New Bike Update

OK, so I've put 30 miles or so on the new $80 bike, enough to have a semi-informed opinion.

Took it out for its first 10-mile-plus ride this morning. I'm still thinking it felt like a lot of bike for 80 bucks. Enough bike that I'm not going to feel bad when I have to pop a little for new tires, etc. over time. I still need to futz with the fitting just a little (maybe another half inch up on the seat height), but it's pretty comfortable.

Keeping a reasonable pace (breaking a sweat and feeling some burn in the quads most of the way, but not all-out heavy-breathing stitch-in-side cardio), my speed averaged 10 miles an hour.

Last time I got serious about cycling, I had a burr under my fur about distance (I worked up to, and tried to keep at, 100+ miles per week). This time around, it's about time spent keeping the muscles moving (I've been at 40 minutes and change each morning and am now working up toward an hour).

That is, I don't really care much how far I go; I just plan on riding 25-30 minutes away from home, then turning around and coming back. But knowing that the turnaround point at the Archer end of the Archer-Braid trail is almost exactly 30 minutes away is nice for not having to keep an eye on the clock.

On my walking days (once I get tired of walking and biking every day I'll start alternating), I do care about distance and speed: I plan to work up to three miles and then stay at that distance but start increasing speed, until I'm running the three miles (5 kilometers).

My best running time ever for 5k is 20 minutes 25 seconds. I want to eventually beat it. Granted, when I did that last time, I was 18 years old and in pretty good shape, about 2/3 of the way through boot camp. Then again, although I didn't know it until one of my knees made a sound like a rifle going off just as I crossed the finish line and started to slow down, I did it with two broken kneecaps. So I guess it kind of evens out. And frankly I'll be reasonably happy once I'm running the three miles in maximum passing time for the old Marine Corps physical fitness test (28 minutes). Better than 20:25 is just my motivational goal.