Sunday, July 23, 2017

That's more like it

I was in Texas in early July for eight days to attend a convention. That meant I had eight days where I did not ride my bike. I did get a lot of steps in, but that's not the same as riding. I got back to Michigan 10 days ago and since then have ridden six times.

July 14 - 15 miles on the White Pine Trail
July 15 - 71 miles at the Holland Hundred
July 18 - 18 miles on the White Pine Trail
July 19 - Wine Wednesday, 16 miles
July 21 - 21 miles on one of my favorite loops north of Rockford
July 23 - 5 miles of mountain biking on the Rouge River Trail

That 146 miles over that 10 day period. That also gives me 650 miles for the year. I'd like to be close to 1,000 miles by the time we go to Colorado for the JDRF ride. I think that's doable. We have three team rides before we leave and those will all have 50+ mile options.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Holland Hundred 2017

Saturday was the most perfect cycling day in a long time. The temperatures were cool. The wind was non-existent. The riding partners were fun. It was a great day.

Our happy little pace line.
The Holland Hundred is a decades long cycling tradition in West Michigan. I've ridden it several times, usually with our JDRF team mates. This year we had a couple dozen folks who started out at various times with various distances in mind. Our group of eight decided on the metric century. A metric century is 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. The posted distance at HH was 67 miles. The actual distance was closer to 71 miles. That was my longest ride of the year by almost 30 miles. I felt pretty good all day. I did have one hill that gave me trouble, and my knees were pretty sore by the end, but i think I could have done 100 miles if I had to.

Part of proper training is knowing just how much to push yourself. While I think I could have done the full century I didn't want to push for that many miles and risk overextending myself and setting back my training. 71 miles was just right and I had something left at the finish. This lets me know that in five weeks I'll be ready to go for the full 100 in Colorado.

39 days until JDRF Ride #13.