Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Day 152 - 07/22/2007

Sarah had her birthday party today and I wanted to get in a bike ride, so I loaded my bike in the back of the van and headed out with D to drop the kids off at the party (at Michael's in Vienna -- the "family" party would be held a little later at Nina's house).

She drove home; I rode home.

It only took me a little over an hour to ride from Vienna to Chantilly (via Reston and Fairfax) and traffic was pretty manageable. I took the W&OD from Vienna to Reston, getting off at Sunrise Valley Drive. I took that to South Lakes, which I then followed to Reston Parkway. I rode that to Rugby Road, which I took to the end at Melville (which then took me the rest of the way home).

My average speed was just over 14 mph, but that was due to getting stopped at assorted lights. If there were no lights, I probably could've gotten up to 16 -17 mph. As I sat at the light at Rugby Road and 50, I was five minutes shy of an hour with 1.23 miles to go before 14 miles. The light turned green with about 3:45 remaining in the hour. I hauled ass to make the full 14 miles and for a minute or so, was approaching the speed limit for cars (25 mph). I pushed it and pushed it and finally made it to 14 miles before the 60 minute mark. That last mile was covered in 2:57 (~20.35 mph). Not bad for an almost twenty year old mountain bike being ridden by an almost forty year old body.

It's been a while since I've been on a ride longer than 30 minutes and overall I felt pretty good. If getting back to running doesn't pan out due to my knee (which was a little sore when I woke up this morning from yesterday's run and walk and working in the garage), maybe I'll drop a chunk of change and turn into a full-fledged roadie.

1 comment:

Life is an Adventure said...

Drop the chunk of change!!! Join my cult!!!! Get the roadie, you'll wonder how you ever got along in life without one :-)