I survived my road cycling class and loved it!

On Sunday, I took my first ever Road Cycling course to kick off my training for the bike leg of the Iron Girl triathlon relay!  The class was given through REI's Outdoor Training School (Wash. D.C. area location) and I seriously cannot say enough good things about the course.  The class exceeded my expectations and gave me just the boost I needed to move my indoor cycling...to OUTdoors. :)

The class was approximately 5.5 hours long and was filled with information on all of the basics.  We started with talking the importance of bike fit, tire pressure, safety, braking, gear shifting (flats & hills) and within an hour we hit the W&OD trail. 

The ride was so freaking awesome! I really loved every second of pumping my legs and feeling the wind against my face. We talked a lot about gear shifting and they even took us off of the trail into some of the surrounding neighborhoods to conquer hills!  I must say that I was thanking my lucky stars that I had been spinning so much prior to taking this class.  Even though they deemed this as a good "beginner" course, I'm almost positive that it wouldn't have been that great of an experience had I not been in some kind of halfway decent shape.

About 2 hours into our ride, our little group stopped at lunch at Whole Foods which ended up being perfect timing to get a little fuel for the second half of the ride.  I also refilled my water bottle...very important with the 85 degree temps and by then we were ready to head back in.

The total ride for me ended up being 19.2 miles! Not bad...not bad at all. :)  Upon our return, we learned how to change a tire and then did quick recap of everything we learned.

All in all the class was awesome, the instructors were great and the ride was wonderful! I can't wait to hit the trail on my bike now!