Back on the bike

Ok, I admit it, it has been nearly 2 years since I've been riding  my bikes regularly.  2015 was the last year I rode a lot.  With the move, selling the old house, etc, that meant no riding in the winter of 2015/16, and then getting settled in here, and not knowing the routes, meant no real riding in 2016.

That doesn't mean we were inactive though.  Our garage is now our home gym, and we have lifted regularly all of 2016, and some of this year too.  Various injuries and illnesses have limited us somewhat in 2017, but after helping run a SAG stop on the  Tour de Paris this month, I just decided I was going to ride.

So I have.  I have ridden more in the last 2 weeks, than I have in the last year.  It's a start, anyway.  I have been mapping out some rides on Ride With GPS, and have driven some of them to get acquainted with the roads.  Chipseal is everywhere.  Pavement is sometimes a relative concept.  Paved shoulders are available on some more-traveled roads.

Thus far, the problem is I have no "legs".  I am dog-slow, and endurance is of course similarly lacking.  Weight training has kept me strong, I can back squat to below parallel, in excess of my bodyweight on the bar, but my speed and cadence are low, that it will take a lot of miles to bring it up.  At least the endurance should come back in a couple months, provided I keep riding.

I want to ride.  I like it too much.  We used to have a lot of fun, back in McKinney, where we knew the roads, and the traffic.  But all that has been built out in the last two years--it was happening while we still lived there.  So I just have to find routes I like, with tolerable road surfaces.  Maybe I'll see you sometime, on the road!

Until then, Tailwinds!