First Ride

January 26, 2007
Miles: 14
Flat Tires: 1

My roommate Kristen and I went on our first official training ride on Saturday. It was a gorgeous windy 32 degree day. We rode east, over the Seekonk river and down the East Bay bike path, which is this gorgeous path that runs along the Narragansett Bay. Our goal was Bristol but the path was closed at Riverside, so we turned around and went home.


Actually, it was so cold that we didn't really mind.




On the way back, the wind was behind is, perfect for getting up to the 'Big Three' gear and practicing no-handed cycling. On the trip I learned that my bike seat isn't as comfortable as I thought it was and that crotch-denumbing breaks are really the quickest route to hyperthermia. I also learned that I can have a good time even if I can't feel my feet.

Starting

Hi and welcome to my new journal (isn't blog such a strange word?)

As you may already know, I will be biking from Boston to Santa Barbara this summer with Bike & Build, a nonprofit which raises money and awareness for affordable housing causes. I'm more than a little nervous: will I make it over the Appalacians and across the desert? Will I even be able to balance on skinny tires of my road bike? Will I make my $4,000 fundraising goal?

But beyond the nervousness, I am SO EXCITED. I decided to make a list about what I'm excited to do:
1. Spending the whole summer traveling.
2. Learning something about house building (anything would be a start).
3. Meeting people along the way (I feel very sheltered in a way, only having lived in California and Providence, like there's this whole other world in the middle of the country, the red states if you will, that I know nothing about).
4. Getting what my mom calls "Shwartzenegger Legs."
5. Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time (and also the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, the very large array, and Poughkeepsie: the town that convinced my father to move to California)
6. Being outside all the time.
7. Seeing the parts of the country I normally just fly over.
8. Challenging myself (no matter how corny that sounds I think I mean it).
9. That deep sound sleep I get after working really hard.
10. Making it to the Pacific.
11. Writing about it.

The trip starts June 11 which feels like a century away. But before then I need to graduate college (which means finishing my thesis and surviving organic chemistry), find a job for after Bike & Build, raise a whole lot of money, and do a whole lot of training. Whew.

Thanks for reading!