Training time for real

In a little over a month I will be heading off to New Orleans to join a Woman Tours bike tour along the Mississippi from New Orleans to Memphis. This is the first third of the entire north south transcontinental tour which the Woman Tours organization does to raise money for breast cancer.

I had originally signed up for this tour because it sounded like a good way to break into long distance biking or for a longer period than just two or three days. Also I figured it would be a good preliminary experience for the West East transcontinental ride my sister and I are planning to do in 2009.

The ride has suddenly taken on an additional poignancy as our weaving and spinning community lost a valued member and friend to breast cancer this past week. I will be riding in her memory.

After a hiatus in training while in Florida to be with my FIL for a heart pacemaker implant, I need to really start pushing myself. To that end I have decided to add a spinning class to my workout/training schedule. This is the type of spinning which is done on a specially designed stationary bike to hard hammering music, not fiber spinning whith a wheel or spindle which I do daily anyway.

I have been training primarily for distance and to maintain a good speed over hours. I do push my speed, which is easy enough to do around Houston since it is basically flat but I do not normally do sprints. I do consider myself basically fit for road biking and touring in moderate conditions even at high gear ratios, against headwinds and in mixed conditions, as long as the hills are not too high, steep or frequent.

Thursday I took my first spin class and what an eye opener that was! Obviously I am not in as good a shape as I had imagined, at least in terms of spinning. The sad fact is I don't do sprints, ever, voluntarily or otherwise, and that is what a spin class is, endless sprints. The class killed me. Yes it was fun, and depressingly challenging, made all the more so by the fact that the instructor was five months pregnant. It's a good thing that I was so focused on just survivng the class that I didn't notice until at the end of class when someone asked when the baby was due. If I had known before or during, I probably would have run out of the class weeping in despair. As it was I was too busy gasping to summon the energy to react, and yes that was me falling over backwards as I tried to put my leg up on the saddle of the bike to stretch at the end of the class. Monday and the next class looms threateningly in the future but I will persist.

Yesterday which was Friday, dh and I took advantage of the chancy Houston spring weather and joined all the bikers out on the roads training for the upcoming MS150. We did a nice 22 mile trip through the fields and slight rolls west of the city in Fulshear. This is an area where many bikers ride and train. The area is gently rolling through several creek vallies and lots of open fields. There is only light traffic, most of the roads have nice wide shoulders, and there are several long shots of 10 miles or so that can be combined for longer rides.

The wild flowers were in full bloom with Texas bluebonnets, indian paintbush, black eyed susans,and white thistles were intermixed with abundance. We passed over the big I 10 interstate and were able to see the results of the late Lady Bird Johnson's efforts to plant the medians and verges with wild flowers. Both banks were sweeps of bright orange paint brush and blue bonnets while the verge was completely yellow and blue with black eyed susans, vetch, alfalfa and bluebonnets.

We topped off the ride with lunch at Doziers "World Famous barbeque" feeling rather like we were only passing as serious bikers in our jerseys and biker shorts as we watched our own private mini version of the MS 150 as groups and teams of riders in training passed by on the main street just outside the window.

Ride statistics

Distance 22.5 miles

Average speed 13.7

Time 2 hours 20 minutes including stops to admire flowers, hydrate, stretch and consult maps

Headwinds strongest from the north but ever present in every direction.

Temperature probably around 75 F and sunny.

Highlights- beautiful fields of wild flowers and some lovely little brown and white longhorn babies with very interesting markings who played "run away run away" when we passed.

Road kill 3 possums, 2 snakes, 2 turtles, 2 mystery road pizza items obviously animal and 1 buzzard.

Fiber Femmes Web Ring Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next Powered by RingSurf