Cycling - I'm luvin' every minute of it!

Well, it was an interesting day and I learned a few things. I already knew that mountain bikes with knobby tires on the road is a lousy and tough ride. The wind was sometimes in my favor today and sometimes not. The loop I did turned out to be 26 miles and it took me 2 hrs. to complete - that's not so great. It means I averaged only 13 mph and I was pushing myself pretty hard. I was in the tallest gear on the bike and unless I was sprinting, I really couldn't average a higher speed on that bike. Had I been on a real road bike, I would have covered about 40 miles in the same time @ 20 mph.

I also learned the importance of cycling shorts and a racing saddle. Yesterday's ride was very hilly and I was standing up a lot. Today it was a relatively flat smooth ride and I was sitting probably 95% of the time. Ladies cover your eyes if you choose.... I had some circulation issues and had a tingling and a slight numbness feeling in my package from time to time throughout my ride. I tried to keep moving around to get some circulation but it was tough. A real racing cycle seat has a cutout down the middle exactly for the purpose of circulation. The may look small and uncomfortable but they're really not and they are a must have if you are going to do any serious cycling. The spandex cycling shorts, that look kinda strange on men, also have padding which is another huge help not to mention they, as well as the shirts, are far more aerodynamic than the track pants and t-shirt I was wearing. I'm not going to chance anything and am going to set myself up right. I'm really enjoying this new sport of mine and I have to protect myself by chance I decide to have kids some day. I also want to be comfortable so I can enjoy what I'm doing.

Still reading up on road bikes and they get quite expensive. The more I read, the better bike I want... or at least one with a high-end frame and components for the performance and them lasting a long while. To be at the entry level of an excellent quality road bike - you're looking at the $2000 - $2500 range. They go way up from there if you want all titanium and carbon parts etc... you can build a $10,000 bike easily. But for my purposes, the $2k range is fine. Plus I have to buy the gear... shoes, outfit, road helmet, some spare parts etc... I'm looking at a $3,000 investment! I've got to put some serious thought in to this - that's a lot of scratch for a bicycle but I am falling hard for this sport!

The rest of my day was mellow. I came home and had lunch of a big ass spinach salad with some leftover chicken from my kebabs then went down to the beach (by car!) and sunk in the sand, under the sun, for a couple of hours. It was great!

Right now, I've got a fresh batch of Son of Grok's organic & primal BBQ sauce on the stove and I'm BBQ'n some pork ribs for dinner as soon as it's done which should be in about 45 mins.

Someone come over... I have a ton of ribs to cook - and I spent the entire day by myself, I could use some company and good conversation!