And the Confidence grows

I am gaining confidence on the bike. I am attending rides where before I would have been way to chicken to even RSVP. On Tuesday and Thursdays, the MoCo Mafia rides in hilly Laytonsville. The I first time rode there I opted for the shorter route and could not believe how many hills there were. Seriously, my average for the 25 mile ride was 13 mph. They rode 5 miles further than me and ended up waiting a good 15 minutes for me to finish - yeah, that bad.

My aero inspiration!

Last night, I managed to hang with them for most of the first 16 miles. I did get dropped like a hot potato on two smaller hills but thankfully there were stop signs at the top, so they waited for me. Up until mile 16, my average mph was 19.5 = see the difference with my new bike? Around mile 16, we went down a very steep hill... like the warning signs said no more than 20 mph for cars, and I looked down and was going 26, but I knew there was a huge hill - think vertical at the bottom of the hill. I slowed a little, took the turn and started to pedal up the hill changing gears... when I dropped my chain. YUP - 1/4 of the way up a HUGE hill. Thankfully I unclipped or I would have fallen over. I yelled after E and said: What do I do? She replied: put your chain back on and crank it hard.

I was stunned for a minute, but didn't cry. There was no way I was going to be able to pedal up at this point.  I quickly made the decision to walk the bike down the hill, fix the chain and pedal hard up. I was actually going like 3 mph up the hill. And was dropped by a lot. I am positive they waited at the top of a series of hills for me forever - it felt like that. It hurt my spirit a little, but I knew I needed to finish before it got dark.

And thankfully, the gang waited. We still had 6 miles left of some nice flats but also more hills. My legs were burnt so they lost me on the flats despite me clocking 25 mph - before I was doing 18 mph here and thought that was fast. BIG difference.

E waited for me at another turn and we sort of chatted as we took on the hills. I watched her a lot on this ride, when she dropped, when she changed gears. I have concluded that I do not change gears enough and I waste me legs. Fine for training, but not so much in a race. I learned a lot by watching her. (Brag a little: E dropped her HIM time by an hour last weekend - SWEET!)

When we had just a small 3 mile flat stretch home, a new guy wanted me to practice drafting. I was SCARED TO DEATH of hitting him... plus we were in traffic so crashing wasn't really an option. He said I didn't need to be too close, that 2 feet would work.... ugh, I was so scared. But then I looked down and was doing 26 mph and barely working - cool... but not sure I will be doing this regularly though.

Hmmm, I wonder what this girl will be capable of when she gets confident in all three areas!!! Only time will tell.

BTW: I will be atempting my longest ride ever this weekend. I'll keep the distance a secret, but my longest ride to date is 54.3 miles and that was on Athena!