Painful Memories

One thing I have found to be true of any vacation, adventure, or any other life experience is that whatever it is, it's always more memorable when there's some sort of pain or struggle involved. Things that you must overcome to accomplish what you're set out to do, or something that makes your goal just a little more difficult to reach.

A couple weeks ago I bought a new bicycle to hopefully help me accomplish a 340 mile-long bicycle trail. In August we're planning on riding the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trail which connect to one another to form a complete passage from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC.

I'll have to admit, even I was a bit skeptical when my friend Tyler proposed the idea to me. I'll have to admit again, that I still have my doubts, but I'm going to give it my best shot anyway.

Yesterday we did our first "training" ride from Springfield to Boliver and back on the Frisco Highline Trail. The Frisco is a 35 mile rail-trail that was completed a few years ago by Ozark Greenways. 70 miles is the longest ride I have ever done in my life and I really didn't know how well I would fare, but I made it and I'm still here the next day (albeit I'm a little sore.)

Here's some of our stats from my trusty Cateye cyclocomputer:
Total Riding Time: 7 hrs 55 min 55 sec
Total Distance: 72.75 miles (this includes some riding around in bolivar)
Average Speed: 9.1 mph
Max Speed: 19.1 mph

Total Distance ridden on my "new" bike: 127.3 miles (in 2 weeks), I'm pretty proud of myself!