Most Excellent Adventure

I was looking back at my previous posts and I couldn't help but notice a pattern. I tend to post twice a week, once during the week and again on Sunday. I think the main reason is that most of the week is pretty mundane, and I have nothing really interesting to post. Seriously, who wants to read, "Today I got up, went to work, came home, exercised, watched some TV and went to bed." Oh well, too late, you just did.

Anyway, today I wanted to write about my most excellent bike ride. I've been psyching myself up for a much longer bike ride then anything I had done yet - starting with this weekend. Unfortunately, it was so hot that I was only able to get 2 small rides in on sat and sunday. Then when it rained all last night I was really bummed out. So when the weather was saying tonight was going to be high 60's with nice cloud cover and low humidity, I got really pumped up. I decide I would ride from my house to Blockbuster where my brother was working. That way, I had a destination in mind (which helps me) and I would also have an excuse to take a break midway through. I did 12.5 miles, and it felt great! Although my left leg just barely started to cramp up as I was getting back home, I really felt like I could still do another few miles. I learned a couple of really useful things on tonights ride:

• Hills suck. I think all my previous rides contained too many hills which just end up killing me and making me too tired to continue. Tonights ride was mainly east/west, and only contained a few minor hills (with one major hill at the start when I was fresh). Going north/south from my house is too hilly.
  
• Temperature/humidity levels have a huge impact on my endurance levels. Less sweat = ride longer = feel better. And everything I've read says that exercising longer is better for you then exercising harder.
  
• I can do longer bike rides over more level distances, and hills suck.
  

I'm pretty sure that over an hour period I could easily do a 15-20 mile trek over paved mostly level paths. The other reason it's cool to know I can ride farther, is that I've been thinking about maybe driving to a few other bike paths in the area, like the Gateway state trail or portions of the Grand Rounds trails that go near Lake Nokomis. Another thing I'd like to try is the Paul Bunyan trail when I goto Madden's Resort in August for our company weekend.

If that wasn't enough links for you, I'm even considering registering for the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour! Remember when I said I'm either 0% or 100%? Ya, this is me being 100%.