My Bicycle Tour of West Melbourne

Carla brought me her racing bike a few days ago, so today, since the gyms are all closed, I decided to get out and try out the bike. I went on a nice little 17 mile tour of West Melbourne. I tried to stay off the main roads as much as possible by riding around just about every neighborhood that I've never driven, ridden, or run through that was along my path. I found a couple of neighborhoods and houses that I wouldn't mind living in (from the outside anyway) if I was in the market (and apparently I'd have my pick judging from all of the "for sale" and "for rent" signs that I saw). I've never ridden a bike with gears before, so I played with that a little, but still need to get down exactly when to be in what gear. I was a little nervous that being used to my cruiser bike with the brakes built into the pedals, I would fail to forget the hand brake, but I did fine. I kept up a pretty good pace the whole time, but had to slow down or stop quite a few times just to cross a road. During the whole 95 minute ride, I did not get off of my bike once. Not too bad since the longest ride I've ever had before today (in recent years anyway) was a 30 minute ride. Once I got home, my bum was sore and my knees felt pretty yuck, but my muscles actually held up just fine. Keep in mind that I was riding through West Melbourne so there were no really hills or bridges or anything, but I was still pretty happy with my workout. And yes, I calculated my activity points and plan to use at least half of them today! :)

P.S. Thank you for the emails and comments of encouragement from my last entry. I really was feeling bummed, and the encouragement helped a lot! It's really great to know that even with my setbacks, I'm inspiring others too!

2 comments:

Nikki said...

Seventeen miles around West Melbourne.. nice! Sounds like you're already ready for the triathlon. It's great that you're varying your workouts so much too. Go, Keri!

Angelle said...

Doing a bike ride around town is a great way to change up your routine. I might just follow suit soon. :)