NSV Cycling!

Hey all, I just had to toot my own horn a little!  Over the past couple of weeks I have had some of my old cycling buddies badgering me about not coming on some of their rides with them.  They ride every Sunday morning and also a couple of times during the week.  I have commuting back and forth to work on my bike and really felt I was not up to any real distance rides yet (they avg 40 miles a ride and 14-16 mph pace).  I did not ride all last year and feared my riding skills had completely fallen off and gone the way of a commuter.  I finally agreed, knowing how beautiful today was going to be; but I told them I didn't think I could keep their pace.  They have had lots of requests to get a leader for a slower, little shorter ride group and I thought this was a great opportunity to get to ride with them and also not be committed to their speeds and distance.  We came up with a 30 mile, 12-14 pace group and I led the ride!   We completed 30 miles in about 2 hours (which meant we were faster than we thought we would be) and I had 13 people come out for the ride!  I met a bunch of new people and several from 2 years ago did not recognize me and when I told them; sure you know me...remember blah blah blah  they were "OMG you lost so much weight!!!!"
Amazing I was so afraid of the group and wearing my cycling spandex in front of them this year and I am NOT the same person I was 2 years ago.  We finished that 30 and I wanted MORE; and could have ridden for another hour at least!
Vickie (Clamshell), I know exactly what you mean because I still see a very fat person in my spandex and clothes....I think I really needed to hear it from the group to realize I am not the same person I was before.
What a gorgeous day!!!!!

Good for you!  I am glad you allowed yourself to be challenged by your friends - and look how it turned out!  This gives me lots of room to dream for myself - what can I be by the time I'm 2 years out? 

Keep it up and keep posting!

Hugs,

CIndy

Two years out????  Heck Cindy set closer goals!   I am only 5 months out!  Exercise is just sooooo much easier when you are carting around less weight!   Thanks for the hugs and support!
Sonja

Ya know what?  I read that in your post about being a different person than you were 2 years ago and just assumed you'd had surgery 2 years ago.  My bad!  lol  You are REALLY doing great.

I cannot imagine my butt parked on a bike seat - not with over 300 lbs.  The last time I tried I was close to 300 lbs. - probably 10 years ago - and my butt hurt so bad even with a "padded" bicycle seat.  My recumbent bike in my living room has a normal type seat that doesn't put pressure on the rear end - I think that's the best I can do for now.  I will have to imagine the breeze blowing in my face- actually it's parked near a ceiling fan so I can still get the effect a little!  

I guess I'm a wimp!  LOL 

Heck no!  That's not a wimp, that's "working your way there"!     LOL

What's the saying, slow and steady wins the race?  LOL  That's me - the tortoise.  I'm gonna keep moving forward - maybe slowly, but I'm moving now!  :-)

Wsy to go girl

Thanks Vicki!

Yeah Sonja!!!

My lil road is a regular trek for cyclists and Gracie and I enjoy seeing them come by.  There's even one fella who rides a recumbent bike that Gracie is always on the lookout for.  Today, she actually badgered us to go riding on her "TAG-A-LONG" bike so we all hoped on the bikes and took off!



So LOVES LOVES LOVES this contraption!  We took a bag of carrots and made the two mile trek up to feed the goats and llamas down the road.  That's just a drop in the bucket for you but the 4 mile round trip was enough to make me plumb tuckered out!

Best part about the ride?  S/F Popsicles when we got back to hydrate with!

Keep riding Sonja....isn't it great to have those parts of the "old life" back??

Congrats! Thats Fabulous!!!!! I'm so happy for you!