The Long and Winding Road

Mondays are typically my long ride day, and today was no exception.  45 miles along the coastline of the South Shore of Boston.  Wind and heat were not my friends - I didn't realize how dehydrated I had become until I was about 14 miles from home and all of a sudden the ride was a struggle.  Fortunately, there was a snack bar which sold Gatorade along the route.  This let me take a delightful break and try to rehydrate myself at least enough to get home.

The best part of the view here is not Hull Bay in the background, but the bottle of Gatorade in the foreground.  Lesson learned - do a better job of hydrating (question asked: what did I do wrong? I thought I drank a lot of water the night before and morning of the ride, AND I drank along the way too).

Lesson number two: when it's windy, think twice.  I needed to get my ride in, but there were a few gusts of wind that almost knocked me into traffic.

Finally, I have to say: I have a big thank you for several drivers who were very courteous and a person directing traffic at a road construction site who held traffic to let me go ahead of cars because he wanted to make sure I was safe.

Back in the Saddle

Way back in 2012 I had the opportunity to participate in the Climate Ride from NYC --> DC.  It was an amazing 5 days where I met new people, learned about climate change, learned more about bike riding and the importance of safe riding options, among other things.

I had never ridden my bike more than 15 miles before I started training, and by the end I had done a ride over 70 miles, and held my bike over my head in front of the US Capitol.  

Now fast forward to 2016...

Looking for some new motivation, with an increased interest in sustainability and climate change, I decided it was time to ride again.  This time from Bar Harbor to Boston!  This time around the trip to the starting line will be more pleasant (no Greyhound Bus to NYC and dragging my bike in a box through Times Square), and the trip home from the finish line much shorter (like my commute home from work, really).

After the initial excitement of signing up wore off, there was a little hesitation to ride, I'm not sure why.  A month ago I took my bike out of the garage, dusted it off, took it in for a tune up, and began to ride.  I forgot how freeing riding my bike can be.  Each ride has been a discovery of just how strong I can be.  Three weeks into training and my long-ride for the week was up to 50 miles (the longest training ride I've ever done, and only three weeks in!)

I'll update my training progress here to save the good people of Facebook and Instagram from getting totally frustrated with too many updates.  

Thanks for reading!