Saturday, November 22, 2008

Instant Love

The time to finally pull the trigger on getting a bike had arrived. During the ides of March, The Trail Store cut the ribbon on our bike store- The Mountain Bike Depot. Stocked with high end mountain and cyclocross bikes, The 'Depot was off to fill a very large void in the Louisville bike scene. The only problem was that I was not interested in an off-road bike. Even when I was living in NYC, I had wanted to take a go on a single speed. I had even gone on a couple test rides, but never went for the purchase. BUT now with a nice Manager's discount, it was time. With help from Joseph, one of the shop mechanics, I found a Single Speed bike from one of our One-Stop distributors. It was kind of a no name brand, which I didn't really care about, but Joseph assured me that it was of good quality, and decent parts, and had the bonus of a flip rear wheel, so I could choose between a free wheel or a fixed . . . plus it had the nice bullhorn handlebars!! I went with the free wheel side, in the effort to not stress out my knees any more than I had to.
The plan for the bike was to use it as a "sprint" workout to and from work three days a week. These sprints would follow a morning hour 40 minute - 2hour run work out. INSTANT LOVE!
The quad burn and heart thumpin' felt fantastic. My goal with these sprints were to stay between 18mpr and 22mpr, and have fun! My commute to work is only 5.5 miles, so we are not talking about a major tempo workout, and that's why I felt it was okay to do this twice a day, three times a week. As I headed into April, I could really feel on my runs an improvement in my legs and my general fitness. Now that my family has taken on a new form and dynamic, my training time has become even more limited and ever so precious. So getting the most out of every time I head out the door is key. Thank you bicycle!! Looking forward to more.