’m very glad I found this new “trail” because it’ll be great training for the 3 weeks I’ll be in Arkansas. I almost averaged 16 mph and I honestly have no clue how fast or slow this is because I’m new to this cycling thing. If I had to guess though I would say it’s more on the slow side. Hopefully that will improve as I start to ride with people and get used to cycling. When I first started cycling, which wasn’t that long ago, I was averaging a little under 12 mph and riding 15 miles was a huge accomplishment so I think I’ve come a long way. I’m no stranger to endurance sports as I have run cross country competitively for the last 8 years. I think my cross country background will help me a little with cycling. Or at least I won’t be surprised at the pain that comes from cycling great distances. I was actually worried when I made the commitment to do Bike and Build that cycling all summer without running any would have a negative effect on my cross country season this fall. Ha! Then I realized that biking up to 115 a day (average 70) isn’t exactly like I’m sitting on the couch all day watching Dr. Phil and eating ding dongs. Hey I might even come back in even better shape. And if not it’s all good because I would have rode with some neat people, helped others, and obtained some amazing tan lines. I guess that’s it and now I have to go study :( Peace