Bike Brick

You may have been wondering after my North Shore Half Marathon report about Jason's new bike. I mean, I've been the one talking about getting a bike. What's all this about my husband getting one?

Well, I have news. Let me introduce the special guest star of my workout last night:

My new bike!


This past Saturday, after driving all over creation, we finally went back to the very first bike store we visited two weeks ago and purchased our bikes. I decided that I liked the Giant the best. It's a little bit heavier than all the other ones I tried (Specialized, Felt, and Trek) which I think makes it a little bit more stable. Perfect for a road bike newbie. We also bought helmets, locks, and a tire pump.

Last night I took it on its inaugural non-test-ride ride and rode the 1.5 miles from my house to the running store where we start our Monday night runs. The bike rode perfectly but I admit I was nervous to get out there. My biggest fear? Traffic!

Growing up I either rode my bike on the sidewalk (bad) or in low-traffic residential neighborhoods. I never learned the bike hand signals and I had no idea what to do if I needed to turn! The ride to the running store was a little nerve-wracking but I made it in one piece.

The run itself was nothing special. I was supposed to do a tempo run with 2 miles of warm-up, 2 miles at 9:05, and then a 1.5 mile cool-down. However, everyone I was running with had raced some distance the day before (or was nursing an injury) so we were all dragging. I think I had one mile that was close to 9:05 and I ran incredibly positive splits.

But then I rode my bike home and since there was much less traffic I was able to build up quite a bit of speed. Bike riding is fun!

I'm really, really looking forward to signing up for some duathlons next summer. But first I have to get through marathon training. At least now I have a bike to use for cross-training!



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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 628 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 06/14/10 Up/Downhill: [+22/-19] Time: 06:36 PM Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.40 miles Time: 0:50:40 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 23 /mi Calories: 636 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 17 -0' 06 6.5 +0.1 0 ft 2 9' 04 -0' 19 6.6 +0.2 -9 ft 3 9' 20 -0' 03 6.4 +0.0 +3 ft 4 9' 29 +0' 06 6.3 -0.1 +7 ft 5 9' 57 +0' 34 6.0 -0.4 0 ft end 9' 26 +0' 03 6.4 -0.0 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 23 min/mile

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