Solo Ride to McKinney Falls

Yesterday was a great day! The weather was awesome. I got to spend time with Skylar and I got to go on a really nice bike ride by myself while Skylar was working.

I've been wanting to bike to McKinney Falls for a while, but I had thought about biking there and hanging out there for a while and that never really fit in my plans. It didn't fit in my plans yesterday either, but I decided to go for it. I need to try routes other than the Southern Walnut Creek Trail for my training and this seemed like a good day to go on an adventure!

The ride was really nice. There were bike lanes pretty much the whole way except for the last bit heading up to the park entrance. That part was scary because cars were going 50 mph and were trying to drive past me in the same lane. It was dangerous! I don't understand how people can feel comfortable doing that. Riding a bike is often precarious... I could hit a rock or swerve the wrong way and fall down. They wouldn't have time to stop and they would certainly hit me. 

I started biking right in the middle of the lane, which I should have been doing from the beginning,  and that fixed the problem. I guess I was just used to being in the bike lane.

Anyway, I made it safely!

There was a really long line to get in the park. It was a beautiful day and I am glad that people were out enjoying this great park!

Here are pictures of the falls from my visit a couple of weeks ago. It had just rained so there was so much water.

I'm not sure which of these is the upper falls or the lower falls... but they're both beautiful!

Not too much else to report for that ride. The ride home was great, but uneventful and then Skylar and I went to Cafe Monet and painted some cool stuff!

To Manor We Go!

It's already February! And the MS 150 is only two and a half months away.. After taking several weeks off from training, it's time to get back at it. And the weather this weekend was great for bike riding. Sunday in particular was really beautiful.

Skylar and I started the day off by going to FrankenBike, where they sell and trade bike parts for cheap and also were giving ladies free tune ups! We got our bikes checked out (they both need a little more work to be in perfect shape, but they are safe to ride thankfully!) and headed out to Manor on the Southern Walnut Creek trail.

I really love this ride! I did it by myself last year and started at my house which ended up being 30 miles. There are just the right amount of hills to make you feel like you're really getting some good training in without being too intimidating. So I was excited when Skylar said she'd go with me this time! It's nice to share the ride with someone.

We ended up just doing 20 miles to ease back into it, plus we didn't have a ton of time after we did FrankenBike. But 20 miles ended up being the perfect amount.

I really like the Southern Walnut Creek trail because it's away from cars and you get to bike through some cool scenery. There's one part that opens up to this cute little farm. I love to come up on the wide spaces after biking through a somewhat narrow path through tall plants. There used to be a water station here maintained by the Ghisallo Foundation, but it's currently not there anymore.. not sure if they decided to take it down permanently or just have it take a break or what.. but in any case, I miss it! It was nice to have a chance to fill up on water and read different news about bike stuff happening.

We came up on the end of the paved trail which was about 7 miles and took a quick photo and water break. The trail ends at this random park where they fly toy airplanes and helicopters. It's cool to take a break and watch the little helicopters fly around and do tricks.

Then we started on the road to Manor which is pretty hilly, but fun, and makes you feel like you're getting a good work out. It feels like the country even though you're only ten miles out from Austin.

We got to Manor High School and then we were ready to turn around. Snapped some photos with this sweet fireworks stands and headed back! 

It was a really beautiful day and it was great to spend it biking with Skylar! And I feel good to get back in the habit of training on the weekends. The MS 150 will be here in no time.. yikes!

Speaking of which, if you feel like donating to my campaign, here's the link: Kelsey's MS 150 Participant Page. Thanks!!

Austin to Buda with Team Shower Beer

For the past several months, I've been going to social rides with Bikin' Betties on Mondays. We ride about 8-10 miles each night and then hang out somewhere cool in Austin. It's a great way to meet lady cyclists in Austin and check out cool places around town.

But the group isn't about long training rides. So when the organizer of Bikin' Betties invited me to a 40 mile Saturday morning ride with Team Shower Beer, I was pumped for the opportunity to do a longer ride with familiar folks, folks who are friendly to beginner cyclists.

Many of the cycling groups in Austin who do longer rides on the weekend are all super-pro folks (at least they seem that way to me) and it can be pretty intimidating. Conversely, trying to ride 40+ miles alone is daunting and kinda dangerous and I am not great at figuring out good, safe routes for long rides like that.

At any rate, I was pumped for Saturday.

The morning got off to a rocky start because I needed to tighten up my brakes and I can never do anything with bike maintenance without a ton of unnecessary issues. It was a little chilly that morning so figuring out what to wear to be warm enough but not too warm... always a struggle.

At long last, I got on the road! I met up with Team Shower Beer, an all ladies cycling team sponsored by Cycleast and doing more intermediate and advanced rides than Bikin' Betties, at Cycleast on East Cesar Chavez. I'd not been there yet and it was really cool! The people were super friendly and had coffee for us. They have a whole yoga studio to do yoga for cyclists!

We waited there for a bit and then got on our way. There were two groups, one doing a 20 mile ride and another doing a 40 mile ride to Buda and back. I went with the 40 miler group. Before this ride, I'd been doing about 30 mile rides by myself so 40 miles seemed like a good next move. Plus, it's fun to say that I biked somewhere like Buda as opposed to just doing circles around the city or whatever. 

The first fifteen miles or so were through Austin. We went south on Congress for a while and then down S 1st street. Once we got out of the city though, the ride was really pretty. We took Old San Antonio Road which is a cool country road with cows and trees changing colors.

This picture shows the trees being way greener than they were on Saturday. I didn't take any of these pictures because I hadn't really decided to do a blog when I went on this ride and I definitely didn't want to stop our group to take pictures of a road. So thank you Google Images! This part of the ride was really beautiful and we saw a lot of other cyclists heading back from Buda. Clearly a popular route.

We got to Buda and I hadn't realized how cute the main square was! They were having some kind of Christmas festival and parade so the town was packed. They were selling crafts and such, but no food... (I was hungry at this point), so we turned around and headed back to Austin!

The ride back was much tougher than getting down there. The headwind was unreal. We couldn't talk to each other because it was too hard to hear and I was just focused on pedaling through that wind!

This doesn't even do it justice!

Despite the absurd wind conditions, we did finally make it back. The rest of the team went somewhere to eat and I couldn't/didn't want to go because I was so hungry that I needed food immediately and I didn't want to go through the hassle of figuring out if the restaurant was safe for me. I have Celiac Disease and I have to be very careful of what I eat because if something has even 20ppm (parts per million) of gluten, my body will start destroying its intestines. That's not worth a random taco.

But I did go home and have a taco- a safe, gluten free taco! Here I am, tired, hungry (it was pre-taco), but feeling accomplished! Thanks Team Shower Beer!

Okay, yes, this picture I didn't get off of Google Images.

And here's a link to my participant page on the MS 150 website where you can read about the ride specifically, learn more about Multiple Sclerosis, and donate to my campaign. Thanks!