Weekly Summaries

Picking up where my last post left off, here are my weekly riding stats for the past two weeks:

Week Ending 4/12 (I track my weeks from Mon through Sun)

• Wed 4/8 - 20.1 mi - 16.3 mph
• Thur 4/9 - 17.2 mi - 15.6 mph
• Fri 4/10 - 22.6 mi - 16.1 mph

Total for week of 59.9 miles at a weekly average speed of 16.04 mph.

Week Ending 4/19

• Mon 4/13 - 18.6 mi - 16.3 mph
• Wed 4/15 - 16.1 mi - 16.3 mph
• Fri 4/17 - 25.4 mi - 16.4 mph
• Sat 4/18 - 19.2 mi - 16.6 mph
• Sun 4/19 - 17.2 mi - 15.9 mph

Total for week of 96.5 miles at a weekly average speed of 16.31 mph.

I'll be adding weekly stats - total miles, average speed, and my weight - to the right side-bar shortly. Yes, I'll be including my weight so the public can see if I'm full of crap about my goal of getting down to 180 pounds.

These have all been good early season rides...though most were coolish and all were windy (at least they all seemed windy to me....some brutally so). As much as I hate riding in windy conditions, I know the extra effort will start paying off soon. One thing about my rides so far is that I find the average speeds to be remarkably consistent. This is unusual for me. In past years, my average speeds over the first few weeks of riding at similar distances were typically erratic and wide ranging from low 14s to mid 16s mph. The only thing I can attribute this to is my handful of fixie rides over the winter and my attempt at keeping the off-season as short as possible (as lame as that effort was).

I'm still getting use to it, but the new ride schedule with Tuesdays and Thursdays generally reserved as off days (due to family schedules, not by choice) is working out fine. Although I still don't like the idea of riding on Mondays, a day I use to count on as a rest day after long and/or hard rides on the weekends.

Speaking of weekend rides, this Sunday offers a special fund raiser ride event down in the MA South Coast area (Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion, Wareham). The event is to raise money for and awareness of the proposed Mattapoisett bike path, a portion of which has already been completed. Ride distances of 15 to 40 miles are being offered and the registration fee is small ($20). John has more details about this event on his blog. These are my old stomping grounds and the roads are excellent for riding...at least they used to be...and loaded with great scenery. I'd like to participate in the 40 miler, but the time commitment for me to get there and back and ride would be approx. 5 hours and I'm afraid the yardwork at home is already starting to pile up. There are many organized rides that I'd like to do later in the year when the yardwork dwindles off...so I'm thinking I should stick to plan and ride a 30 miler or so around here. We'll see.