It's a new year

I decided I'm going to try to Blog more about my bike rides. So far I've rode twice in 2011, 10 miles on Jan 2 and 20 miles on Jan 23. Two rides, one blog...not too bad of a ratio so far. The blogs will probably decrease the more I ride unless something really interesting happens on my rides.

I don't remember the 10 mile ride, so I'll talk a bit about the 20 miler. The 20 miler was supposed to be a nice ride in the country, out by Krause's springs. Having lived in Austin for 27 yrs, it's a shame that I have never dipped my toe into the springs, I did ride my bike past it once and I was hoping Sunday would make it twice, well, the clouds got in the way. It wasn't raining, it just wasn't sunny, so why drive an hour to the country to ride in cloudy weather, So we (Kristen & I) didn't, we 'settled' on going to the veloway and possibly riding some on S. Mopac. Now before you start screaming about safely, S. Mopac has a shoulder, much like 360 and Parmer and far less lights and hills, so all was good. 53 degrees, cold enough to have on leg warmers, 2 jerseys and a jacket, Kristen even had her toe warmers on, but I still refuse to buy those (if it's so cold you have to wear toe warmers, then it's too cold to be riding your bike is my philosophy. What is my bike riding philosophy? Well, when it comes to outside temperature, I prefer to ride in 110 degree weather vs 40 degrees! I can always drink more water and rest in the shade, but I my bike doesn't have a heater and building a fire is out of the question.) ...back to the ride.
One lap around the veloway and we ventured out to Mopac. I felt like I was dragging, but once we turned around it was the combination of the hill and riding against the wind. We turned around and went for another partial lap. once back in the Veloway parking lot, we were at 17 miles, you can't finish a ride at such an odd number, especially when you have access to a 3 mile bike track that will put you at 2 oh!

There was a lot of gravel on Mopac and one pink stuffed fish. Overall, it was a nice peaceful ride. Felt great to get back on the bike, even if it was 53 degrees. And on the final 1/4 mile on the veloway , Mr. Sun came out. I did feel like I should have gone up the hill faster, oh well, maybe next time!

BIKING GOALS for 2011
Create and host Bike 101
Bike Krause's Springs 43 mile route
Easter Hill Country Tour
Armadillo Classic-hopefully the 100 mile ride
Host one room schools tour
maybe Hotter than Hell 100
Miles for this ride: 20
Total miles for the month: 30
Total miles for 2011: 30