Cycling Improvement

It’s funny how I can be my own worst critic. I put myself down on my biking a lot.

I’ve been doing a lot of trail running lately and very little biking. Makes sense — I’m training for a trail race, not a triathlon. But it mattered because the hubby had signed me up for the Wurst Ride; we’d had so much fun two years ago that we’d made a pact to do it every year.

Unfortunately, I was sick last year and had to miss it…I’d just done NYC marathon and what was supposed to have been a time of celebrating a new road PR was in actuality me laying around, unable to do anything at all. Months of feeling bad followed. I’ve pretty much spent 2009 recovering from the bad months and am finally feeling 100 percent back on my feet.

But I hadn’t been riding my bike. Yes, I had gotten on for some of the Danskin group workouts I was helping coach, and yes, I’d done a few short 20-something-mile rides. But since summer, not so much of anything. I’d gotten on the trainer or headed over to the veloway a couple of times to spin out tired legs but I hadn’t ridden more than an hour and a half. My butt hated every minute on the trainer. So I was pretty skeptical and a bit concerned over 60+ miles.

My husband’s friend did not want to do the 100K and so we decided that he and I would do the 42K ride, but we’d wait for James and ride with him when he met up with us. It was the perfect solution. We met up successfully, only to be sidelined for a chunk of time while James had to work out a tire issue. The rest of the ride was great. And it was funny; some things that had bothered me two years ago (a gravelly hill with a sharp left-hand turn at the bottom onto a wooden bridge, for one) were no big deal. I rode very comfortably and enjoyed myself the whole way. Beer and sausage at the end was the perfect rewards. Now, I wish we could combine the positive things about the new finish location (easy to get beer/sausage, lots of places to sit, multiple bathrooms, a clear finish) with the beauty of the old (grass and the creek and being able to walk over to Wurstfest).

I’m going to make a point to ride when all the fun group rides start up in the spring…and I’m going to keep reminding myself that I’m not a crappy cyclist.