16 Miles On My Own

Longest Solo Ride to Date

In preparation for this mileage challenge that is now going on with my brothers and myself, I spent about 4 hours the other night hooking up my new cycling computer on the new bike. Is that normal? How hard can it be, but the instructions were a bit lacking, and winding the cables around the tubes, blah, blah, blah...it took forever. Anyway, I know that I had said that I wanted to do the farewell ride on the Lotus last night, but I got home from work a bit late and was fighting daylight, and had just put the new computer on. Needless to say, I took out the new bike last night, got in 16 miles, and now I'm totally hooked on the bike computer thing.


So much info, I was having a hard time watching where I was going. I'm sure/hoping that the novelty will wear off soon, cause it can't be safe to ride around looking at your handlebars all the time. But for now, I was flooded with all this new information and was loving it. So far, I'd say I'm addicted to the speedometer and the odometer, and the cadence thing is running a close third.

So my average speed was 16 miles per hour. Slow yes, but I was pleased that I did 16 miles (16.085 to be exact) in exactly one hour (ok, 1 hour and 36 seconds to be exact). Gotta leave room for improvement. The odometer was cool, and kept me going a little while longer. I got to where I thought I would turn around, but I was only at 7.5 miles. I thought that a 16 mile ride would be waaaay more impressive and satisfying than a 15 mile ride, so I found a side street and kept riding until I hit the 8 mile mark, then I turned and headed for home. Loving it.

I have to say, slowly, but surely, I'm starting to feel less like a poser on the bike and that is definitely a good thing. My pedals, shoes and chamois shorts should be in next week, and that should be another step in the right direction as well. After 16 miles in my old lacrosse shorts, the chamois will be a very welcome addition to the team.

That's it for now, from what I've heard, I think I may have just taken a 16 mile lead in the mileage challenge, so bring it on boys, start turning those cranks.

Thanks for reading.