A little bit of cycling-blither!
So I made myself a Music To Ride A Bike To playlist tonight, because I've been meaning to do it FORever and I finally remembered that I wanted to BEFORE I got halfway through my ride.
I try to fit my cadence to the tempo of the song, which usually requires changing gears -- I Don't Care is usually about a 2-5; This Ain't A Scene is 2-4 (because it's faster). I haven't listened to The Sharpest Lives and Teenagers while riding enough to figure them out, though I suspect they're about the same. It works out pretty well, and it's one of those things that I do because it works for me.
Speaking of working for me, this whole bike-riding thing really is. Oh, sure, my pants are falling off with alarming regularity (I have pants that I cannot wear because they will NOT stay up. They were actually too big for me 35 lbs ago, and they're stupidly huge on me now), but that's okay. I now weigh the same as I did when I was in high school, which is sixty-three kinds of awesome. I don't really seem to have much more in the way of VO2Max, but I may not be able to tell, either. *Shrug*
This evening, when I went for my ride, I was zooming along and got to a hill that I've never really been keen on. (It's not huge, just kind of annoying.) I pretty much just sailed up it with ease, tonight, and when I got to my normal turn-around spot at the top of the hill I decided I'd just keep going because, you know, I just wasn't ready to turn around. So I rode down to a parking lot a bit down the way and then I turned around.
It was wonderful to get to the top of the hill and realize that not only did I not want to just curl up and die, I wanted to keep going. The last few times I've gone out, my mother has been surprised by how quickly I come back. She said, "Everything okay?" and I said, "Yeah, I'm just done with my ride." and she said, "You weren't gone that long!" We were talking about that yesterday and I pointed out that there's less of me to haul around now, so of course I'm faster. Heh.
So, cutting back on my caloric intake + riding my bike a lot = less Miss Mausie. Now all I have to do is get some new clothes, because I'm seriously NOT interested in having my pants fall down in public.
Also, Note To Self: Adjust angle of seat up a click or two.
I try to fit my cadence to the tempo of the song, which usually requires changing gears -- I Don't Care is usually about a 2-5; This Ain't A Scene is 2-4 (because it's faster). I haven't listened to The Sharpest Lives and Teenagers while riding enough to figure them out, though I suspect they're about the same. It works out pretty well, and it's one of those things that I do because it works for me.
Speaking of working for me, this whole bike-riding thing really is. Oh, sure, my pants are falling off with alarming regularity (I have pants that I cannot wear because they will NOT stay up. They were actually too big for me 35 lbs ago, and they're stupidly huge on me now), but that's okay. I now weigh the same as I did when I was in high school, which is sixty-three kinds of awesome. I don't really seem to have much more in the way of VO2Max, but I may not be able to tell, either. *Shrug*
This evening, when I went for my ride, I was zooming along and got to a hill that I've never really been keen on. (It's not huge, just kind of annoying.) I pretty much just sailed up it with ease, tonight, and when I got to my normal turn-around spot at the top of the hill I decided I'd just keep going because, you know, I just wasn't ready to turn around. So I rode down to a parking lot a bit down the way and then I turned around.
It was wonderful to get to the top of the hill and realize that not only did I not want to just curl up and die, I wanted to keep going. The last few times I've gone out, my mother has been surprised by how quickly I come back. She said, "Everything okay?" and I said, "Yeah, I'm just done with my ride." and she said, "You weren't gone that long!" We were talking about that yesterday and I pointed out that there's less of me to haul around now, so of course I'm faster. Heh.
So, cutting back on my caloric intake + riding my bike a lot = less Miss Mausie. Now all I have to do is get some new clothes, because I'm seriously NOT interested in having my pants fall down in public.
Also, Note To Self: Adjust angle of seat up a click or two.