Spring is for Biking

We took our bikes out for the first time this year (2008) on Sunday. We didn't go very far in our travels - from breakfast to coffee to REI to home - maybe about 5 miles but, man alive, was I exhausted from the moment I got home till I went to bed the following night! Perhaps it were the hills that did me in but I still felt like a complete loser for not being able to hack 5 measly miles. Jeez.

Well, whatever. I rode my bike to work this morning in preparation for the start of the Ride in the Rain challenge that begins next week. (We have the worst team name ever in the history of team names. It's so bad, I just pretend that we don't have one.) My ride will be a little over 6 miles round trip and the return home is all. up. hill. Tough but, if nothing else, my ass will look great and it is great incentive to start training for the big ride later this spring and the mountains we will surely climb.

Speaking of which, Ivan ordered two different sets of maps this weekend from Adventure Cycling so we can get a closer look at the two routes we're considering: the TransAmerican and the Northern Tier. I've decided to let him decide what route, or combination of routes, we'll take. I'm pretty jazzed just about doing the trip and doing it together that I really don't care what route we'll take because I can't imagine not finding all of it interesting. He's been a little more discerning about it, so I figure it should be his call.

I hadn't planned on getting my bike for the trip until early April, but Ivan pointed out that sooner is better than later as we may need to put in an order for what I want which may delay us in getting it. So we'll probably head down to Angle Lake Cycles in the next couple of weeks. At this point, we're thinking about getting the same model as his. We'll see if that'll work out.