Getting Out of the House

2/7/18  Training update:

The weather has warmed up nicely here in the central valley so I pulled the bikes off the trainers and took Katelyn on a ride.  Keep in mind, the longest ride she had ever done to date was 15 miles.  In preparation, I had bought her a new Terry Saddle and adjusted it where I thought it should go.  We headed out and planned on trying to average around 15 mph.  I didn't want the ride to be tough or not enjoyable.  We hit a little wind heading out and found ourselves holding 14.5 mph for the first 8 miles or so.  Also, Katelyn was complaining that her butt, thighs, back, and the inside of her knee were all really hurting her.  So much for a good start!  and this was on flat roads!  We ended up riding 21.5 miles which was solid given her lack of longer rides before.  After returning, I adjusted her saddle down bit to help with the knee pain.  The next day, we only had 45 minutes to ride so I took her around Ripon and we worked on traffic and city riding.  We only went 12.5 miles but we pushed it harder and held 17 mph for most of the ride.  Also, there were no complaints about any pain so that was improvement.

One thing that made the second ride much more enjoyable was that we brought along the Tall Boy.  The Tall Boy is the bike speaker that fits in the water bottle cage on the bike and lets us play music.  It was nice to hear something while riding and I think Katelyn especially responded well to it.  We will keep increasing our mileage and then probably start hill climbs next week.  Hopefully the weather stays in the mid 70's!