Monday, August 25, 2008

Rock the CASVAR!

Wahoo! I have successfully completed my first ever bicycle tour!

Friday we drove up to Star Valley, Wyoming to spend the night before our ride at my parent's house. We were all ready for the next day. We had our bike clothing, energy bars, Gatorade, our bikes were all ready... I guess the only thing we weren't ready for was this:

When we got up in the morning it was COLD! I am talking about 35 degrees! We decided to wait for an hour to see if it got any better (you could start whenever you wanted as long as you could finish in time). The weather warmed up a bit, but it was still windy. We got tired of waiting (I was ready to go, go, go!) and decided to head to the start.

Check out that bicycle chick!

We got to the starting point and went to check in. I was in for quite a surprise... it seems that they had to change the routes a little bit from what we had expected. My husband's ride would be pretty much the same distance, but my ride was going to be 45 miles instead of 38! My thoughts were along the lines of... "WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me!" My face probably looked something like this -> ->

But after you've gone 38 miles, what's couple more right? At least that's what I had to tell myself! So we took our bikes off the rack and got ready to go.

My husband decided to ride with me until our routes split up. I really appreciated that, especially since I knew I would be slowing him down a little bit. What a guy!

Ready? Set...

GO!

The very first part of the ride was the hardest. For the first 11 miles the headwind was awful and it was a bit cold. By the time we hit the first rest stop I was plenty warm, let me tell you! So we shed our jackets and continued on.

After the first stop I really started enjoy the ride. Honey Daddy and I were cruising along around 20 miles per hour and it was awesome! I LOVE my new bike. It makes cycling a lot more fun! My husband and I probably looked like and advertisement for Trek with our new bikes. His is a 2009 Trek 2.1 and mine is a 2009 Trek 1.2. (Wahoo Trek!).

They had plenty of places for us to stop, refuel our bodies, or use the restroom. Before I knew it we had gone 30 miles and it was time for us to split up. I gave my honey a big kiss and told him I would come find him after I had finished.

On my way to the finish I caught up with my dad, who had started before we did. He was also doing the 45 mile ride. I would have stayed with him, but he told me to go on and finish. So I went to the finish and was the first one there from my family!

I got to watch both of my parents finish their rides. My dad finished the 45 mile ride, even though one of his legs was bothering him. My mom managed the 25 mile ride. I was really proud of them both!












I kind of wish someone had been there to see me finish! In any case, I was especially proud of myself. In 2 hours and 32 minutes (not counting stops) I went about 41 miles!! (I somehow missed a four mile detour that was only for my route) That is the longest I have ever cycled.

Then I went and found my husband. He was doing really well and had about 25 miles or so to go. I played leapfrog in the car with him and got some really nice pictures of him.

Can you believe that he went about 81 miles on his first bike tour? It took him about 4 hours 31 minutes of pedaling (not including stops). My husband is amazing! I am SO proud of him.

We had a great time on our first bike tour. The amazing thing is that neither of us is really sore! I guess we're in better shape than we thought! Don't get me wrong, I can tell I used my muscles a lot, but I don't feel stiff at all!

We are already planning for our next bike tour. We are going to do one in Heber Valley on my birthday (September 27th). This time I think my husband and I will do the metric century ride together (that's a little over 65 miles). My parents will probably participate too.

Are we crazy or what?

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations. Well done to you, your husband and your parents!

    Vixen
    http://vixensden.com

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  2. No! We are not crazy at all! We had a great time! I for one am ready to do it again.

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  3. WAy to go!! What a great way for your family to have fun together and be fit at the same time.

    Congratulations! You should be so proud of yourself!

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  4. That's awesome! I have never been a bike enthusiest or gone long distances but I do miss having a bike.
    Sharing that with your family has got to be so much more rewarding.

    I havn't been to the store in a while, so I havn't checked for the giant fish, will be doing that sometime this week.

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  5. Congratulations! That is a great accomplishment. :)

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  6. I for one am very impressed. That is a long way. How I long for cold weather. I would give quite a lot for 35 degree weather. Sigh.

    What exactly is a casvar?

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  7. Sorry Heidi!

    CASVAR is an acronym that I used in a previous post. It is the Cycling Association of Star Valley's Annual Ride.

    I remember it, but I don't know why I thought everyone else would!!

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  8. Did you get rained on badly? I think that would make me turn around and go home.:)

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  9. It was cloudy and windy, but it didn't rain on us, thank heavens!

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