300 Miles of Fun!

I went out to ride this morning with the simple goal of riding more than 5 miles.  I've done three, 5 mile rides on this new saddle (the Serfas Curva) and have felt pretty good but know I need to increase my ride length to see if I have any soreness on longer rides. For this morning, I figured 8 to 10 miles would do especially since I have to leave the kids home alone when I hit the roads. Rose is almost eleven and good at watching her brother but Ryan recently learned how to start grass on fire by channeling the sun through his magnifying glass. Though he knows he's not supposed to do this without adult supervision I think it's wisest of me to limit the time I'm away on sunny days. You just never know what an 8 year old boy might do.

Ryan trying to start a fire. Part of the reason I don't go on long rides when the kids are home alone.

So with a final reminder to the kids to behave, I set out to ride the roads around my home. It was windy, not the best day for riding as the gusts threatened to knock me off my bike a time or two. Still, it felt good to be on my bike. I rode east, opposite of the direction I usually go, got up and out of the saddle to pedal up a long hill, and felt good and strong.

At one point on my ride I looked at my odometer and realized that I had about three miles to go and the total miles on my bike would register over 300. I smiled and pedaled faster. I love it when odometers click over to a big number. On my cars it's always 100,000 miles (and all of my cars have made it to 100,000 and then some. My van has 161,000+ already). On a bike, well, for me I think any increment of a hundred is worth celebrating.

When the odometer clicked over to 300 I yelled out a "yes" and smiled from ear to ear. Then I kind of cried a little. I do that. The 300 miles are a big deal for me because a couple of weeks ago when I was hit with my soreness and bruising I didn't think I'd be able to ride at all. But I am. And last year I rode 300 miles for the whole season and here I've hit 300 by the 2nd of July. Yay!

And you know what? All 300 miles on my bike have been spent outside in the fresh air instead of inside in front of the TV or my computer. At an average speed of 12 miles per hour I've exercised for 25 hours (plus the hours I've logged on my hybrid) and I'm feeling pretty fit. One of my friends even noted that I'm getting really muscular legs! And although those 300 miles have included some pain and frustration, the majority of them have been fun. That's almost 300 miles of fun. You know what? I'm just going to erase those miles of pain and frustration and think of all 300 miles as fun. Yep, that's the way I'm going to think of it. 300 miles of FUN!