Keep on Pedaling!

Well, I have been slacking on posting here, but I have not been slacking on riding my bike and prepping for the bike trip.  I am actually having a GREAT time riding my bike every day.  I always have to talk myself into actually going, but then once I get out there I feel fantastic!  The weather has been amazing for the past week, so the riding has been even more enjoyable.

I went further than I have ever gone on the Katy Trail on Sunday.  I discovered a gorgeous sunflower farm.  There were literally tens of thousands of sunflowers that stretched as far as you could see.  I stopped and took a picture, but my iPhone really didn't do it justice.

I'm noticing some positive improvements in my heart rate the more I ride.  When I first started, my heart rate would consistently stay around 160-165 and easily go up to 180 when I was pushing hard up a hill.  Now my heart rate stays in the low 150s and won't really go over 170.  I have read before that a lower heart rate usually indicates you are more fit, so my cardiovascular fitness has definitely been improving.

I have been struggling to eat right for the past couple of weeks.  My brain keeps telling me, "It's okay to eat that (insert junk food here) because you rode your bike for 2 hours today."  I need to get out of that mindset.  Exercising is NOT a free pass to eat whatever I want. 

I decided that the only way to keep myself accountable is to go back to tracking calories.  I downloaded MyFitnessPal on my iPhone, and it is a fantastic app!  I know a lot of you already use MyFitnessPal, but I will have to do a detailed review of it soon for those of you who don't.

I've got 4 weeks left until the bike trip, so I'm going to keep on pedaling!

Bike Training

In my last post, I told you guys about how I am training for a 265-mile bike trip across Missouri in October.  I planned my training rides out and have been following my schedule of riding for the past week.  I am already feeling SO much stronger on the bike!

Friday I was scheduled to ride 6 miles, but I didn't make it.  We had an insane storm on Thursday night, and this is what I woke up to.

There were also several HUGE branches that broke off and were still stuck up in the tree.  I spent several hours cleaning up the yard and got a real-world workout for sure.  I decided trying to ride my bike afterwards wasn't a good idea and called it a day.

Saturday was my rest day, but I had a 20-mile ride scheduled for Sunday.  On Saturday night I started getting really nervous about riding 20 miles at one time.  I didn't know if I could do it.  The longest ride I had ever done before today was 10 miles.

When I woke up this morning, I fought with myself for about 20 minutes before I finally decided to at least give the 20-mile ride a try.  I made a strawberry-banana smoothie, packed some nuts and fresh cherries in my bike bag to eat during the trip, loaded up my bike and set off for the trail.  The ride went absolutely fabulous!  I rode my bike 20 MILES today!!  I felt so accomplished when I pulled back into the trailhead at the end of the ride.  I am starting to really love riding my bike.

And do you want to hear the best news of all?  I burned 1173 calories during my ride today!  Wow!

I have some shorter rides planned for this week and then a 30-mile ride at the end of the week.  I can't believe it, but I am actually looking forward to knocking out some more miles this week.