So my newest adventure (or sport) that I have taken up is Cycling.  My husband has been cycling for over 15 years, and loves the sport.  For Valentine's Day he bought me a bike, so that we could start riding together . . . little did I know I would be training for a ride that was 60 miles long, in a month. 

My first ride was in NW Fort Worth near Texas Motor Speedway. (I hadn't ridden a bike in more than 7 years)  We rode 30 miles!  It took me about 2.5 hours to do the ride, although if you add in the stops at Dairy Queen and Sonic it took more like 3 hours and 15 minutes.  I certainly wasn't in cardio shape, but to ride 30 miles my first ride out I felt pretty good.

My second ride was two weekends later.  We did the exact same ride, and I finished it about 15 minutes faster.

Last weekend, we tried a new ride near Granbury.  This time we rode 42 miles.  It was a fun ride with rolling hills and fairly easy terrain.  I felt good afterwards, but was definitely tired. 

We started the ride at the Town Square in Granbury, directly in front of the courthouse.  

Once we got out of town it was rolling hills.  We crossed over the Granbury lake which was a beautiful site.  

At about 15 miles I made my first rest stop in a convenience station.  Cookies and Cream Ice Cream and Gatorade refueled me for another 15 miles. 

We continued to push forward through the ride, the first 15 miles was all into the wind.  We would then turn right and have the wind blowing across us.  It was much easier, and I was eagerly awaiting the next right turn so that the wind would be behind us. (Unfortunately by the time we got going that direction the winds had changed.)

Perhaps our scariest moment came when we had just made the turn to head the last 15 miles back to Granbury, and I was behind my husband riding.  He turned his head to the right to check and see how far back I was, not knowing that I was on his left. As he turned his head right, his bike bobbled left and hit me.  I stayed up right, but he didn't.  He was clipped in (his shoes clipped into the pedals) so he couldn't release right away and fell into the road way, a four-lane highway.  The car that was coming was able to get stop, but it was still a scary moment.

The bike wasn't hurt and he wasn't too banged up as well, but his tailbone was bruised a bit. 

Later in the ride was my turn to have a "close call"  I was about two miles away from finishing the ride, and had just climbed a huge hill.  Okay it probably wasn't that big but it was so hard to climb after pushing though 37 miles. 

I was riding in front of my husband and it was a two lane road, coming into Granbury.  There was a car that stopped in the lane, put there blinker on to turn left and waited for the oncoming traffic to clear before they turned.  

Another car behind stopped immediately behind them, it was a little bit of a hard stop, but they were able to stop without an accident.  That was barely the case for the third car, a group of teenagers in a small red pick-up truck.  

From behind me I heard the screeching of brakes, and as I turned to the left to see how close it was, I saw the truck pass me within about 10 feet, as they quickly veered off the roadway onto the shoulder in order to miss hitting the car in front of them, and me.  

I bailed off onto the grass embankment, shocked, adrenaline high, and a bit scared of what just happened.  

I got back on my bike and finished the ride.  It was a lot of fun, and I am glad that I accomplished the goal of riding 42 miles.

But that was just my training.  Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am (central time) I start my 62 mile ride in Aledo in the wee hours of the morning, and hopefully will be done by Noon-1pm, but we will see. 

My husband is eager to do this ride, and then my next one will be April 12th, with the ultimate goal ending in August during the Hotter-n-Hell 100.  A 100 mile ride that starts in Wichita Falls and ends . . . well, God only knows where.