Just a Ride

Time: 1:36:03

Distance: 20.377 miles

Average Speed: 12.7 mph

Max Speed: 34.2 mph

Calories Burned: 693.8

Fat Burned: 72.5 g

I hadn't ridden my bike in so long and I was so determined to ride it today! Plus I wanted to really ride my new tires to see if I go any faster. And test out my new gloves to see if my hands wouldn't hurt as much. It was a little chilly, about 57*F, but I rode the BBC's Cedar Bluff ride anyway.

Parts of the ride were really nice and parts of it were really terrible. The first part of the ride had some really awful, bumpy roads covered with random patches of gravel. There was also a terrible uphill that would have been bad on its own, but today it was covered in wet leaves from all the storms we've had and my back tire spun out on them like mud and I almost fell. I ended up walking that hill. But once I got to Popcorn Rd in Harrodsburg, it was much nicer. I saw the really cool Harrodsburg water tower. I wanted to take a picture of it, but a dog prevented that. Harrodsburg was pretty neat to ride through and had some of the nicest, possibly even too nice, drivers ever. I was tired and slow and going uphill and they still waited on me to pass before turning onto the road and also gave me plenty of room when they did pass me. Also, the honeysuckle is coming out and nothing beats the smell of honeysuckle in the air. So overall, it was an okay ride. Not great, but okay. And my bike rolled over the 300 mile mark.

Reviews:
Tires - I felt like I was slow the whole time, but my average speed is about what it normally is. I'd say that's good since most of these roads were horrible. So rough. I had to ride my brakes on the downhills and the roughness made the uphills that much harder. So I'll tentatively say these did make me faster, but I'll need a few more (better) rides to really say that.

Gloves - At first I thought they were really helping, but now I have some hot spots that could turn into blisters in the spot that normally bothers me. So the jury is still out on this one. Partly due to...

Fit - I let my friend (and Brett's girlfriend) Anne borrow my bike while she was here visiting during our vacation. She lowered the seat a little and I neglected to change it. It didn't seem that different in the house, but on the road I could really tell the difference. I think that also contributed to some of my inefficiencies. (Can you tell I was really hoping to go faster? :D) Although my hands and shoulders hurt when I ride a lot anyway, so I've scheduled to get my bike fit this week. I'm really excited about it.

Vacation - I can definitely feel that I've been off my bike way too long! I told Seth I'm never going on vacation without my bike again!