1/12/08 Weekly Ride Report

The weather warmed up and the roads were clear this week, so I got out 4 days on X6 for a total of 96.71 miles. It felt great to be out again, though I got a bit saddle sore the first day. I doubled up the padded bike shorts and tights the next days and felt a lot better!

Today, Jeff joined me for a ride and I played around with the video feature on the camera to make this little movie of the ride.

1st Ride of '08!

I was so excited to head out for a ride today after my break. The temperature was around 50 degrees and felt so balmy! (Three days ago, it was only 9 degrees.) I did 32.14 miles.

I felt a little out of sorts getting ready as my cycling things had been put away for awhile and I had to make sure I didn't forget anything. Once I was all dressed and equipped, I got started and felt like there hadn't really been a break as my mind and body just set out pedaling like usual. Well, about a third of the way out, I realized I'd better ease up a bit if I was going to make it around my route! I definitely lost a little fitness during my break, but it's not like starting over or anything that bad. I took a few little picture breaks to keep things easy.

I paused by Newport Harbor and a couple of ducks came over looking for handouts.

This is out at Brenton Point, where there is a park. Looking ahead:

And, looking back the way I'd come:

I took a dirt shoreline access road to this pretty spot:

Later, I had famous Bellevue Drive just about to myself. Most of the gates to the mansions were closed up.

Though the gate to Marble 'House' was open and the building looked particularly pretty in the warm sunlight.

This evening, I'm a little saddle sore and I can feel my glutes, but otherwise the exercise felt great.

2007 Wrap Up

Things fizzled out in December due to weather and holiday commitments, but it was still a great year for me overall.

For a little background information, I really got into biking a lot in July of 2006 and started keeping records of my rides. Here's the summary for 2006, so you can see what I was starting from.

Almost all these rides were on my mountain bike. A few rides at the very end of December were on a borrowed road bike. We had a really mild winter in 2006 as you can tell from the number of rides I did in November and December.

My highlights of 2007 were getting my first road bike in February and my first cyclocross bike in September. Also, riding my first Century.

Here is the table for my 2007 outdoor rides:

And a chart of the above table, plus trainer miles:

Here is a chart of all my mileage by week:

A few interesting totals:
Solo rides: 51
Group rides: 46
Mountain bike rides: 4
Road bike rides: 140
'cross bike rides: 31