I recently found out that my bicycle seat was too low. It has unfortunately been too low for two cycling seasons. When I first bought my bike, I adjusted it from it’s original settings to what I felt was comfortable for me to ride. Over the past two years I have gone (what I thought was) great distances on my bike. It turns out, what I thought was “comfortable” was actually placing all the work to power my bike onto my knees. Now that the seat has been moved up, the power to move my bike will come from my thigh muscles, as well as the force of my entire body. The former “great distances” I’ve gone, are really only the beginning of how far I can go. I am pretty excited about where I will be able to ride to this summer.
I often ride on the Simcoe County/Tiny Trail system, and last summer I built up my endurance to make it to the next major (ha!) intersection, about 9 km away. The whole ride was 18 km (there and back) and took an hour and a half. It was my biking distance goal last summer and I succeeded near the end of the season. I only made it there once, but I was pretty proud to have made it there at all!
This spring I have been doing a lot of walking and postponed hoping on my bike until just a few weeks ago. I have only been on a handful of bike rides this season, and after a recent one, someone who knows a lot more about bikes than I do, commented that she thought my knees were bending too much when I rode, and helped me adjust my seat to a proper height (thanks, T!). So when I set out on what was only my fourth ride of the season, I made it all the way to that long dreamed of major intersection from last year. It took me three months to get there last year, and only a week this year. I also made better time too! And I didn’t feel exhausted for days afterwards. Amazing!
I have the whole summer ahead of me and am really looking forward to longer distance bike rides. I picked up some padded cycling gloves, a bike lock, a portable air pump, a patch kit, a bike-mountable water bottle, and an ‘on the road‘ tool kit. Now, I not only have the power to go further, but with these accessories, I also feel more secure about being farther from home.
Now to plan a distance goal for the summer. The farthest I’ve cycled is 18 km; we’ll see what the new record is at the end of the season!
I often ride on the Simcoe County/Tiny Trail system, and last summer I built up my endurance to make it to the next major (ha!) intersection, about 9 km away. The whole ride was 18 km (there and back) and took an hour and a half. It was my biking distance goal last summer and I succeeded near the end of the season. I only made it there once, but I was pretty proud to have made it there at all!
This spring I have been doing a lot of walking and postponed hoping on my bike until just a few weeks ago. I have only been on a handful of bike rides this season, and after a recent one, someone who knows a lot more about bikes than I do, commented that she thought my knees were bending too much when I rode, and helped me adjust my seat to a proper height (thanks, T!). So when I set out on what was only my fourth ride of the season, I made it all the way to that long dreamed of major intersection from last year. It took me three months to get there last year, and only a week this year. I also made better time too! And I didn’t feel exhausted for days afterwards. Amazing!
I have the whole summer ahead of me and am really looking forward to longer distance bike rides. I picked up some padded cycling gloves, a bike lock, a portable air pump, a patch kit, a bike-mountable water bottle, and an ‘on the road‘ tool kit. Now, I not only have the power to go further, but with these accessories, I also feel more secure about being farther from home.
Now to plan a distance goal for the summer. The farthest I’ve cycled is 18 km; we’ll see what the new record is at the end of the season!
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