Single Sport Training - Bike

Bike/Run Start and Finish is our Driveway Going to the Right of Teardrop

Today was a biking day. I rode the triathlon route clocking the 5 miles in 29 minutes and 20 seconds. The route differs from my usual resulting in a longer upgrade than I've been doing. I actually got into my lowest gear coming up the final hill. Also forgot to wear my gloves which convinced me that I do want to wear them in the triathlon; hands got a bit sore. All in all the bike training is going very well even though I consider myself somewhat of a novice at the sport.

When we bought our current home from my sister we were the third family member to own it. Mom and Dad built it in the mid-'80s then sold it to my sister in '92. Meanwhile my sister moved next door into the house Mom and Dad built in '92 - keeping it all in the family. As she and I sorted out all the various bicycles in the two garages, I discovered my English racer, the three-speed bike I had as a teenager. Mom and Dad had kept it all these years.

This inspired me to think about taking up biking again which I really haven't done since I left home for college a goodly number of years ago. As with many sports, I felt that my abilities were so far behind other folks (like Joe) I knew I could never catch up. So I avoided failure by avoiding the activity entirely. Looking at the flat land around us in Michigan and not wanting to waste what might be a perfectly good bike, the time seemed right to give it a try.  

Joe cleaned up the bike and determined that a) it worked and b) it was safe to ride. So during the month of August 2011 I did a few rides around the neighborhood. Ah yes, I remembered the feeling I loved as a child of freedom and speed! It has always reminded me of flying.

My New Specialized Dolce Bike

It didn't take long for me to decide I wanted to continue biking which led to wanting a better bike with more gears. After all, if Joe and I were ever going to do rides together I needed to have a bike that could keep up with his fancy-shmancy road racer.  So he helped me shop for a lovely Specialized Dolce bike which is configured for women. (The old English racer was passed on to my soon-ro-be niece-in-law who will probably ride it in the First Ever Triathlon. Good to know it is still in service.) 

I can't say that I've done a lot of biking since then. One challenge was finding a saddle that was comfortable enough for me to last more than about 20 minutes. I'm on my third one now and have finally found one (The Seat) that doesn't hurt certain delicate areas. I also discovered that our winter home in Glendale is in a neighborhood that's just too dang hilly for me to succeed in biking very far. While there this past year, I only managed a few rides, mostly along the river trails in the area.

Bike Route on Quiet Rural Roads

How some ever, I currently am poised to do well on the biking portion of triathlon. The five mile route is on roads where I regularly ride so I feel very confident. I usually bike at least 5 miles (which takes me about a half hour) when I go for a ride and that's the distance for the First Ever. I feel that this is my strongest sport of the three. I even had a brief vision of passing other competitors on my bike (if I don't get too far behind on the swim that is).

When trying out the triathlon route recently I decided to push myself faster than usual. This was accomplished mostly by pedaling on the downhill stretches where I'm used to resting a bit. I ended up with a cramp in my thigh muscle. This reinforced Joe's advise to me to stay within my current speeds on the different sports. After my workouts to date I can see the wisdom in that. It will be enough of a challenge for me to do more than one sport in a day and to be at it for a longer period of time. If I try to push too hard I could injure myself. In fact, I'm beginning to realize that the bike portion and, certainly, the walk could well be slower than usual because of the fatigue factor. I'll be able to judge that better after I start combining sports in my workouts (stay tuned for that next week).