"It's better than a hospital" Ride

Not being able to go on the Easter Hill Country Tour, I was needing a ride out in the country! Love that Kristen Theiler is available for these adventures! Every time we were in a position to "Embrace the Suck" because of the wind or a hill, our battle cry was "It's better than a hospital" which is where Kristen was a year ago after her bike bucked her on the way to work. So today was another one of those "I'm so happy to be alive" days!

After having a conversation w one of Fredericksburg's finest about my speed on Friendship and my obstructed license plate, we finally arrived at Lady Bird Park. Time to head out to Luckenbach. A little windy, beautiful country roads and sunshine.

Finished the ride, ate in town then went back to Luckenbach for a beer!


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Miles for this ride: 37
Miles for the week: 67
Total miles for the month: 201
Total miles for 2011: 367
Miles to go: 1133 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10176 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)

M. Bonnell

Instead of doing a ride out of town KT & I decided to do the hills NW of the hood. First hill was going west on Steck to Mesa...just a gradual climb. Then we coasted down to Balcones. Lots of fun on the steep climb and another coast down to 38th...I looked at Kristen, "wanna do Mt. Bonnell?" "I don't know, how steep is it?" "not sure I've never ridden it." "well, if it's a wall we can always turn around." that being said we turned right instead of left and climbed Mt. Bonnell for the first time ever.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been...I think Bee Caves on 360 is harder. So, Mt. Bonnell will now be added to the mix...next goal is the horrible hill of Highland hills where 9 yrs ago I bailed when my heart rate hit 185 and I was going 5 mph...I also didn't have the granny gear, i think I can do it, been doing some pretty steep climbs on the way to work.


On Sunday I went w/ Erwin to pick up Alison at the MS150, boy that brought back lots of memories of all the fun times I had riding w/ Diane, all 680 miles we rode and all 60+ port a potties we used. Miss ya lots D!
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Miles for this ride: 17
Miles for the week: 50
Total miles for the month: 134
Total miles for 2011: 300
Miles to go: 1200 to hit 1500!
Loved that the odometer is binary: 10110

already at 73

I'm already at 73 miles past 10K!
Completed the first bike home and to work of 2011 and it didn't rain!
For ABC, we did 10.5!
Then on Saturday, completed 31, the longest ride so far of 2011.
It was been very windy in Austin lately, not wanting to have to ride in the drops, I talked Kristen into driving South to start our ride, then once we were home, going back to pick up the car. I drove to P-ville where Kristen was dog sitting, picked her up and drove to Decker Lake. The Diva Dash was going on at Decker, so lots of people.
Wow! With the wind at your back you can go 20 mph without any effort! We followed part of the Danskin Route and they paved Lindig! it was so smooth! the skeet shooters were still there! After Manor we decided to head East for a bit! yes the wind was out of the SE and killed our average speed. Also came across a scary dog with teeth that decided to chase us for about 100 yards as the owner watched. Nice.
Riding with Kristen reminds me a lot of riding w D. She isn't afraid to take charge and knows how to operate MapMy Ride! It was only 21 from Decker to P-ville, but Kristen found an additional 10 miles so we would hit 30! By the time we got back to the house we ended at exactly 31!


Just a tad bit windy!
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Miles for this ride: 31
Miles for the week: 73
Total miles for the month: 84
Total miles for 2011: 250
Miles to go: 1250 to hit 1500!
Roadkill: a fresh skunk in the middle of a one way bridge.

10K

I hit the biking milestone of 10000 miles on Saturday. I had wanted the ride to be something memorable, instead it turned out to be appropriate. When I bought my first road bike in 1999 off a friend from work (a Vitus, all aluminum frame, dura-ace components, I think I put about 3,000-4,000 miles on that bike, bought the LeMond in 2004 and really increased the riding!) I'm sure the first ride I did was down Shoal Creek Blvd, so it was rather appropriate that 12 years later I hit the 10,000 mile mark on Shoal Creek Blvd. Shoal Creek has also been a major part of the stroke recovery and my training, it's nice & wide and leads to other roads and routes and then leads home.
But this SC ride was different. For starters, I had to detour (major storm drainage construction) so I wasn't able to ride my favorite part of SC, if I had to have a favorite section. Then on my way back, I barely made it from the detour back to SC when I hit 10K.
the odometer hit 9999.9 on the side street perpendicular to SC.

Then once I was on SC, it turned to 10000. As I kid I recall wanting to hit 1000 miles on my odometer on my banana seat bike. I'm sure I hit it on the 10 speed, but I can't recall, I just know I never hit it on the banana seat bike, I did hit 100, though.

Since hitting 10000 miles, I lost my tenths, so I had to go an extra mile to make sure the odometer still worked, it did!


Miles for this ride: 11
Total miles for the month: 11
Total miles for 2011: 177
Miles to go: 1323 to hit 1500!
Miles to go to 10,000 on the speedometer: -1

less than 25 to 10K

Getting closer to 10K!
Was hoping I would have completed it in March, but it didn't work out, oh well...
with only needing 25, I took out on Thursday to get some miles in...did 14. I love that I have so many options in my hood as to where I can ride. It's especially cool, like when I do hills, I can remember back to 3 years ago dying going up that hill in the granny gear of granny gears and now I can breeze up it in the middle ring!
It was a good hard ride!

Miles for this ride:14
Roadkill for this ride: don't remember
Total miles for the month: 85
Total miles for 2011: 181
Miles to go: 1320 to hit 1500!
Miles to go to 10,000 on the speedometer: 11

cap 10K

Capital 10 K got in the way of riding. It had been over 20 years since I last did the 10K, time for another post stroke goal.
Had I not injured my foot 2 weeks prior, I prob would have taken it more seriously, but since I was injured, it was time to have some fun! The Cap 10K was awesome!
I was the chicken and Elizabeth was the egg! We were racing to see who really came first!
We dodged runners and walkers for 6.2 miles, ran the flats and walked the hills! Stopped at every band and beer stop and had our pics taken by lots of folks! loved the screams from the kids! "look a chicken! and an egg!"
When we were racing down the shoot, the announcer was calling it perfectly, "look it's a race between the chicken & the egg! I wonder who will be first? It's the chicken, no, it's the egg, now it's the chicken, here comes the egg, 'go chicken, go egg' oh who really cares!" and the race to the finish proved the chicken came first by a step!


Then I rode the mountain bike at ABC (had another good turn out, the ladies are really excited! love the learning curve!


Miles for these rides this week: 5 for ABC count 6.2 run/walk...hard to believe I ran more than I biked (I think)
Roadkill for this ride: lots of paper cups
Total miles for the month: 81
Total miles for 2011: 166
Miles to go: 1334 to hit 1500!
Miles to go to 10,000 on the speedometer: 25