In December 2014 I received a BMX bike as a gift from my boyfriend, just a few months after we started dating. I would ride it to the skate park & pedal around but mostly, I was just intimidated & scared. In May 2015 I rode the warm up line at the legendary Posh Woods. My first attempt, I crashed. There's been plenty of crashes since then but my riding & my confidence have improved (which you can read all about over on my guest blog post on Fit & Feminist). That same month I bought my first road bike & began riding bikes for fun/fitness.
Three months after getting my road bike & starting this cycling journal, my boyfriend crashed his motorcycle, putting our bike rides together on hold. Our most important goals became healing his busted leg. After a few weeks of being bed ridden he was able to get down to Posh with his walker or crutches & coach me from the side lines. For that, I am forever grateful. But then, it was winter & as a beginner cyclist I was not ready for winter riding so I rode very little. Then in March I decided to ride 50 miles each week as a questionable goal - but I did it! It meant some late night rides & some cold night rides to meet my goal but I did it. It felt awesome & got me even more psyched on bikes. Then that September, I attempted my first century ride & successfully did 82 miles in the BikeMS City to Shore ride! The following year I tried again, and rode 77 miles. But this past September I successfully rode 100 miles on my bike! We started 2018 in Arizona riding mountain bikes in Sedona and BMX anywhere we could. It was wonderful. However, I did not use Strava for all my sessions at Posh this year so my numbers are low. But I started to feel like I was riding just to achieve a number, not just because I liked riding bikes. But, I tend to do that sort of thing. In 2018, as I was preparing my third attempt at a century I decided to ride my road bike every day until the ride. That meant, saddle time for 42 days straight. I didn't always do long rides, but I rode every day. It did not prepare me for a 100 mile ride, but that's another story. in 2019 my goal was to ride more BMX & I for sure did. In 2020 I want to do the BIKEMS: City to Shore 150 so I'm spending a lot of time riding the stationery bike at the gym just to get the saddle time in. 2020 Ride log02.01.20 - 30 min / 6.8 mi @ 13.6 mph (stationery bike @ gym)
01.31.20 - 30 min / 6.8 mi @ 13.6 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.30.20 - 30 min / 6.8 mi @ 13.6 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.28.20 - 10.02 min / 2.20 mi @ 13.2 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.27.20 - 30.10 min / 6.8 mi @ 13.5 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.26.20 - 1.22 hours / 14.26 mi @ 10.4 mph 01.25.20 - 9.06 min / 2 mi @ 13.2 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.24.20 - 15.07 min / 4mi @ 15.9 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.23.20 - 12.44 min / 3 mi @ 14.1 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.11.20 - 1.42 hours / 18.18 mi @ 10.6 mph (Ironton Rail Trail) 01.05.20 - 9.51 min / .65 mi @ 4 mph (Olympic Pump Track) 01.03.20 - 11.02 min / 2.5 mi @ 13.6 mph (stationery bike @ gym) 01.02.20 - 33 min / 2.14 mi @ 3.9 mph (Olympic Pump Track) [2019] [2018] [2017] [2016]
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