Monday June 14th, 2010

Today's ride was just a quickie after work. I am very pleased that our house is just a few pedal strokes away from the Bear Creek Trail. This is a main trail that will connect me to most any other trail I want to get to in the metro area! Today was the first nice day in a a while (we've had a lot of rain) so the path was very busy, but was still able to get in around 12.5 miles in under an hour, including a hill climb. I headed down to Bear Creek Lake Park and happened to met up with another rider (who appeared to be far more skilled than me) and wanted to cruise together for a while. Of course, this happened just before a decent climb. Now, I couldn't let it show that this was only my second ride of the season and I had to keep up with him at a good pace which was a little rough being that this was my first attempt at anything that resembled a hill this year. Not to mention he wanted to carry on a conversation while I was huffing my lungs out... but, I did it!! Good pace, good conversation and all! However, my legs are now reminding me of this lovely conversation! :)

Ride Stats:

Distance: 12.44 miles
Time: 53 minutes
Challenge: Not much of one beside first minor climb of season!

I'm trying out a few different apps on my phone to track my rides and create maps... we'll see how they work.

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Ok, so biking season started a little later than usual this year for me, but life has just been a little crazy up until now. Although my regular blog has fallen by the wayside, I'm hoping to still keep up with the biking blog just so that I can help track my rides. New this year, the biking blog will include mountain bike rides!! Kevin's parents brought us some bikes from Sports Rack in Marquette last September. We got to use them in Moab, but didn't have much of a chance to use them after that. So, this summer's riding will be on more than just pavement for me! Hopefully once Kevin's ankle heals, we will be able to mountain bike ride together!!! (can't wait!)

My original plan for this summer was to get in two "big" rides. I'm not sure if I will be able to get to that goal with my late start and all, but we will see. They probably won't be organized rides, but still hope to hit some of the mountain passes again.

Today, Chad Hooper and I headed out for a relatively easy ride - a good one for the first ride of the year. We started at the Hooper's house and headed toward Cherry Creek Reservoir on the Highline Canal and Cherry Creek bike trails. We did two laps around the park, then headed back. Beautiful morning for a ride... minus the wind in some areas!

Ride Stats:
**Updated: Chad has a nifty app on his iPhone that tracks the ride with all of the info along with the maps!! Neat!!!**

Distance: 25.4 mi
Time: 1 hr 45 min
Total Elevation Change: 1,860

Here's to another great summer of riding! Cheers!