Bike Riding Shape

Who woulda thunk that bike riding would be so hard on my legs and knees?  I rode 12 miles yesterday and couldn't believe how sore I was when I got off the bike.  I mean, I must be in shape with everything I've been doing.  How hard can bike riding be???  Well, I was in for an awakening last night.  My knees ached horribly.  Stepping down steps was not fun.  My lower back was tight.  It was clear that I am using new muscles that are getting some use they haven't had before.

I had a blast and am going to love riding, but holy cow, I have to get in better biking shape!  I went for a nice walk afterwards which helped loosen up my legs but they were pretty stiff last night.  I'm feeling pretty good this morning so it wasn't permanent damage.  I think I'll live. :)  It's so amazing though how we have these hidden muscles.  I'm doing such a variety of things working out that I wouldn't have thought to be so sore after a little bike ride.  I was wrong.

I had no idea how long it would take me to ride 12 miles. It took about 65 minutes.  I seemed to range between 8-12 mph.  It was breezy.  I was learning to play with the various gears.  I wish I could shift gears while stopped but I'm learning to down shift before I have to stop so it's easier to get going again.   I'm still a bit wobbly on turns.  I'm sure I'll get better.  I'm glad there weren't many people, walkers or bikers out yesterday as I'm still learning to share the path and I'd hate to run someone over.  Hehehe.

Now I have a ballpark idea of a 12 mile ride for me.  I'm going to try to incorporate a ride of some sort into each of my days so that I can get these riding muscles in shape for training.  I'll be concentrating on the running for now since I'm doing the 5K in May, but after that I'll be in full swing of some sort of a training schedule for the triathlon to work on speed on the bike, the run and the swim.