Trike Life

So, almost a week ago, Lena tried to kill me.  It was only my third time out on my new (to me) Terra Trike Rover, and she talked me into going "on an adventure."

Little did I know that this "adventure" would involve hills, 4-lane roads, a brief trip through the ghetto and a white-knuckle 30mph downhill.  In all, it was a great little trip, and I was really happy that I was able to (albeit slowly) make my way into the downtown area.

It started with a trip to the end of our neighborhood to 54, which luckily didn't have much traffic at that hour on a Sunday morning.  This was a slow uphill and there's no sidewalk, so I was silently praying that motorists would see us.  In hindsight, it probably didn't take very long but it was an eternity at the time.

She then led us down the side-street next to the "B Mart" which is a sketchy convenience store.  She stopped to get gas there once and said that there were "a billion toothless crackheads" inside, so I wasn't too thrilled about going into this section of town.  It was still early, though, so it seemed pretty safe.  After that came the hills.  I'm way out of shape and totally not ready to do these hills on a regular basis, but I'm glad that she made me do it so that I know what I am capable of.  Here's a picture she took from the top of a series of hills.  This was definitely the most difficult part of the trip.

My main focus right now is riding for an extended period of time on smaller hills to build up my endurance.  For my hard work, I was rewarded with a brief ride around the court square in downtown Graham.  I never thought that I'd be capable of making it there on my third trip out.

The trip home was pretty uneventful until we turned onto Townbranch Rd.  I didn't realize how steep the downhill section is, and I began really building up speed.  It's a good thing that my trike has disc brakes!  Lena's bike computer was showing 26mph and I was pulling away from her, but I don't know how fast I was actually going.  I was trying to brake evenly so I didn't flip over but hard enough that I'd be able to safely turn back into our neighborhood.  It was a wild ride, for sure!

Overall I'm really happy with the Terra Trike so far and look forward to more fun rides.  It's so much more comfortable than a conventional bike.  Although I didn't have it for Lena's "adventure," I've got the Map My Ride app back on my phone now and it's encouraging to see so many calories burned from 30-40 minutes rides.  I'm feeling very optimistic about it and find myself wanting to ride more and more.  Now if we can just get the weather to cooperate!