At the beginning of the week, I was thinking about my riding and how I wanted to proceed with my rides into the future. I knew I can't keep up with the 1½ hour rides everyday. As we proceed to winter, I know that my time in the saddle is going to start diminishing. I also didn't want to overdo my riding and sacrifice my strength. I am thinking about cutting my mid-week rides into 30-60 minute rides, and leave the big rides for the weekend.
I inquired with my friend Wilt about his rides and how many miles/time he does weekly, just to get an idea of how to plan my rides. After our discussion about his riding habits, he mentions that if I was using Strava app that we could share our rides with each other. I honestly had forgotten about how Strava has a social network built-in to the app. I could share my rides, track them from there, and I could check out my friends.
I had created an account on Strava like over a decade ago. I really stopped using it because the app's support for swimming was marginal, at best. At the time, I was primarily swimming, with a Masters team and competing at US Masters Swimming meets. I found another app that was designed specifically for swimmers.
That being said, this week I start using my Strava account to track and share my rides. If you are a fellow Strava user, stop by and say "Hi!".
Wednesday September 4th, 2024: 11.81 miles
Overall today's ride went well, but I was struggling with some sore leg muscles from my recent rides and a chronic shoulder pain I'm dealing with. It was a beautiful day out and the route I had created last night worked out pretty well. I was able to get some miles in without having to deal with too much traffic. I'm probably going to be riding this route more often. I'm very pleased that this is only the 4th of the month and I'm also 22% of the way to my monthly mileage goal. I may have to up my goal!
I tried a new idea on my route. On my rides, I generally do a big loop. Out, around, and back. Ride in a direction, turn 90°, repeat three more times. It makes route planning pretty simple and it gives me a chance to check out the streets. This ride was a little different. I sort of did a loop, but this time I rode in a zig zag pattern. Up one street, over then down the next. Did that a few times and I had a great ride planned out.
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I love the view of this street, with the trees hugging it. Just beautiful! |
Friday September 6th, 2024: 12.00 miles
This day was one of those days that tests your commitment and resolution. Rain was predicted for a little later this afternoon, so I headed out at a time that I would be back before the rain rolled in. Well, apparently the rain didn't see the forecast and the rain started to come down about halfway through my ride. It wasn't too heavy but I was soaked by the time I got home.
The other test was at a stop. As I approached the spot I wanted to be safely off of the road, I quickly discovered that I couldn't get my shoe to click out of the pedal. No matter how I twisted my foot, I could not get it to release. Lucky I was able to click out of the other pedal to put my foot down. I ended up pulling my foot out of the shoe and getting a better look at it.
I discovered that one of the cleat screws had gotten loose and when I got the shoe loose, the screw fell onto the ground. I used my mini-tool to put the screw back in, and tighten up the other screw. I'm going to need to check both shoes, just in case before my next ride.
Otherwise it was an enjoyable ride. I can feel myself getting stronger on the ride, especially on the ascents. The ride ended being exactly 12 miles. I don't how it ended at exactly 12.00 miles, but I'll take it!
And this morning I noted that I had lost over 5 lbs from this time last week! Making little steps towards that goal!
Sunday September 8th, 2024: 11.48? miles
Sunday was quite a frustrating ride. My planned route was to ride to a baseball park nearby, as I hadn't visited it before. The route to the park is one that I regularly ride on, with a sizable (for me anyway) hill that I had to ascend first. That end of the road is a bit busier than the end where I started. According to Strava, it took me 37 minutes to ride the five miles to the park.
Once at the park, I paused both my Strava watch app and my Fitbit app on my phone. There was a little league kind of game going on, so I took 10 minutes to watch the game. Once I was ready to go, I resumed both of my ride trackers. Little did I know what was going to happen for the rest of the ride. Shortly after leaving the park, my Strava tracker aborted and stopped recording. About another four miles later, my Fitbit app decided it didn't want to work too.
That meant I do not have data for all of my ride, only about ⅔ of the ride. The number in the sub heading has a question mark because of this. The number is what I calculated the ride to be using the MapMyRide route creator.
Technical difficulties aside, the ride was enjoyable. I took another step closer to get into Madison, which I want to do soon. There are a lot of bike paths/trails/lanes in Madison, so I'm eager to do some riding (and exploring) of our capital city.
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