Miles this Week: 186.8
Progress towards a new bike: 444.2/1000.0
This was a truly epic week for me. My vacation started Friday and I felt compelled to celebrate by taking the Long Way Home on Thursday night and do some nice rides in the area on Friday and Saturday. Before now, the most miles I've done in a single week was around 120, and that was including a 75 miler with my Dad. I'm really starting to get excited about the new bike shopping... and I had decided that once I get to 500, I can start test-riding bikes. So close, I can almost taste it!
Sunday: 19.5 loop, 2 major hills, including the "killer hill"
Monday: 15.5 commute in, 15.5 commute home, normal hill
Tuesday: 15.5 commute in, 18.1 commute home, did the local "killer hill" on the way home.
Wednesday: 0, this is the day that commuting doesn't normally work for me. Wednesdays will mostly be 0 when I'm working.
Thursday: 15.5 commute in, 25.8 commute home, took the long way, did Decoursey hill and then Visalia hill, both Normal hills.
Friday: 23.5, managed to slip it in between rain showers.
Saturday: 37.9, hot and humid, but at least no rain
As this is my first Weekly Ride Report, I should explain something about the area where I live in case some random person stumbles upon these blog entries. In Northern Kentucky, there are basically 2 altitides, ~850-900 feet above sea level and ~450-500 feet. 450-500 is the level of the Ohio River for most of the area and also the level of the Licking river, so most valleys bottom out at that level. The ridges, where there isn't a river or major creek to erode things down to river level, are all at 850-900. I live at about 850 or so, but all the good rides and all my commute routes follow the river for some distance, so I always wind up giving up at least 300 feet of altitude. This also means that to get home, I have to earn it back. There are basically 3 categories of hills... rolling hills, that don't go all the way up or down between 850 and 500, "Normal" hills, that take a mile and a half or so to make the altitude change and "Major" hills that do the change in a mile or less. I've got a "Normal" hill on my default commute route, and I've gotten quite used to it. It takes about 10-15 minutes to climb, but I don't have to stand up if I don't want to and I don't even have to go all the way down to my lowest gear (old bike= no granny gear, but the big cog in back is BIG, so I get a 40/28 ratio to climb hills with, which isn't too shabby). The local killer hill does the 300 foot of altitude change in .6 miles. I wind up standing on the pedals just to keep moving, and even then I'm barely making any progress and I've almost fallen over from losing momentum more than once.
The point of that paragraph is to explain my comments on "Major" hills and Normal hills in my comments. I always take the same route going TO work, but depending on how I feel on the way home, I may stretch myself a little and throw in a killer hill or some more distance or multiple normal hills, like I did on Thursday. I'm not going to pretend I'm ever fast or ever going to be particularly fast, but if nothing else, the hills will make me stronger.
