Welcome ladies and gentlemen! I'm Aleksi "The
Rolling Resistor" and this is my cycling blog. I will be sharing my life
as a newbie roadie with you. You will read stories of my rides and goals, among
other things. Over all you will get to know me better and hopefully we learn a
thing or two about road bicycling together. So pump your tires, buckle up your
lid, and lets get ready to ride!
How it Began
I first
encountered road cycling back in 2006 as a 10 year old when my dad started
riding. I was never really interested in it, in fact I thought it
was insane that people "enjoyed" riding bikes with skinny tires for
long distances. Plus they were perched on top of even skinner saddles; in
uncomfortable looking positions, wile wearing goofy, colorful, and skin tight
spandex!
You see I was never an athletic kid, but time
passed and I started to train on a rowing machine to whip myself into some kind
of shape; I realized that I liked it and got into a routine. Slowly I improved
my endurance (no more chubby kid) and I set a goal to row one million meters by
end of the year 2011. After reaching that lofty goal (least in my standards) I
began accompanying my dad once in a while for rides with his commuter bike.
Fifteen miles here and there; maybe twenty a few times too, and that same
realization hit again that this is not too bad. I enjoyed the challenge and the
change of motion from the rowing machine; plus kids like me should get more
fresh air anyways.
After getting a little dose of cycling, my dad
bought me my first road bike August 4th; it's a slightly used, middle of the
pack, 2011 full carbon Cannondale with 105's. Man its fast compared to the
commuter rig, and she's a cool green color too; kinda reminds me of a
Lamborghini. In the near month and a half I have had the new ride I have been
putting 350 miles on the clock.
Before getting the road bike my buddy Alexander
also joined us for few rides with a borrowed road bike. He is a natural in any
sport, so he picked cycling up really fast, and ended up buying the bike he was
using. Then shortly after his younger brother Nick wanted to try riding too and
he ended up getting a beautiful red AG, so this only added to my interest.
Since then the boys dad Mark "The Frog" (I'll explain the nick name later)
and mom Johanna also got bikes, so we have a small friendly newbie peloton
going on here.
Our additional normal crew members we ride with is
Jari, he is the guy Alex got his bike from (maybe that’s why Alex is so fast,
some of Jari's speed may have stuck on the ol' Trek). Jari got into riding a
few years back with my dad, and he has never looked back since. In fact he
rides at least 7000 miles a year and only knows two speeds fast and faster.
Jari also doesn't have the word "recovery ride" in his vocabulary; so
if your expecting him to slow down, I would recommend shooting his tires.
Jari's wife Tarja also joins us.
Alexander is in more of Jari's caliber so most of
the time the "flying duo" wings with the faster groups, while the
rest of us dilly dally, and pant.
Sure we ride in a slower pack, but we are getting
better, faster, and stronger.....
One more thing, my dad has been slacking on the
riding this year some what and needed a jump start to get going again, so as a good son I
had to help him of the sofa and back to the road again and off course soon as
he did get back to riding routine he get's this crazy idea and starts planning a century ride for all of
us! Century as in a 100 miles of bicycling in one single day!
So my first cycling goal that I was sweet talked into, is
this century ride in Gainesville Oct.27th. We will meet my uncle Jim there; as
they live in that area. Jim is an old ironman so if noting else works he can pull us to finish. Hopefully in one piece, with out the saddles stuck to our behinds.
Well I better get of the keyboard and start training as we have long way to go and short time to get there......
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