Thursday, October 07, 2004

Speedometers & Hills

We had a great ride last Saturday..............we always say we had a "great ride" but I must admit it doesn't seem so great when we're struggling up a hill at 3 miles per hour!! Since Robin and I put odometer/speedometers on our bikes we can monitor our speed and distance. It's fun to look down and see we're going 18 miles an hour or making a posted 25MPH turn at 27MPH. The agony of the 3MPH climb (yes agony) is sometimes too much. I've "vowed" that I won't walk my bike up a hill. However, I will stop and start again. Last weekend there were a couple hills where I stopped two, maybe three times.......eeeek! or is that ugh!! I usually let Robin go ahead on the hills; I say she pulls me up. If she can keep going I keep going too. Last weekend I think I stopped a few times when Rob kept plugging along. I struggle, struggle up, my head mostly down putting everything I've got into pushing and pulling the pedals. Then peek up ahead; how much farther to the top? Is that the top or a turn continuing up........? Ahhh when we reach the top then the reward.........often a short rest, a drink of water and then the fun!!!! DOWN HILL!!! Another fun part of having a speedometer is looking down to see how fast we're going downhill. Last weekend I glanced down to see we were going 32MPH!!!! What a thrill! For all the struggling to get to the top the ride down is a blast. Don't get me wrong, it's thrilling but a little scary too. As much as I want to enjoy the "free ride" down and take advantage of the momentum,my hands are always hovering over my brakes and often sqeezing for dear life. Last weekend's ride was 41.6 miles ranging in speed from 3MPH to 33MPH.....we averaged approximately10MPH for the entire ride.

1 Comments:

At 9:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gail sounds like a real wimp..........does Robin really have to pull her up hills??

 

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