I don't know, that's an estimate.. but it was close to that time frame. Felt like it just melted off... of course family and friends decided I was too "skinny"..lol.
Your topic made me reflect back to when I first started riding (July 04). Before then, I hadn't ridden a bike anything close to seriously since high school. I actually bought a decent mountain bike about 12 years ago, but it was stolen within a month ( I have bad luck with that).
Anyway, I started considering getting back into it about a month before and did a little research about what I wanted. Finally went to a local bike shop and made the purchase (04 Allez Comp Double). I'd never ridden clipless before but decided to give it a try. Of course I had to take it for a ride that day....I think I got a total of 6 miles before I felt dead.
I think my speed average on that ride was a whopping 11-12 mph.
That night I remember thinking.. "Why oh why didn't I get a triple??????" It's pretty hilly where I live; the flattest route I take is a loop that has approximately 50ft. of climbing per mile. I remember getting on this forum the first time (wanting to learn everything I could) and being amazed that people talked about riding base miles at 60% MHR. I thought.. HOW???????. At the time, I couldn't climb out of my parking lot at that heart rate..lol.
I rode every day for the first couple of weeks, and got relatively comfortable with 10-15 miles. The "2 week" anniversary of getting the bike fell on a Saturday, and I decided I was going to go on a long ride. I'm thinking.. "I'll just take it slow so I don't get tired". I had a pair of bike shorts already, but I was still wearing a cut up cotton t-shirt. The temperature was around 95 F that day. I didn't take anything at all to eat, but I did carry two bottles of water. At about the 23 mile mark, I started realizing the folly of my decision to ride that far!
I was hungry, getting sun burned, couldn't find a place to buy more water, etc. etc. etc. I finally did find a place to buy water, bought a power bar, and took about a 30 minute break before heading back the other direction.
When I finally got back home, I'd ridden 47 miles at an average of 12.5 mph. That particular route as I later discovered, has right at 5700 ft. of climbing in that 47 miles. I'd been gone a total of 4 hrs. 30 minutes and was almost sick I was so tired..lol. I remember sitting on my couch staring at the tv (not moving) and thinking if that isn't a right of passage, I don't know what is.
Looking back now, it was pretty stupid to take on that ride that early, but it's also a fond memory. As hard as it was then, it felt like a pretty big accomplishment to cover that much ground on two wheels. I doesn't seem like such a big deal now.. but at the time it was.
Too much information I know, but it's fun to look back at the beginning sometimes, especially remembering that I was carrying around an extra 30lbs. then. I remember reading a quote somewhere.. might have been here. One of the more famous racers said it.. maybe Indurain? "Training never gets easier, you just get faster." At the time I thought... "I hope so!!". Thankfully it's proven to be a very true statement.
John