Washington and Old Dominion and a few challenges

Well then.    Today we woke up and threw our bikes on the top of the car and we were off.   The plan was to go to the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail and ride. The reasoning was two fold.  First and foremost, I wanted to get out and ride.  It was as plain and simple as that.   I wanted a ride to be my main exercise for the day.  The second reason was that the rail trail would give me the perfect chance and path to get out on my Lite Speed.  (If we would have gone on the canal I would have taken my Trek.)  My thoughts were that a rail trail was relatively flat (with gradual grades) and that would eliminate the leg fatigue from the constantly rolling hills of my area while I worked to get used to my road bike.   I would be riding with my husband and we wouldn't be riding like two bats out of hell.  It was the perfect chance to get some miles on my Lite Speed....because I know that the only way to get past the rough patch of switching to a road bike is to add up the miles on the bike.

I kept my itty bitty toes moving.  When the first signs of numbness in my toes AND the first signs of aching in my left foot started I wiggled and moved my toes around.  That seemed to work well.  All I know is that my foot didn't ache so bad that I wanted to cry!

My butt...well it got sore but it's 'hardening up'.  :-)

The biggest issue I had today....the upper body...the continuing saga.  My back was fine (which was surprising because my lower back has been giving me grief the last few days).  My hands weren't too bad.  My arms......It's not the elbows...it's the inch or so right above the elbow. (go figure).   I experimented with different ways to sit the bike.  It was slightly sore while on the bike...but right now a few hours later is when I feel it.  Stretching my arms straight is a bit achy.  Not really painful, just an achy muscle feel.  It's all good it will get better.

One more ride toward mastering this bike!

Sooooooo the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail.......it was a really nice rail trail.  The trail was very heavily used today.   There were a lot of what appeared to be serious bikers on the trail (or maybe it was just bikers that have a plethora of money to buy nice bikes...ha ha ha).   We realized how spoiled we have become on the Western Maryland Rail Trail.  The WMRT is in the western, less populated portion of Maryland.  On Monday we went up 10 miles on the WMRT before hopping on the canal and riding back to our car.....we did cross roads...but back roads that are more 'lanes' than anything.  I have never seen a car on any of them in fact I barely even slow down for them, you can see that there are no cars and you just barrel onward.    The Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail had a bunch of roads that we had to cross.  BUSY roads.....one road actually had a cross walk light.  One section of the trail was particularly bad with like 5 roads to cross in a 1/2 mile section.  But overall it wasn't that bad.

We will DEFINITELY be going back to do more of the W&ODRT  as soon as possible!

June has rolled around.  In the month of May I burned 31,000 calories.  I exercised 40 hours (and very little during my vacation so it could have been MUCH higher).  I'm setting goals challenges for the month of June!  Some are weight related.  Some are not.....but weight and non-weight related things all go hand in hand.  So without further ado June's challenges!

1.  Burn 40,000 calories 
2.  Write......at least 1k words 5 days a week.  More than 20K words.
3.  Lose weight each week
4.  Continue to track each and every day
5.  60 Plus ounces of water each and every day
6.  Master the road bike
7.   Knock 1 minute off my average pace in running.  (right now I'm at 12:34 minute mile for my average pace)  11.34 is my goal.