This ride was a lesson in not underestimating myself so much on the bike and on proving my growing bike handling skills (hello highway riding!) This was NOT my fastest, but given how I felt at the beginning of the ride, I am THRILLED with how it turned out!

I’m managing so many variables in my development as a cyclist, that honestly speed is at the bottom of the list of priorities. (It used to be at the top of the list because I was trying to prove I could keep up. I used to stress about it SO much - it would take the enjoyment out of cycling. I say this gently: I don’t need to prove that anymore ♥️, so I can instead focus on bike handling, strength, and endurance.)

I keep reminding myself that when everything falls into place, the speed IS there, way more than an average 40-something who’s only been doing this for a year! Given the issues with my left hip, my goals right now lie around increasing distance and climbing while feeling sound, powerful and energized. “Walk before you can run” and all that. (I do look at my speed! But I don’t mentally beat myself up about it anymore if I’m having a slow day.)

HOWEVER, I did get a glimpse of what I can do when everything falls into place TODAY! 😄 I was very impressed with myself!

So I originally wanted to do a 40-45 mile route with ~4000-5000’ elevation. I’d found two options that used the back portion of the MD GF, avoiding Hamburg but going up Harp Hill (which was my favorite climb.)

I had 4 hrs to do this.

The catch: on Thursday night, my lower back muscles on both sides were very fatigued from 43,000 steps + stairs. By Friday night, it had isolated to my left QL (the problem side) and it was SO TIGHT it felt crunchy. (It’s a really horrible feeling.) On Saturday, it was still super tight. Not enough to affect me for running (which was happening pre-PT) but enough to make me concerned about climbing today. I did some of my PT mobility work last night at the gym and it really helped. I woke up GREAT today, but since it had been so sore just yesterday, I decided to pivot on the climbing.

Instead, I chose a 54 mile route on the flatter Western side of Frederick. It had ~2500’ elevation. Estimated time per RWGPS was 4:15. I figured this was very doable. It was on familiar roads, so no surprises. I felt I could absolutely achieve that distance with that little climbing in 4 hrs.

Well. 10 miles into the route, I was averaging around 12 mph. My legs felt GREAT for the run yesterday but not so much for cycling today - like I was pedaling through mud. I did NOT want to go over the 4 hr time limit, so we decided to pivot.

We stopped and re-routed, changing our halfway point. GPS literally made us backtrack for this, hence the out-and-back course on the map. The halfway point ended up being 22 miles. From there, we mapped the route back to the starting point. It would be a total of 44 miles.

I followed my usual nutrition and hydration plan. I’d managed to shake off the leaden feeling from my legs over the 12 miles to the halfway point. Over the next 12 miles, I felt even stronger and faster. There’s a massive hill over the Monocacy River that’s a 13% grade. I had to hike it when I did it for the first time last November, but today not only did I stay on the bike: I didn’t run out of gears!!!!

But wait! There’s more! There’s a 2-lane highway called Woodrow Wilson Parkway (MD 17) is the highway that I take to Keymar for my draft horse barn. Woodrow Pkwy is akin to Route 15, except it has massive bike lanes on each side: they are literally the size of regular driving lanes, which is great because there’s tons of room between you and cars flying down the road.

It was still a bit unnerving with cars going by so fast. But I’d pictured myself flying down that bike lane so many times while driving that road, I decided to embrace the fact that I now had my opportunity to do what I had envisioned.

So I leaned down and went full send, clocking 20 mph that I sustained steadily over the next 6 miles. It was…such a cool feeling. I hit that beautiful flow state, where I was aware of everything around me without having to think about it and there was no effort, just my legs moving in circles, no burn, no discomfort, like I had become the wind itself.

Back in January, I couldn’t imagine myself riding on roads with cleats. I found the idea terrifying. Yet here I was, in cleats, zooming down a bike lane next to a highway!

We made it back to the starting point at exactly 3 hrs.

I still had an hour…so we mapped out how long it would take to just ride home. I’d drive Carlos back to the park to get the truck later.

Speaking of Route 15, we had to cross it in order to access the back roads that would take us to our new place. 😅 It’s a dangerous crossing via car, but on bike/on foot there’s a spot where you can safely wait for a pocket in traffic in order to cross. The rest of the route was down major roads that were also pretty busy.

We made such good time, we still had 20 min to spare so we flew right past the apartment to loop through downtown.

We made it back to the apartment at exactly 4 hrs and…54 miles!!!! EXACTLY the distance I’d originally thought I could get done in that time frame! We could have just done the original route I’d planned after all!

It was such a great redemption though. I used to get nervous about road crossings even with flat pedals. Today I confidently shared the road with more traffic than I’ve ridden in since last year, in cleats (!!) and still maintaining my average speed. Normally I would have slowed down significantly if intimidated by traffic. Today I let drivers pass as usual, obeyed the rules of the road, and was extra careful as always, but I felt cautious, instead of panicky like I would have in the past. (I still assume drivers can’t see me until proven otherwise. Definitely NOT trusting cars. But it was liberating to feel like I was in a controlled overly cautious state vs my prior borderline immobilizing fear. I’ve never talked before about how much road cycling frightened me. I truly started all of this because of, and for, one person.)

I am SO happy with this ride! It was such a great confidence boost!

Very nice and way to go for your persistence!!!!

And did I see 800 somethin’watts???? What????

YES!! I’m not sure when that happened but apparently I hit 800+ watts for enough seconds for it to register! 😳 J was right! I have way more than 400 watt bursts in the tank after all!

Of course you do! I have witnessed the power of those legs.