A week and a half ago, I picked up a Fuji Sportif from the local Performance Bike store. The day I got the bike, we loaded up and headed out to the Capital Area Greenway to try cycling for the first time in about 7 years. We ended up cruising about 10 miles, and it HURT.

My butt hurt, my knees hurt, my lungs burned, and my legs were on fire. So in other words, we had a blast.

After a couple more nights on the bikes, I felt like I was really doing great and was starting to feel kind of cocky in the saddle. As we were heading back toward the parking lot one night, I started to hear a squeaky bicycle drivetrain coming up behind me. I gave a quick look over the shoulder, and got passed by a guy on a filthy mountain bike with whirring knobby tires, and a squeaking chain. That’s a kick to the ego of anybody on a road bike…

In the next week, we logged a total of 70 miles on the Neuse River Trail part of the greenway and we’ve been having a great time. On Saturday we stashed a car up at Falls Dam, and then drove down to the Poole Road trailhead and rode all the way up to the car. It was 18.99 miles, the longest ride I’ve done since picking up the new bike, and it was awesome. Unfortunately, that night the “fall back” time change happened, and now it gets dark super early, but we’re still planning to get some miles in after work when possible.