I signed up for the Tour de Cure to raise some money for diabetes. They had several routes offered but since this would be my first ride, I thought I'd better sign up for the most basic route which is the 20 miler. I met with the team from my gym (Renew Fitness) and we all raised nearly $5,000 and there would be 15 riders total.

I rode a couple weeks ago with Mark on a 15 mile ride around Point Defiance Park for my first time on my new bike. Not bad for my first time but I still needed to work on maintaining a good cadence rate (pedaling speed) keeping the rpms steady while shifting through the gears smoothly according to Mark. A common mistake for the newbie is to allow the pedaling to affect your balance. That happened to me a few times I admit but I eventually learned how to keep it steady by watching my balance.

In the morning, my new bike was ready to go:


I also picked up a Garmin Edge 705 which basically tracks everything! Your speed, location, cadence, heartrate, elevation, etc. And then you can download it to a program for analysis. Pretty neat!

The red line represents my heartrates and the green the elevation. The yellow dotted lines shows my route.


As you can see, my heartrates changed quite a bit through the route. The hardest part was just past the halfway mark because there were TWO long uphill stretches with a slight crest inbetween. This hill was a KILLER going from about 50 ft to about 500 ft in less than two miles. Total elevation gain/loss was about 950 ft

I eventually managed to finish the ride in about 1 hour and 24 minutes ahead of everyone on my team which isn't bad for my first time. My highest speed was about 35 mph on a slight incline which was a bit scary especially when you're riding on a bike with skinny tires. Nerves, nerves.

And this is what I looked like afterwards


Sorry this isn't car related but at least there were wheels involved! It was a fun ride for a good cause! And we had GREAT weather too!

 

I'm impressed, my "after" pic would have been of me puking on the side of the road. You can still manage a smile! Nice job Jason, way to go.

 

JT, you have great taste in choosing the new addition to your stable. Your new bike looks great and is a sweet rig. Congrats on the ride.

 

Jason, that looks like a REALLY CHEAP bike!!!