Rally Ride Redo

One thing I've been wanting to do before the snow flies is to re-ride the route from the first Rally Ride that Jason and I did in April.  Jason had a day off so after the kids headed to school, we drove to Beavercreek Station.  My hope was to see if I could tackle the hill at the Wright Memorial and how it would be different with my new bike.  I did it!  It was hard, hard, hard!  I almost gave up, but I looked back and saw how far I had come and how little I had to go.  I thought I was going to puke when I got to the top but I DID IT!

From the bottom, after we went up.

 We went across Huffman Dam and then decided to add a little to the route and hit Riverscape in downtown Dayton. The fountains started spraying after we passed under them.  It was a refreshing shower!  

I hit a wall at about mile 24.  I am seeing a trend where I hit a wall when I am about 3/4 done with a ride.  I struggle for a few miles and then the last few miles are fine.  Not sure if it is a body thing or a mind thing; I'm leaning more towards a mind thing because it seems like it is always about 3/4 in, irregardless of the miles. 

In the end, it was a great ride.  We had some great (for me) splits and it was just nice to spend time together. 
Stats:
30.5 miles
11.7 avg speed


I also got two rides with friends in this week for a weekly total of 58.9 miles!  Pretty happy about that and hope to continue to rack up the miles this fall!

Zippy's been crying in the shed.

Due to vacation and school and soccer for the kids gearing up,  it's been almost two weeks since I've had a chance to ride. Looking at the forecast and sky this morning,  it looked like today was going to be another no ride day. Thankfully, that turned around by lunchtime and I was able to get some miles in. 

What's that I see?  Dry pavement and blue sky?

It ended up being a gorgeous afternoon for a ride. I even did a trip over the highway overpass near our house. First time on the new bike and it was incredible how much easier it was!!!

Gotta go clean up Zippy before school's out!

Rain, rain, go away. Melissa wants to ride today!

So Jason got his miles in this morning and was pushing me out of the house to get a ride of my own in. Just as I was getting my shoes on ( last step before leaving-hate hot feet!!!). We hear thunder. Seriously?  I was already not super motivated to ride the trail route I've done a million ( or maybe just 100 ) times before. This shower was literally popping up right over our house. So Jason and the kids headed off on their errands and I decided to drive west to get out of the rain. Ten miles from home the roads and sky were dry and I got on the trail and headed north. 

Not far into the ride, a man came up along side me and asked if he could ride withe awhile. I said sure and we rode the next fiveish miles together. It was nice to have someone to ride with, and I'm going to go with that, rather than worrying if he was a psycho rapist. There was enough traffic on the trail that I felt ok. 

I turned around before he did and ended up having a nice almost 16 miles. I wanted to go farther but I need to toughen up my seat. My legs and gas tank still had miles in them but my seat did not!  

Sorry kids- no room for you!

All in all a great ride. I'm continuing to get more comfortable with shifting and braking. My two sided pedals are kind of annoying; they like to flip to the clip in side not the flat side I am using.  Not ready to make that jump yet but it will come. Pretty happy with the bump in my average speed too!