biking is the new running

Despite the fact that until yesterday I hadn't been on a bike in over six years, I think I may have found a new addiction. I went on a five mile ride yesterday evening to get a gauge for where I was at. Sure I can run, but bike? I pretty much figured that I would get on, get about half a mile down the road and want to turn around because my butt was so sore. But that totally didn't happen.

In fact, the entire time (once I figured out how to properly switch gears) I actually thought,"This is so much easier than running. Why haven't I thought to try this before?" And that's all it took. As soon as I got home I started researching bikes and trailers (so the kids can come, of course). Next came the daydreams of how cool it would be to bike to the store and the library and the park and all the other places the girls like to go. (Keep in mind that no matter how "green" it may be and how "green" I like to be, that will never happen. The roads here have no shoulders and are way too dangerous to take the girls out on.)

Anyway, I even found a "race" to train for. It's actually the Bike Festival held in Ashland every year, which isn't so much a race as much as it is people biking predetermined courses of 25-100 miles. But whatever you want to call it, I am still going to have to train if I want to be able to finish it, at any speed. (I'm planning on the 27 mile course, by the way).

So once a week, in addition to my four days of running, I will gradually be building my mileage (and hopefully speed) so that I can accomplish my newest goal and feed yet another one of my addictions. Did I mention, biking is so the new running?