The First BIG Ride

After a 12 mile ride during the week, my self assigned personal trainer (Rob Rawlings, our COO) told me that I needed to do a big ride. I was planning on a twenty mile ride anyway, so that seemed like good advice. I especially liked the advice to take the day off after the twenty mile ride. 

I took my bike to the Bass Pro nature trails in Independence for my first long ride.  This is a beautiful area surrounding a  man made lake. Lots of natural grasses and trees.

 

After the first two trips around this large complex, I realized I had no way to measure distance.  I knew that I could ride 10 miles in just over an hour, so I decided that two hours of riding would equal approximately 20 miles. Close enough until I can get to Kmart and buy a speedometer/odometer.

Based on my rough estimate, it was three miles around, so I rode 6 times around and did not go all the way around on a 7^th circuit.  Finishing in exactly two hours, I was pretty sure I was a little under twenty miles, but pretty close, and I felt great.

Except for where I meet the saddle.  The end of my spine is a little tender, and I think a new seat is in order, as well as the speedometer. Saturday afternoon, back to Kmart and bought a Bell wireless speedometer. Also the Bell Memory Foam seat. Very nice!   I decided I also needed more padding in my shorts, so off to Dicks Sporting Goods for shorts with gel pads.  Being cheap, I hate spending $40 for padded shorts, but they do work. Sunday I installed the seat and speedometer. For those of you who do not know, I am technology challenged. I refer to myself as the speed bump on the information super highway.  Installing this thing was easy even for me, so I am sure a 10 year old child could have done it in about 5 minutes; took me about an hour.

Monday morning, back at Bass Pro at 6:30.  Wearing my new shorts, and riding the new seat, my seat is happy. I do about 12 miles, which takes a little over an hour. Based on my new odometer, each trip around is actually almost 4 miles so I rode almost 25 miles on Sunday.  I am starting to think that this fund raiser is going to be possible. 

My in house biking coach (Jim Haake, who is one of our construction managers and also is on the Bike Trails Board), thinks I need to get bike clips. These are the little cage thingies that go over your toes on your pedals. They let you lift the pedal as well as pushing down on the pedal. 

Back to Dicks. 

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