Almost comfortable...

I took off on my bike at around 7:30am & headed straight for the base. My first destination was UTSI. Not much traffic on the way out there & a pretty challenging ride as far as hills go. I've only done ONE big hill & that was last weekend. When I left UTSI, I had 10.25 miles in just over an hour. (my excuse: it rained on me the first 6 miles of the ride) It felt weird to feel/hear the rain hitting my helmet, seeing my new bike get wet & dirty for the first time, & I was glad I put on a long sleeve tech shirt. The rain stopped by the time I got to UTSI. I had to dodge a few deer & one squirrel. I headed over to the Mach Tenn course & rode the run course. (riding those hills is just as challenging for me as running them. ugh!)
I had to come to a stop at least twice for about 20 seconds to push the bike off on the hills but I am glad I did those hills. whew!
I kept telling myself to get off the seat, push my butt back, & pump the legs. When I got to the main road that runs through the base, I seemed to pick up some momentum. I kept looking at the mph on my Garmin wondering if it was right. I seem to be hitting anywhere from 12-19 mph on that road. When I got into town I headed towards Harvey's & rode around there. I then headed to DW Wilson. (It's closed so they can finish the renovations) I went down the paved walking trail that goes over to THS. I cut over to find that the band was practicing on the field. I then crossed Jackson & made my way to Anderson Street. I cut over to hwy 55 & headed home for a total of 32 miles in 2:24 exactly. If I had not gone into town, hit a few red lights, & pedaled too slowly in the rain, I feel like I could have done that in 2:15-2:20 easily. Who knows... It was fun & my shoulder never did feel tight or uncomfortable. I almost felt like I could have gone longer actually. I became almost comfortable, like it was more natural, & my fears of getting hit seem to be disappearing somewhat. Don't get me wrong, I was super cautious, especially since I went out alone. I even had my pepper spray attached to where I could easily grab it. :)