Last year Brian decided to ride in The Dehydrator, a multi-distance bicycle ride set up each July to benefit the local high school band. Being a former band nerd myself, I felt it’d be a fun thing to do together and signed up with him. We ended up having a great time, even though we had to go the shortest distance to accommodate my healing innards, and we knew we would participate again this year. We started our training a bit later than optimal this time due to my pants-wetting terror of being chased by large bitey dogs, but we’re making great progress.
The Goal
Our goal this year is to complete the 25-mile leg of The Dehydrator. We’re training for it by working up to ten-mile chunks without a break. My conditioning had gone splat over the winter, which means we’re starting from scratch, so I’ve yet to hit the full ten. I’m getting there, though. We’re doing three rides per week and each one is a little bit easier. Today’s ride was the best yet; we made it over six miles in high humidity and gross headwinds before I needed to stop for a drink break. The breaks are getting shorter, too!
The Motivation
We ride to get in better shape and because bicycles are fun; they call to the inner kid in both of us (okay, my inner kid is not so inner, bite me). The main thing that gets me through the hard rides is thinking about how good rolling across the finish line of that 25-mile ride will feel. That’s a big milestone and I look forward to hitting it because it feeds our long-term goal of getting road bikes and doing a Century Ride (100 miles).
The Ride Reports
Since we’ve picked up our training again I’ve been posting ride reports to my friends on Facebook. We managed to fit today’s ride in between rain storms this morning, but I haven’t posted the report yet, so here it is.
Temperature: 75 degrees
Wind Speeds: SSE 10-12 mph
Humidity: What Are You Doing, Go Back in the House %
Ride Status: Nine miles completed with one drink break at six miles
Yay for progress! I might start saving these up and posting them here at the end of each week. Doing so will help me chart my progress, stay motivated, and keep my friends from blocking and disowning me. Readers, which would you prefer: separate ride report posts, or a small section in the usual weekly post? Let me know in the comments!