A weekend spent pedaling on the road

After almost a month of no road riding, I got back in the saddle (ha ha) this weekend.

Fortunately this picture is not from the long (100 km) charity ride on Saturday, but instead from a short ride around town on Sunday. Daniel and my mom rode the tandem and it was windy enough that I wanted to draft on my single bike. It didn’t rain much while we were actually out riding, but a whole lot of muck from the earlier rainstorm got kicked up, right onto my face. It was still worth it for the drafting (Daniel was pushing a pretty good pace and I was working to keep up) and that’s what showers are for, right?

Saturday, on the other hand, was beautiful biking weather. It was cool-ish in the morning and warmed up to mid-70s by the time we were done. There was a good bit of wind, but it was constant, so at least what we fought as a headwind also benefited us as a tailwind.

Because of the differences in terrain and wind between this ride and the Cycle for Independence last month, it’s a little tricky to compare. This weekend I think we had a little more wind, but also more tailwind to push us along. Overall, though, I think I’m stronger. We managed to shave some time off and get it done in almost exactly four hours, and Daniel says he felt like I was stronger (his opinion is particularly significant as he was the other rider on the tandem).

Because I tend to try all sorts of things at a given time (rather than be a good researcher and do a control run, then add one variable), it’s hard to directly correlate results to one change. Did I do better because of PUSH.tv or because of all the mountain biking? Or was it because I’m slightly lighter? Who knows. But it does seem like this combination of PUSH + lots of biking + healthier eating is having the desired effect. I’m continuing all three and hopefully by my sister Leanna’s wedding (August 19) I’ll be downright buff.

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