Fun on two wheels
Last October, the Rice Young Alumni newsletter announced an informational meeting for a Rice MS 150 team. It specifically declared that beginning riders were welcome. I hadn’t been on my old mountain bike for any distance since the end of biking HPER (a phys-ed class at Rice) several years ago, but that sounded like fun. So I went to the meeting, confirmed that beginners were in fact welcome, and decided to buy a road bike.
After a bit of shopping, I picked a 2005 Trek 1000, which is an entry-level 24-speed road bike with an aluminum frame and a carbon front fork.
One of Carrie’s classmates suggested hooking up with the Space City Cycling Club, an informal group which rides from the Bay Area Blvd. Bike Barn every Saturday and Sunday at 8 AM. They leave as one big mass, then break up into various speed (from as slow as 16 mph up to the hard core 24 mph guys) and distance (usually 40-60 miles) groups.
The downside of living near the middle of a sprawling city is that I have to drive half an hour to get somewhere with long, low traffic roads for a good ride. This means that I have to get up by 6:30 to eat something, load the bike on the car, and drive out there. I’d rather be sleeping then, but it’s probably good for me.
And it’s worth it–I’m having a good time and noticing improvements in my capabilities. According to my cyclocomputer, so far my longest distance is 50 miles and my fastest average speed over a full ride is 18.5 mph. I think that was a 40 mile ride. When nice weather–which I define as morning temperatures greater than 55°F and a sky more blue than gray–returns, I expect it will be even better.
In the end, the Rice team didn’t get enough takers to actually happen, so I need to find another team [note to self: do this soon]. In addition to the MS 150, I’m planning on doing the recently-announced Tour de Houston.
February 10th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
First of all, I’m jealous of all of the riding you’ve been doing. I’ve been entirely too lazy recently and have only been getting in infrequent, shorter rides. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have time for something longer.
I’m so glad that you’ve found a good group to ride with! It’s really boring to go on long rides by yourself. I’m happy that you’re enjoying yourself, too. It sucks that you can’t just ride from your house, though. Not that I blame you. I’d be terrified trying to bike on a lot of the streets in Houston. That’s one of the things about Santa Barbara that has spoiled me so very much.
It sounds like you’re having fun. Happy training!
February 10th, 2005 at 10:06 pm
I actually can ride directly from home. We’re about half a mile from Braes Bayou, which has a bike path. Assuming you’re willing to deal with street crossings every few hundred yards, you can take that from the med center all the way out to Gessner. Round trip it works out to about 20 miles. It won’t be fast, but it’s still a ride. I just think of all the starting and stopping as interval training.