My Thumbs Hurt

My thumbs hurt.

I decided to do my 20 mile ride today. Not for any specific reason, but just because I felt really good when I was out there. The temperature was perfect and I just felt good. I tried to keep my heart rate down a bit, but I ended up averaging about 155, which is still pretty high I guess. Final numbers were:

Distance: 20.57 miles
Time: 1.35.06
Avg. Speed: 13.4
Avg. Heart rate 155
Calories Burned: 1634.

Can you believe I burned that many calories? I can't. I still can't believe I burn as many calories as I do every time I work out. But I trust my heart rate monitor. It's new. It's not that fancy. But I trust it. Am I wrong to trust it? I don't use that calories burned number as an excuse to eat more. I try to stick with WW activity points. It's hard for me to tell really because I haven't been tracking my food as well as I should be, and I've definitely been eating more calories than I've burned over the past two weeks at least. Thus the gain.

But back to my thumbs. I think I rest a lot of my weight on my thumbs when I'm riding, especially when I'm trying to stay right on the breaks in case I get going to fast (which I'm still very scared of). So I'm working on not resting on my thumbs. But I can tell my legs are getting stronger. Hills still kill me. I was going so slow up one hill this afternoon that I was practically at a dead stop. I was wobbling. I was about to fall over. But I pushed through. For about two more strides. Then I had to stop and turn around. So yes, I need to work on hills. I live in Denver. I have giant mountains less than 50 miles away. If I ever want to climb one of those giant mountains I need to work on the hills.

But I feel good about the ride, it's the furthest I've gone yet. I'm sort of all over the place with my workouts, no real schedule or plan, but at least I'm doing them. Even if I'm wobbling occasionally.