I just returned from a trip to Florida with WomanTours and did about 180 miles on the bike.  I used about 3 gears the whole time.
Florida is very flat!
The group was great and out trip leaders were wonderful.  

I did meet two women who had done the Northern Tier ride from North Dakota to Bar Harbor and loved it.  They said the time went by very fast.  One of the women said she rode with different people everyday and a couple of times alone.  She was very encouraging about doing the trip and did say that most days you are so tired you just eat dinner and get to bed.

On the biggest hill, actually a long bridge going into Sarasota,
I had a blow out part way up the bridge.  I was able to walk my bike back to the bottom of the bridge and called our guide who showed up almost immediately.  I had already determined that I had a nice cut in my tire.  She gave me a demonstration on tire changing!  I have done it but I am very slow.  She patched the hole with a heavy patch and I set off.  It was a short day and the tire stayed together.  It gave me some confidence in that I was able to unclip and my bike was very stable.  I do hope I don't have too many flats on our Cross Country Trip but I will practice tire changing and repair.

I spent the next week with my sister, niece and daughter at the Innisbrook resort where we golfed, swam, went to the beach and the spa.  I did do one short bike ride around the resort before I returned to the bike shop to have my bike shipped home.

NOW for the real training to begin...  I plan to put my bike up the trainer and start spinning.

We have received our route maps and they are a bit scary but we will do it!

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My trip is scheduled to begin on March 7th.  It doesn't seem so far away.

Next week I will being doing a WomanTours trip out of Tampa so I will be able to get in some fall training.  I sent my bike down there ahead of me.

Then my plan is to set my bike up on a trainer at home.  My personal trainer, Mark, is going to help with a program.  I think this will be the toughest part of training as it is very boring riding inside but it must be done.

I plan to post from my Florida trip and will hopefully be able to post some photos.

The second week in Florida will be at the Innisbrook resort with my sister, daughter and niece for a little R&R.  I have wonderful relatives and look forward to being with them.  

Here is the link to my fundraising page:    Fundraising page

My fundraising page for the Maine Heart Center is now up and running.  Anyone who wishes to contribute can click on the link and pledge online.  This fund is to purchase support equipment such as stationary bikes and mobile cardiac walkers.  I hope you can support the Heart Center as generously as you can.  I also want to encourage you to ride along with me in spirit as well as doing some bicycling yourself if you can.

Many, many thanks to Matt and his staff in the Development Office at Maine Medical Center for the hours they spent creating this page.  I also need to thank my friend Gail for getting my logo "print ready" and figuring out how to put it on this blog page.

Back to my training so far.  Well, of course not as many miles on the bike as I would like but I keep plugging away at it.

I have started with working with Mark, at PNF, for individual strength training.  This has been wonderful and my back and upper body are much stronger.  My upper back gets sore riding so I am hoping the strengthening will help.  I have also joined a new gym nearer my house and work out there a couple of times a week.

I have ridden with Barb, from York, Maine who is going on the tour.  We have had a great time and there are two things we do on the ride.

1.  Eat. Each ride has included a lunch stop.

2.  Have fun, we are out to enjoy the journey.
I have also ridden with May, who summers in Maine.  We ate on those rides too.  In reading the blogs from other tour riders food has seemed to be a very strong theme and I understand the WomanTours guides are fabulous cooks.  The great thing is that riding burns calories.

Barb and I booked our flight to San Diego so I guess we really are going.  We are going out a few days early to get our bikes and get used to the time change.

The tour email group has recently been discussing luggage.  I have been stewing about this for a couple of months and have been to LL Bean to research luggage (more than once).  I think I will use two small bags that I already own.  I think the luggage issue is a cover for other worries (like falling, not enough bike training etc.).
I am headed off to Florida in early November for a WomanTour trip out of Tampa.  I don't think there are too many hills and much of the trip is on bike paths.
It is getting colder now in Maine and may snow tonight!

Starting the adventure

My new Terry bicycle!

This is the first time I am blogging.  I will give some background to this blog.

Sometime last year I got it into my head (actually a long time ago) that I wanted to ride across country on my bike.  I kept getting WomanTours catalogues and thought it would be a good place to start.

So, last September I signed up for the Cross Country trip and for a "test" trip in Arizona in March of 2012.  I had planned on retiring in December of '11 and going on my husband, Steve's insurance.

Well, life threw me a curve and some of my plans changed.  Steve suffered what appeared to be sudden cardiac arrest and passed away in October.  He and I rode a recumbent tandem trike for the last eight years and I knew that he would want me to keep riding.  I decided not to retire until summer and I still wanted to go on the Arizona trip.  It was wonderful and I met such good people and had some great riding.  I had thought of going cross country on my single recumbent trike but decided it would be too slow (not to mention that it bothers my knee).

So that is how I came to get the Terry bike above.  My old road bike was too big.

So with the help of Georgena Terry of Terry Bicycles and Bruce at Ernie's Cycle Shop in Westbrook, Maine I have this new bike.  It is a great fit and I am starting my training!

I am corresponding via email with the 30+ ladies signed up for the tour and have met and ridden with Barb and May.

I am doing this ride as a fundraiser for cardiac services at Maine Medical Center.  I will soon have a link to the fundraising page that Matt from the Development Office is working on.