Me, too, yay! Cycling!

Yesterday my exercise consisted of me walking and jogging alongside Cecilia while she rode 3 miles, occasionally giving her boosts up hills. Plus we did plenty of walking at the Farmer's Market and the grocery store, so I had NO problem topping my 10,000 steps for the day. Today was more fun for me -- I abandoned the kids at home (Daniel was at work) and rode 16.7 miles on my bike. I stayed away from Ellett Valley entirely -- a great ride until you have to get back into town, when it's a million miles uphill with no break. (Really just two, but the grade gets up to 8% unless you make it a very long ride and traverse some very unpaved roads.) There's a lovely loop to the north of town that goes about six or eight miles, and getting there and back and adding on a few other spurs I really had quite a nice ride. I did not try to push the pace, and I averaged just under 14 mph. (That's by my bike computer -- in actuality I stopped once for several minutes on campus to borrow a water bottle from Daniel, since I'd forgotten to get mine at home, and I paused two other times to take a drink. The computer doesn't count time that you're not moving.)

I'm still keeping food in check. Today it wasn't hard because we had a lot of fruit in the house, and when I came back from riding that's what I was craving anyway. And water. Lots of water. When I got back from riding it was 87 degrees. I was dripping with sweat for half an hour after I got back.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for other rides. 16 miles was a lovely weekend ride (wish it had fewer traffic lights on the route, though -- well, none, because there were only about four -- and less traffic on the in-town parts) but it won't get me very conditioned if 60-something miles is my goal. There are some 50-mile routes, so that's something to work towards; I might even be able to tune one of those down to 30, now that I look at it. But a 20-mile route is a bit elusive, and I don't really have a 7-10 mile route that doesn't leave me fearing for my tires.