After riding the Fold Rush for a year I've discovered it is going to take longer than anticipated for me to be a confident rider. A lot of it is mental. I see a big hill coming up and mentally I just shut down. Sometimes I'm not even my lowest gear before I bail and start walking. It feels like something I'll overecome but it will take time. I'm sure some of it is the extra weight I'm carrying. It's got to be harder to climb hills pulling an extra 60 lbs. I had really hoped that biking would help me lose weight but so far it hasn't. I probably need to ride more to see better results. The weather has been so wet this winter and spring that I haven't been out as much as I would like. My regular riding started in May this year and I've been putting in around 80 miles a week. What I really want is to do more long distance riding. It's turned into an obsession with me but hills have become an obstacle. It would be great if a hill could be just a hill. I don't need to be fast up the hill but I want to get up them without dying or walking. A couple of months ago I was at an organized ride where a guy let me try out his Cat trike. Wow, what fun. I rode it around a gravel parking lot with such confidence. Gravel is something that makes me very nervous riding my Fold Rush or Cannondale. It got me to thinking. I started researching trikes and came to realize this might be just the ticket to get me out more and riding with confidence. The Greenspeed trikes, in particular, caught my fancy. These are trikes built for touring. I test rode one and it was so much fun. Everything about it felt solid. The one I was looking at, the GTO, has 81 gears. Someone once said it has enough gears to ride up a tree. Sounds good to me. I went ahead and ordered it and am really excited about this purchase. Since then I've ridden another cat trike that had a tail sok. It was so cool that I've ordered a tail sok for the GTO. Bright green and so slick. I also ordered a fairing. Most people talk about aerodynamic benefits with a fairing but I think you have to be pretty fast to see that. What I like about a fairing is the protection from the bugs, wind and rain. It really helps to keep my feet dry in wet weather. Overall, this feels like a bike I can ride anywhere. I'm sure I won't be fast but at this point I don't really care - I just want to make it up any hill. With a trike you can stop on a hill, catch your breath, and then carry on up when you are ready without getting off the bike. I'm picking up the trike later this month when I go visit my sister in Kentucky. I'll get lots of practice riding hills there. It should be fun!!
Played 1 1/2 hours of tennis doubles
Rode 22 miles max speed = 33.7
average speed = 11.4
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