Saturday June 21st, 2008

Today's ride felt great! I didn't do any great mileage like last week but did some great work on hills! I rode down to Bear Creek Lake Park and tackled some hills there without stopping for a break. I didn't do the Mt. Carbon hill like I did last week, but instead I went the opposite direction around the park and over the dam. It was a nice moderate hill that was challenging yet very do-able. I am also getting more comfortable shifting and finding the right gear to be in for climbing. Also, I was able to make it up the Garrison street hill with only stopping once! And the stop was right before the switchback. The two turns are pretty tight, so I'm not sure that I will ever make it through them without stopping. :) However, if it wasn't for the switchback, I'm fairly certain that I could have made it all the way without stopping! Wow, that felt really good! Yay!

I am going to try and make it out of work early (aka - on time) this week and get a ride in after work. Next weekend I am going to be in Scottsdale with Anna and family so I won't be able to ride next weekend. And, the following week is the bike handling clinic I signed up for!

Ride Stats:

Distance: Round trip approx. 17 miles

Time: 1.5 hours

Challenge: Hills in Bear Creek Lake Park, Garrison Street hill, and dodging all the people using the path today!

Goal: Keep working on hills in BCLP and do the full loop around the park (lotsa hills!). Try to make it through the Garrison St switchbacks without stopping.

Saturday June 14th, 2008

Ok... I think I over-did it a bit for my third week out. Nonetheless today's ride was a good one. I unfortunately wasn't able to work on my goal of the Garrison street hill... but not getting too down on myself about it seeing as though I encountered this hill at about mile 35 in today's journey. I, however, was able to work on many other hills in the area. In particular, Mt Carbon in Bear Creek Lake Park. Knowing now that it actually has a name makes me feel a little better. This climb definitely kicked my butt, but was another good attempt at getting myself in shape to climb hills better. Unfortunately, that climb pretty much spent all my energy for the rest of my trip. Since moving here I have wanted to ride on the C-470 trail. Not sure why, but it just looked like a nice path. Today I finally did! It had rolling hills which was tough but again, good practice. Rode through the north end of Chatfield State Park then up the Platte River Trail to the Bear Creek Trail up to Austin and Erika's for a break and lunch. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it the last 8 miles of my trip (I was REAL tired at this point) but was too determined to quit. So, I did it! Made it the rest of the way home on the bike. Now, I'm throughly exhausted, thinking I may have over done it today, but feeling good at the same time for pushing myself!

Trip Stats:

Distance: Round Trip Approx 39 miles

Time: 3.5 hours (Damn stops on the hills definitely slowed down my time!)

Challenge: Mt Carbon hill in Bear Creak Lake Park and Garrison St Hill.

Goal: Garrison St Hill stopping only once and Eventually Mt Carbon hill... but that may take a while! :)

One cool thing to point out about the map, the only time I was riding on the street is the very first (and very last) straight north/south section. The rest is all bike trail. Gotta love Denver!!! :)

Biking Blog

So I'm going to give this a try. I want to keep track of my bike rides in hope that it will encourage me to ride knowing that someone may actually be looking at my rides, although, I don't think anyone will be real interested. Oh well... just more of a log for myself! :)

Saturday June 7th, 2008

Today I rode from our place down to Austin and Erika's. I felt a little more comfortable on my bike this week than I did last week. Every bump didn't make me tense up and wasn't as nervous when cars were passing right next to me. Checked out a chunk of the Bear Creek Trail which was very nice. Will definitely be riding on it some more.

Ride Stats:
Distance: Round trip - 16 miles (approx.) - need to find my odometer/speedometer

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes - including a 15 minute break at A & E's, a few other breath catchers going up the hill and a stop to put my chain back on

Challenge: Hill up Garrison

Goal: Be able to make it up the hill on Garrison without stopping, including making the turns on the two tight switchbacks - should be able to do this in one or two more attempts.

This is as close as I could get the map to my actual route. There are a few places where I wasn't near a road, but this is pretty close.