My first Thursday evening Slow Spokes ride

I was still worried about how I would be accepted with both the trike and Bionx - post follows -

I would really like to go on these rides. I know my trike presents some problems when you all are working on riding in a pace-line. I do not mind riding behind the group off the back. I am more aerodynamic than you all are and do not need to draft to keep up. I just like riding with groups, however if you fell it would cause too much trouble as has been suggested to me for other group rides let me know and I will not attend.

The following was Ricks the ride leaders answer on the forum - we have never had any other recumbent cyclist but I keep hopping -

Ashby, it should be no problem having you and your trike on these rides. We are not to the point with this group, yet, of trying to rotate, and I know you can keep up with the pace. You do not need to stay off the back. On the back or second from the back (with an experienced rider behind you) would be fine.When we do get to the point with this group to start rotating pace-lines, you are still welcome to ride with us. All I would ask is that you allow the rider who is coming off the front to get back into the line in front of you.It would be a blast if we could get three or four more trikes or recumbents to join you and start a separate rotating line just for the recumbents.

03-17-09

This was my reply to Rick who by the way has turned out to be a friend and is a good ride leader.

OK - GREAT! I am looking forward to the ride. I am new to cycling in this area but not a new rider the trike however is new to me. I am willing to ride anywhere in the group you want me and follow instruction of the ride leader. I am comfortable riding on the road and in groups. Unless work inter fears I will be there. I have ridden in a group of 9 recumbent before - I use to organize a recumbent ride monthly in New Orleans when I lived there. If you think one recumbent bike or trike get looks you should see 9 of them rolling down the road. I do not have a picture of the 9 bent ride but here is one from a six bent ride. I use to ride a long wheel base bent, I still have it but balance issues prevent me from riding it right now. Thanks.

Here is my post after the ride which I did really enjoy even through I could barely keep up and was exhausted afterwards. What can I say I am a geek - I like numbers.

A good ride
I really enjoyed the ride - it was a bit short but as daylight allows I am sure it will get longer. My GPS reports

1:00:33 ride time

11.54 miles

1,191 ft elevation gained

1814 calories burned

Avg speed 11.4 mph

max speed 29.9.

My cycling computer reports

2% avg. climb

7% max climb

54 avg. cadence

91 max. cadence

I did not get my heart rate on this ride.

At the beginning of the ride the temperature was 73 degrees and during the ride in one 20 time period it dropped to 66 degrees, it was 64 degrees at the ride end.

I have included some pictures - you can see a map of my route here - hope to see everyone next week and some new folks also.

Every second and ounce counts.

My weight was 376.4 pounds today.

The next bunch of posts

The next series of post will mostly be copy of posts I have made to the various ride websites and forums - I will also likely make additional comments based on notes I keep or things I remember.

Scaling up

Today I weightin at 377.4 pounds which means the not only had I been succesful in staying on the program with no feed back I had now lost a total of 32.6 pounds. I do not know where it went because I still see this FOG in the mirror. (Fat Old Guy) I really can not see a change - it is annoying if most people had last 32 pounds they could see something. Yes I got a scale. I am not sure when it changed but when I had saved the money for a scale and went to order it I could not find the one I had seem online before so I did a new search and found several and at much lower cost so I got one and device that measure precent of body fat - I am almost half fat!!! 45.7% How bad is that?!!!

Second ride with Slow Spokes

I wrote this about the ride on the website forum 'I had a great ride - was nice to meet everyone - looking forward to doing it again.' And I did.
This ride was another three loop ride but each loop was different and included some roads and some bikepaths. I had a real nice time and everyone was nice - they all had to wait for me many times but on one seemed to mind execpt me I felt like I was messing up other peoples rides. By the time we got back from the second loop I was spent so I bailed out on the third loop. However I was not as burnt as I had been before, I rested and waited around until the bike shop opened because I had never been in it and wanted a look. There was also a group meeting at the same spot who were riding a 37 miles route - I remmber hopping that some day I might be able to do that kind of riding again.

Slow Spokes

This was my first Slow Spokes ride. The ride was from Lucky 32 on a Sunday afternoon. This ride was orginized by Winnie. The ride was to consist of three loops on the same 7 miles route mostly on on-road bike-paths. There were 4 or 5 of us. Winnie, Zonda, John(who I now know as Pugslyyy) myself and one or two others who I do not remember - sorry. I thought 7 miles with a rest in between each - no problem.

This was mypre-ride comment -

Hey - Great - I plan to be there.

Well riding the ATT which is almost flat and riding those bike paths which were for me very hilly at the time was two different things. I quit after the first loop which was suppose to be an option but I think it surprised everyone when I did it. Truth was I could barely keep up with their 12 mph or less pace and it had consumed everything had to do that. Everyone was very nice and as they rode off I sat down to rested before I loaded up the trike to go home. I really enjoyed riding with those folks but was displeases with my performance. They did not seem to mind my trike and either did not notice or did not care about the electric assist. I continued to ride mostly on my own but looked for small hills to climb and continued to eat according to the plan.
This was my post ride comment -

Was nice to meet you all and ride with you - I had a great time - thanks
Ashby