April 12th (Aft) and April 13th (Morning)

April 12th (Aft)
The afternoon ride home was pretty good in all. The ride to Peterson's creek is about 15-20 minutes on pavement with a couple decent little uphills in between. The steepest one being on Monarch (which connects Springhill to Gleneagles). I pushed it on this hill and made it up in the middle ring (2:1 combo). Going down into Peterson's creek wasn't as smooth as I would've liked it to be. I'm not sure if it was dustier/rockier than usual, or if I was just not comfortable. I only made the first two switchbacks, and then had to place my bike around the middle three, and then made the last two. This trail does see a lot of bikers going down and it is getting very torn up, so that might be making things that much looser. Irregardless, I did not ride as good as I think I could have.

However, going up the other side was a great improvement. I only walked maybe a quarter of the way. I did stop 6 times to catch my breath, but most of the time I jumped back on and kept riding again. I even made it half way around the deep, sandy switchback that I haven't even attempted yet. The ride from there to Rose Hill was pretty good, actually. I felt stronger and faster, and even powered up the second to last peak/valley combo just before Rose Hill (normally I walk the last two hills there) for the first time!

April 13th (Morning)
The morning ride was OK, but I was pushing a medium headwind the whole way to Lansdowne which added a minute to that stretch. The #7 bus broke down, so I took the #4 up to the Aberdeen Mall (actually got there about 5 minutes sooner than the #7 does anyways). I rode from the Aberdeen Mall and it was again, OK. I had to fight the same headwind hear as well, and it started raining. However I did make the entire ride in the middle ring (2:1 combo at the smallest, NO GRANNY GEAR for the first ride yet). This route added about 5-1/2 minutes to my ride. Not a bad idea if I'm looking to increase my ride more and more. Not a great route, as Hillside has no sidewalk going up on the right hand side, which means unless I can push a very fast pace, I have to ride up on the left hand side so I don't get run over... :)

All in all, both rides were pretty good. Again, I'm seeing little progress each day, so that is very encouraging. I keep feeling like I can be doing better, so I think that is good motivation to keep pushing more each day. My butt is not really sore as much as it just hurts??? I will see, as if this doesn't get better within a few weeks I'll have to check out the saddle angle/distance, and maybe even consider a different style?