Beach Weather!

Yesterday was awesomely hot! Yesterday's high was about 63 degrees! That's beach weather in Maine! If it weren't for ice and ice cold water, I would have gone swimming. Instead I went biking... In a muscle shirt and shorts. It was awesome! So much fun! I biked about 5.5 miles and talked to a friend midway threw the bike ride for a nice break.

I can't wait to go biking again... I might even bike today if I can't get a different workout in.

Yesterday was kind of a funny biking trip, so I'll write about it. To start off I was planning on doing a leg workout and then go biking, that's what I did. First I did 5 sets of 5 squats with my barbell (only 60 pounds on it, because I don't have a rack, so much more is dangerous). Then I did 5 sets of 5 dead lifts with 90 pounds. Dead lifts are a back and a leg workout... both of which have the largest muscle groups, so 90 pounds was actually quite easy. To finish it off I did 30 calf raiders with two 20 pound dumbbells (which I don't recommend, I almost fell down the stairs, I'm thinking the weighed vest would be better for that). Then 30 more normal calf raisers, and finished with 15 one leg calf raisers on each leg.

So my legs were already kind of tired before I began my bike ride, and I had an adrenaline rush... and didn't pace myself, so I started off quickly climbing the gears until I reached gear 21, the top gear. That's some pretty heavy resistance, but not bad when you're going at least 20 miles per hour. Then my bike lock slipped and started touching my tire, which in a short time could destroy the tire. So I braked, stopped and fixed it. Not that bad... but I was still in gear 21, and it's bad to change gears while you're stationary. So the first 20 feet starting back up were tough, then I was cruising again for about another half a mile... Then I was done with flat ground. Hill time. At first the hills were small, then after a mile or so when I reached N Hatch 'Hill' Rd, it got tough. I went down to gear 6 (a very low gear on a 21 gear bike) for about 1 mile of steep hills. My quads and hamstrings were tired when I got to the last hill, but I was excited for the the peak, because I was about to go cruising! But halfway up the last hill the the wind was no longer blocked by trees or hills. It was powerful, and against me. I'm not sure what it's speed was, but I'll tell you that after I got past the peak, I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. If I wanted to keep a decent pace I'd have to peddle in a high gear down the slight hill. That's what I did. Then the hill slowly became steeper, and I went faster! Now I was going at least 30 miles per hour! I remembered that there was a turn coming up, so I slowed down to about 20 miles per hour. Then I saw my friend Sam in his driveway, so I went down to talk to him for a few minutes. It was great to talk to him... haven't seen him on almost a year. When we finished talking I finished the the decent of the hills, then cruised to my house, biked an extra 1/4 mile, and then biked home. I googled my ride, and that's when I found out I did about 5.5 miles of biking.

Over all, I'd say I had a great workout and a great ride! I can't wait until I have the endurance to bike 10-20 miles easily!