First, congratulations for completing a very tough ride! Second, it's possible that what's nearly impossible today can be normal tomorrow once you adapt with the strategies (as you did for gearing/pacing etc.) and mental knowledge that you have done it and are doing it better the next time around. (I remember your first club rides were hard, and maybe they are routine now?)
For hard rides, if you are like me, then the first day after the ride, it's, "That was dumb, why did I ever agree to do the ride?". A few days later it's, "Wow, I can't believe I made it." A week to a month later (depending on how quickly amnesia sets in), it's "I'm doing that again and will be stronger!" My "initiation" into road riding was taking my heavy steel mountain bike and putting slicks (slick tires) on it and going with my road riding buddy who took me on a ~30 mile? slugfest from Milpitas up Calaveras up and down Welch Creek Rd., which is known as one of the steepest challenges in the area, and then back up Calaveras and down to Milpitas. My longest ride previous to this one was no more than 10-15 miles (doing mountain biking). Of course I was slow (and the Western Wheeler ride leaders waited for us--thank you for your patience!), but somehow I finished and wasn't turned off from road riding forever. Of course, the most important thing is what you think is fun and what you want to set your goals upon. I like training for a tough (i.e. stupid) bike ride as a way to challenge myself to become fit. Outside of training for the stupid stuff, I haven't done too much riding other than commuting to work (which is good training too), due to spending lots more time playing music (violin/viola). However, I envision a day when I can give up the stupid stuff and do solely enjoyable rides and touring! Toshi P.S. As a fun side note, my friend, who took me on my "initiation" road ride showed me a picture of a Riv Saluki and told me that I need to get that bike. I thought he was crazy at the time, but it turned out that my first new Riv was the A Homer Hilsen, which is the direct descendant of the Saluki, so he was prescient. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAGB59xx4v_OSD2fKR53wE9fCkHHKj-uNV9-zS%3DZj1wMiWvGf8Q%40mail.gmail.com.
