The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Notes -
I took the first long ride on my bike on my planned path to a century, doing a 50k ride to Cape May in South Jersey. The thing I like about picking up new hobbies is that I learn so much every time I do something I've never done before. I'm glad I spent so much time trying out different bikes before I committed to anything, if I had purchased a bike four months ago I would have picked something very different. I'm riding a 2005ish Bianchi Volpe touring bike. I would have assumed I would never use drop bars, but I actually find I like drop bars a lot better than flat bars. I feel like I can put down power more easily when needed, and on the longer ride I appreciated having the ability to switch up hand positions to adjust my body or get out of the wind or just to avoid boredom. Plus I like the integrated shifter/brake design, though I miss the gear indicators on most mountain bikes I've seen, sometimes I've been very wrong about what gear I was in, though less often than I think I am.
I do wish I would have left earlier in the morning. I got out around 630, I wanted to try to leave in the twilight so that I'd get out as early as possible without riding much in the dark for too long. In retrospect, I would have rather rode in the dark for a bit, I have a good headlight, there weren't any cars on the road early, and if I route through quieter roads it's a non-concern. And as it got later, traffic started to pick up which slowed me down a bit. Given the choice I'll trade more time riding in the dark for less time riding with cars around me.
On balance it went fine, I wasn't thrilled with the speed I kept up but it was within my expectations, and to be honest I'm not sure what the precise distance traveled or moving speed was because Strava glitched out and tells me I took a shortcut and biked directly across the bay rather than taking the bridge. The direct shortest route I mapped to the lighthouse was 37 miles, Strava said I did it in 31 miles, I didn't entirely follow that short route and probably did more as I got off course several times because I took a wrong turn, chose to take a longer road because it was prettier or safer or for less traffic, and then there was a period where I was cruising through residential neighborhoods looking for an unattended construction site to pee. Then when I got to the Lighthouse, and called my wife who was supposed to pick me up there, she wasn't awake yet, so I rode another five miles back to town to meet her at the restaurant we'd picked. So I did somewhere between 36 and 42 miles, or something like that.
I was pleased with my endurance, I wasn't struggling to pedal even at the end just dropped a couple gears, though I was changing handlebar positions every few seconds trying to find a position I could hold. I definitely feel like I had more in the tank.
Mrs. FiveHour forgot something important at the Shore, so we're going back this weekend, and I'm going to try for fifty miles Saturday morning, which is the next step towards my goal of hitting a century. I'd never biked farther than 20 miles in a day before last weekend, and I was kind of nervous that I'd find out I didn't have it. After this ride I'm feeling confident I'll hit the fifty miles, and the metric century not long after that, but I'm thinking to do a full hundred miles I might need to actually find an organized ride or race where I won't have to deal with road traffic that slowed me down significantly. Alternatively, I could do the five mile loop at my local rail trail twenty times in a row, which would have the advantage of being easy to meter if I can keep count. Biggest thing I need to do is improve my ability to keep a higher cadence for longer period.
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