Last weekend before the long ride

This was a our last weekend ride before the long ride. We have been training for a few months and it feels more like a few weeks. I can barely believe it is time for the actual race day. This week will be filled with lots of short workouts as Clay and I prepare for our 50 mile trek through Western Pennsylvania on Sunday.

Our weekend ride took place on Old 22 near our house and left me feelling confident about Sunday's ride (as long as we can avoid any major rainstorms). Riding on the road has not been what we have embraced on our long rides we have grown very found of the beautiful trails and had a tendency to flock to them. So this has left me uneasy about our upcoming Tour de Cure road ride. What I realized this weekend was though the baby hills left em feeling a little tired in the middle of them I had a quick recovery whenever we were descending or back on flat ground showing the level of the endurance that Clay and I have gained during our training. Adding a few miles each weekend didn't seem too bad, but once we started to hit the 30 mile plus threshold things were starting to get tougher. Next week will definitely be a challenge, but this week was a nice reward:

Trip Distance: 15.45 miles
Trip Time: 1:13:14
Average Speed: 12.66 mph
Maximum Speed: 32.75 mph

A ride that required small burst of energy and proved that our endurance has dramatically improved. There was a point with this ride would have been the same level of challenge that our 40 mile ride was last weekend.

Last Long Ride

This past Sunday we had our last long ride before the Tour de Cure event which is quickly approaching. Next weekend we will only have a 20 mile ride. This weekends ride was very rough for me. I actually ended up having numbness in two of my fingers and a little knee pain. The knee pain went away quickly; however, the finger numbness is still there though it is getting better ever day. All of my research indicates it is the ulnar nerve. For this reason we decided to buy some biking gloves for me.

I'm so excited to complete 50 miles on my bike. This sunday we completed 40 - 40 miles on my bike there was a point in my life when I would have thought that was insane and actually today I still think I am crazy at points, but the sense of accomplishment is great and our physical abilities are vastly improving.

This adventure has inspired us to run a half marathon in October - the catch we are running as a two person relay team - still at 6.5 - 7 miles each that is farther than we've ever run and we are looking forward to it.


Sunday, June 7 2009
Trip Distance: 39.5 miles (we were off a little because of changing om direction)
Trip Time: 3:01:46
Average Speed: 12.99
Maximum Speed: 21.43

Terrain - burgettstown to robinson gravel trail - long gradual hills

Wellsburg to Wheeling

We are now starting to have trouble finding rides that meet our distance requirements.   Yesterday we had planned on riding in Pittsburgh on the the trails at the South Side unfortunately we would have had the same issue that we had last week at Morraine State Park, we would have had to redo the loop several times to meet our weekly 35 mile requirement.  Instead we decided to go with an old favorite the Wellsburg to Wheeling ride, not a lot of hills but a nice variation in terrain.  Clay and I were thrilled to not have had any rain especially when we found a patch of rain by the coke plant on our way to the ride.  We were not to thrilled that we forgot sunscreen.  We have remembered every weekend but for some reason yesterday we were off our game.  We did however complete 35.67 miles which was fantastic.  We are only a month away from ride day.  We need to work on getting a little more funding for the Tour De Cure.  

Trip Distance:  35.67

Trip Time: 2:38:40 

Average Speed: 13.48

Maximum Speed: 25.90

Morraine State Park

We went on a ride on Friday, May 15, I just haven't taken the time to post in a while.  Last Friday we went to Morraine State Park to check out the general area of where our ride is going to take place at.  They have a great riding trail at Morraine park and beautiful views of the lake; however, the trail is only 7 miles long which means we had to double-up and ride the trail twice.  We also chose to climb a big hill about 1/2 mile long in order to build our climbing skills.  The trail had a nice combination of turns and baby hills.  It was a perfect Friday off for clay and I. 

Distance:  32.36

Time: 2:28:07

Average Speed: 13:10 

Maximum Speed: 29:47

30 mile ride

Today Clay and I successfully completed our 30 mile ride. We road all the way from Wellsburg to Wheeling a nice combination of terrain we went through road - off road and paved trails. However, we did not encounter a lot of climbs. We will definitely need to incorporate some climbs on our next weekend ride. It was a fantastic feeling to know that we only have 20 more miles to go to reach our goal.

Trip Distance: 32.31 miles
Trip Time: 2:19:52
Average Speed: 13.87
Maximum Speed: 22.03 - not too bad for no hills!

Last week we ran out of road so our trip was split into two days instead of one. I lost the stats so i was not able to blog about it. But we completed 15 miles on Saturday and 12 miles on Sunday.

Second 25 mile ride

Saturday  we went on a ride - originally we intended to ride 27 miles, but as we started on a continuous grade for about 2 miles are energy quickly depleted and we quickly changed our mind to base this ride on time and not distance.  So we decided we would ride for an hour and then turn around.  A gravel trail is definitely a little more tasking than riding on pavement.  We will need to ride on pavement this weekend and add in some more rolling hills.  Unfortunately, we haven't find the perfect road to ride on yet.  

Trip Distance:  25.26 miles

Trip Time: 1:53:19 (a little under two hours because we made great time on the way back)

Average Speed: 13.37 mph 

Maximum Speed: 22.62 mph 

Not too bad.  I also have to say that we realized how blessed we were and how amazingly kind people are.  Clay lost his wallet after the ride either left it on the truck or dropped it.  We came home before realizing as he headed back to find it I actually started calling to cancel his credit cards.  Later that afternoon I got a call from Giant Eagle because someone called them with Clay's wallet and met us later that afternoon to return it.  There are some wonderful people in this world and we are so blessed that one of those wonderful people found clay's wallet. 

The montour trail!

Our 25 mile ride - Halfway there

After taking last week off because of Easter festivities and the mucus born illness that struck both Clay and I it was great to get out this weekend and accomplish our 25 mile ride, which brings us to the the halfway point of our goal.   A beautiful day with a temperature of about 70 degrees and some beautiful sunshine we enjoyed our 25 mile adventure.  This week we choose minimal hills since we had not been aggressively working out for the entire week. 

The ride started at above the dam in wheeling and took us all the way to the other end of Benwood, it was a great adventure  - We we excited to see our old neighbor friend who used to live next to Clay on Chapline Street 

Trip Distance: 25.05 miles

Trip Time: 1:40:26

Average Speed: 14.80 mph 

Max Speed: 23.81 mph 

We look forward to a challenging ride next week!