Alright, it’s that time of year again, Finally! I noticed in one of my last posts that I mentioned that  “Bike Riding Season is here” back in March. Well, I guess I was a little over anxious on that one. We had a pretty cold March here in Chicagoland and I didn’t really get out after that last post.

Well, today is in the mid 50s and I made it out for a nice little 11 miler. It was a really nice day for a ride and there is just something the First Ride(s) of the Year. It was relaxing and just felt great. There was a little bit of a wind and I did not push myself very hard at all. I need to get into riding shape a little. Well, I ended up averaging 12.7mph on my ride anyway so I guess I still have some left over strength from all the faster riding that I did towards the end of last season.

I like the thinking time that you get on rides and it seems like it is even more exaggerated on those first rides of the year. I was thinking a little bit of the riding benefits that I wrote about in my Bike Riding Niverana article but also a lot about the workout and weight loss benefits of riding.

I believe that just about any kind of bike riding (even at a very relaxed pace) will have the benefits of getting a good aerobic workout, stress relief, and is just plain fun but what I have discovered recently is that riding fast is by far the best way to lose weight by bike riding (if that happens to be one of your goals).

You don’t need to start out riding like Lance Armstrong or anything, but if you just start pushing yourself a little bit each ride and ride fairly often, before you know it, you’ll be feeling great, losing weight and averaging some pretty good speeds.

If you are new to biking you will definitely need a Bike Computer (aka bike speedometer, bike odometer, etc.) to track your progress. These things are really a lot of fun and you can get them for really cheap if you choose or you can go all out and get some pretty amazing features (you can actually get into Bike GPS units if you are really into bike electronics and tracking everything!)

As for myself, I have really been wanting a bike GPS unit for quite some time but I currently just use a wireless bike computer and although there are models that allow downloads to your PC, I track my ride data manually in a spreadsheet. After each ride, I just enter my ride data (miles, average speed, odometer reading, other interesting stuff) from my bike computer (A Vetta) into my spreadsheet (a MS Excel 🙂 ).

OK, well I’ve gotten a little away from the original ride update but this is a lot of the stuff that I was thinking about on my ride.

As for some of the more specific info, my first 2 rides this year have been totally local. My neighborhood and a ride in Inverness. I also had to ride to Walgreens for a bike computer battery before my first ride.

I brought some gloves with me today although I did not think that I would need them.  Well, I could have done without them, but since it was still a little chilly it was nicer to have them on and I’m glad that I brought them with me. And also still like the Topeak Bike Bag that I bought last year to keep this kind of stuff in.

OK, well, that’s it for the first ride update, I guess. I’ll probably add replies to this post for additional rides this spring (rather than a new post with all the rambling about my rides) and I also welcome replies and ride stories from all of you out there too if you like.

Later, Rob.