Wed...leaving tomorrow

After 3 days of no formal exercise, I went for a run this morning. Nothing to long or hard. (My battery went dead in my Garmin about 5 minutes into the run so I don't have any time or HR info.) It was about 4 miles. It was nice to do that as I wasn't liking how I was feeling with out the exercise.

Nutrition was pretty good today: with the exception of some trail mix at work and church and a bagel (white bread). I had a cup of spinach (or more) with all three meals. For breakfast it was in my drink (soy milk, crushed almonds, olive oil, apple, spinach, carrots and carob powder). For lunch it was the leafs of my salad (tuna, spinach, mustard, onion, sweet potato, crasins, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and pepper). For dinner it was in my stir fry (onion, sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic, chicken breast, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, spinach and some med-hot home made salsa). As you can see, I like to have spinach, onion and garlic in my daily eating plan.

My wife bought Blue Bell today - but I was good and have been up by myself and not seeked it out. Trying to honor my no eating sweets alone rule (someone else has to know).

My bike arrived this morning in Waxhaw - a day ahead of schedule. That's great knowing that it is there already - I miss riding it. My flight is Thursday evening and Friday is the day for putting bikes back together. It will also be the first time I've meet 4 of the other riders. We've had some email over the last couple months, but it will be our first day of spending time together. We'll have one day to gel before starting the ride on Sat.

I am taking my laptop with me so that I can keep this blog updated with info from the trip: that's assuming that we'll have wireless access at our nightly stooping places.

There were more encouraging events today from individuals and families: from online support given, personal encouragement, commitments of prayer and even a mini-sending off time tonight at church.

The photos are showing my previous helmet and my new helmet. I'm excited to try out the new one as it has vastly improved vents in both size and quantity. The other one was actually quite old and purchased from a thrift store - so there was some concern about it's ability to preform it's main task: protect my head. So, now there's one less concern for my wife.

As you can see in the last photo, I got my hair shaved close for the ride (#3 attachment). So with the new helmet and short hair - I'm expecting some 'good' cooling. I've also been instructed that I will need to be putting sun screen on my head as my helmet isn't giving me protection and neither is my short hair. So, I'm taking SPF 70: spray on; two bottles. And if I run out I'll buy more in route. I also use it regularly on my arms, neck, ears and face.

Tomorrow will be a full day ... and it has already started 15 minutes ago...