Evening short ride

Yesterday morning started with lightning and tornado alarms and intense rain ... not riding weather!

But, it is amazing how quickly the ground soaks in the water and most of the puddles were gone from the streets my mid morning and by evening - it was good riding weather. So I was able to ride to the dam and do a lap and a half and then back home. I managed about 5 intervals on one trip across; one trip was a sustained effort; one of the half trips was extended time of high cadence (105-115); the remaining half lap was just riding with a small burst at the end; lastly was good effort up Mtn Creek (2:05). [Details: 18.1 miles, 1:01:11, 17.7 mph avg, (1358 calories), avg HR 142, max HR 179.]

My bike is in need of a through cleaning as it's making some pedaling noises. I am hoping to have some time this evening in the garage to take it apart and clean it well. Tomorrow, fast Dave is heading over in the morning and will be riding my route with me. (Here's my blog entry when I rode with him several weeks back: Sat Dave's route.) We both mostly train alone, so it's nice to ride together when we can. My route is a bit different from his (no bleach - pepper juice required), so I think he'll find it a 'good' ride. :-)

Life continues to be full. Just getting in 3 rides a week has been difficult - but is the minimum to even maintain my fitness in hopes of the sub 5 hr century in ~9 weeks.

Nutrition I've been doing well with not eating chocolate and ice cream. I have allowed some Sherbet though - which is lower in fat. Other than that I've been doing pretty well.

We still have a computer at the house that won't connect to the Internet. With 6 people wanting time and sharing one computer is tough when the other is just sitting right there. So, I'm working on that ... as I can. (More of the 'life is full' theme...)

Praying for no rain

Sometimes I wrestle with praying for weather that is amiable to riding when I have a ride planned - that's how it was today. Not getting to ride on Monday, I really wanted to ride with the Tuesday night group. And ... my thanks to God again for holding back the rain in my area and getting to do the ride.

For tonights ride I tried a different routine for hydration and energy: I only drank water (and took my last sip in my front yard after I was done) and I took a Chocolate Chip Clif Bar (which I broke up and ate portions as the ride progressed). I think it worked much better as I was still tired physically, but not at zero. I will continue to work on this and will try the Cliff Shots on Saturdays ride - again with only water though, and a 'gu' too.

The ride was good and hard as is what I expect of these rides and it's why I like them. I was late tonight getting to the starting point and they were just a tad ahead of me, so I had a little catch up and then settled in to the back of the pack (12 riders). We did the normal route which is Tx Plume twice and then Valley View Lane twice and then back. [The photo is of the ride. Laps 1-4 are getting to the starting point of the group ride. Lap 6 and lap 8 are for Tx Plume. Unfortunately lap 7 includes the whole last hour of the ride: Valley View twice, down Tx Plume and most of the back. Lap 10 is the little time trial (where my legs were to tired to push hard - but my lungs and heart felt ready, just no legs). Laps 11-14 are the trip back home.] Notable numbers are a Max HR of 183 with lots of time in the 170's. The avg speed for the group ride was 19.6.

Today was a day that started with 'looking like the fool': I did two things; sent an email to an individual that was actually a list email so a very large number of people saw my msg saying I was going to be in late and why ... :-(  Lastly I commented on a comment on someone else's facebook that I thought was serious, but it was just a joke ... showing my age by thinking people are meaning what they say ... So my day started with some good humble pie.  :-)

Please pray

Please pray for my friend Rob who is having surgery this morning to remove the racquetball sized meningioma that is positioned over his sinuses and centered between the halves of his brain. The following comment is what he said to answer the question: What is a meningioma?

"The MRI of my brain was very educational this week. I learned the following things about meningiomas:

- They are NOT brain tumors, but rather tumors that grow from the meninges of the brain. The meninges cover the brain in a protective wrapping.

- They are benign and are very slow growing. As such, they can grow quite large before they are detected. Mine is considered on the large side, and only detected due to losing the sense of smell and some visual problems combined.

- If small they can be treated by radiation. But mine is large enough and still growing such that it needs to be surgically removed.

- In my case, the tumor is about the size of a racquetball and positioned over sinuses and centered between halves of the brain.

My surgery to remove the tumor is scheduled for Tuesday morning, July 28. If all goes well I may be discharged to come home in just a few days, perhaps Friday or Saturday. Our prayer is that it all goes well and my recovery would be uneventful and complete."

The rain is nice, but...

I guess given the choice of riding or having rain ... I'd choose the rain. I didn't ride today (Monday) in part due to choosing to sleep, but had I gotten up, the rain would have stopped me. I do have my trainer, so I can ride in doors, but I just haven't gotten to the place where I'm ready to do that again. So, for now I will just miss a couple rides. Today was supposed to be intervals.

Tomorrow is the group ride. If it gets rained out, then I'll likely ride on the trainer instead as that will be two days in a row and my harder days.

Last week I got 4 rides in. The Sat ride was my regular with the addition of the Valley View Lane loop - which I think I'm going to keep as it has some hard parts and some fun faster parts too.

Health wise eating is going OK. I'm just starting to get a little tired of my normal meals. So, after about 5 weeks of very similar eating - it's starting to not sound so appealing. I guess it's time to expand my menu. Not sure what yet, but I'm thinking about it...

We went by Sun & Ski Sports this evening with the family after dinner - kids eat free at Spaghetti Warehouse on Monday nights. It's a fun store to shop in as they have a pretty good selection of higher end sporting goods and knowledgeable staff:

- I was able to buy some bearing for my wife's skates.

- I was also able to ask the guy in the bike section what he does for nutrition and hydration on long or hard rides over a couple hours. 

They sell many different brands of 'gu' and related products. I bought a few different ones to try: a GU, a CLIF Shot and a CLIF Shot Bloks. I already have some Clif bars. His routine included the caffeinated stuff for half of them and I'm going to try the ones with out caffeine as my starting point. He also only drinks water as the Gatorade type drinks up set his stomach, as they do mine too. So, it was nice to get some info from someone else in addition to what's available on line.

- My two youngest enjoyed some 'hide-n-seek' time ... 

- I also bought a single bike tire to have on hand as they had them on sale (I've been riding Continental Grand Prix 4000 s tires and have been very pleased with them).

My third Garmin Forerunner 305 came last week (2nd replacement as my units have come unglued) and I was able to use it on my Saturday ride. Nothing to significant to report. The one notable was the part of the return trip where I will often give maximum effort: there was a wind from the south, so my max was just under 36 and the avg was 32. But the neat thing for me was seeing my HR at 185 at the end. I've not seen 186 or higher since before my heart problems, so I in a split second decided to keep riding and see if I couldn't get my HR up just one more beat. I rode for about 10 seconds longer and finally had to back off - never saw that next rate, but it was neat to push for an extended time 10+ seconds at my max HR. I'm thinking I'll probably see it sometime in the next few weeks of training and preparation for the Waco ride.  :-) (That's kind of fun for me to think about.)

Life continues to be full and just making time for blogging these days is challenging. Which is why I've not been as regular in my postings. I will try to be responsive to comments though - so please leave your thoughts, comments, questions or statements .. :-)

Day 2: hard enough to throw up...

Barriers ... that we have to push through to accomplish challenging goals; they are many. It's only my second day of focused training and a couple barriers were crossed: those were pushing on when everything in you wants to slowdown, going on slowly when everything wants to stop and pushing yourself so hard that you physically get sick (not just feel bad but actually throw up).

This day started with me getting up and getting ready to do an easy recovery ride this morning. I checked the continuous radar channel on the TV and it looked clear. As I was just heading out the door I heard rain and saw lightning. So, that scrubbed the morning ride. At some point I do need to start riding in the rain, but I'm not there yet.

Breakfast was my normal oatmeal+ (millet, whole oats, flax seed, olive oil, crasins, blue berries, real maple syrup and soy milk). Lunch was also a normal meal, of spicy chicken (chicken breasts, cubed, with cyan pepper, garlic powder, black pepper, fresh roasted garlic and olive oil) and vegetables (onion, red and green peppers, yellow squash, sweet potato, carrot, spinach, fresh garlic, a little cilantro and mustard) and a little basmati rice (with some Bragg's sauce). Dinner, well that is after the hard Tuesday ride...

The rain stopped by mid morning, so by the time early evening came the roads were dry and just a few puddles remained in shady spots. It had been two weeks since I last rode this ride, and those weeks were light riding weeks, so I figured it would be an extra hard ride this week: I was not disappointed. 

The ride: It was the normal route from the dam out to Lake Ridge (this is kind of the warm up leg as we all ride together) with the wind to our back it was 18-24 mph. Once we turn on Lake Ridge, then that is where things pick up. It's faster riding until we hit Texas Plume and then things really separate (it took me 4:51 on the first trip up and 10:00 to do the loop and the second climb (less than 5 minutes is a good time for me up this road)). From the top we go down the service road and back around to Texas Plume and up again. Then it's back on Lake Ridge to S. Lakeview Dr and up Valley View Dr (this is the longer harder hill). We go up and then in the neighborhood make a circle and come back down it. The up it the last time and from there on the service road until Tx Plume down to Lake Ridge and then back to the lake. Sounds not so bad. But, it's not done at a leisurely pace. This is the first barrier that is always crashed through on these group rides: pushing myself to sustain an effort that is beyond my normal limits.

Every time I do this ride I am pushed. I have yet to have my HRM with me, but had I I'm sure the numbers would be very interesting to see. By the time I had finished the second trip up Valley View I was pretty much spent. (There is a hill back there that the other riders call the 'Wall'. and that is what it is like. It's not to long, but I'm in my lowest gear [39-27], out of the saddle and pumping each stroke to keep forward movement. It's at the end and it's tough! The photo doesn't do it justice - it's one that has to be experienced to be appreciated.) By this time I was with two other riders: Tom and Brent and they were nice enough to 'pull' me back the rest of the way. Even with them leading I was having a difficult time hanging on and not getting dropped. This was another barrier: mentally and physically wanting to slowdown, but having very short minute goals to keep up the effort.

Once we got back to the lake, I thanked the guys for pulling me back and headed off for the 8 mile trip home. This is where I was seriously thinking of calling my favorite SAG (support and gear) - my wife, for a pick-up. But another barrier is to finish - even if I have to slow down, there is value in pushing through and finishing for future rides to anchor on this experience of finishing. So, back across the dam it was pretty leisurely 12-15 mph, I was even passed by two recreational riders - but that didn't bother me, I was on a different mission: not speed, but just finishing; no pride left here it was all about continuing on - even that pace was a struggle. At this point I was thinking about a fruit/vegetable/protein smoothie that I was going to have for dinner when I got home. Mmmmm I was looking forward to getting home.

Numbers: ttl ride time 2:49:48, 40.3 mph max, 17.1 avg (that's 8 miles warm up (18.3 avg) and 8 miles cool down and 30.5 miles on the group ride (18.8 avg)). 

The final barrier was getting sick after eating 40 oz of smoothie (apple, carrot, orange, sweet potato, squash, spinach, straw berries, blue berries, whey protein, water and ice). I was very spent physically, and that smoothie just didn't settle well. It took about 40 minutes of lying around before I threw up. So, I ended up not eating any dinner. I was able to get a little ginger ale a few hrs later and then some water in the middle of the night. I slept on the couch that night just to make sure I didn't disturb my wife. I feel fine now, other than being very hungry. According to the scale my weight is ~10 lbs less than what it was a couple days ago. That could partly be due to the BM's and all the fiber and veggies I've been eating, and in part to the hard work out, the missed meal and some partial dehydration. None the less, I think I'm going to eat something substantial this morning. Just not sure what yet.

Conclusion: the ride yesterday had several challenges that effected me physically and mentally. I think it was a successful ride in that I have some points to hold onto in the future when I feel similarly. I also had a little interaction with Tom and Brent - my friendly tow trucks.  :-)  

Day 1 of a 10 week Goal

Today started with the alarm at 6:06; well actually I woke up at 6:05 and got up and turned the alarm off before it went off so as to not disturb my sleeping wife. My bike was already in the Kitchen so I don't wake anyone up walking it down the hall. Then it's just a matter of getting dressed, making a water bottle, packing my phone and camera (just in case), airing up my tires (120 psi) and heading outside to put my socks and shoes on.

Exercise: the ride this morning was ~13 minutes of warm up, ~20 minutes of intervals and then back home with short - moderate hills: 14.9 miles total, max speed 46.2 (down hill), avg speed 18.4, time 48:30. Once I got to the dam I did maximum effort sprints every 2 minutes for about 30 seconds in duration and then recovered for 90: that was done 5 times on the 4 miles across. One the way back it was 60 seconds of 100 cadence with 60 seconds recovery and did 6 of those. The rest of the trip back was moderate effort up the hills and on the flats. I saw two friends, that I don't see anywhere but at the dam now: he was running on the way out and was done when I was done, so we were able to talk briefly. That's always nice to visit with someone you don't see very often. 

As for nutrition: I'd say today was about an 8. 

Breakfast after the ride (and getting the recycle and trash out, cleaning the counter, getting rid of the ants that came in during the night and washing the Vita-mix) consisted of a smoothie: orange, apple, carrot, spinach, blue berries, strawberries, yellow squash, millet, flax seed, soy milk, whey protein, sweet potato and ice. I made enough to share so my wife had some too (a small glass and I had a large glass before getting ready and took the rest with me for a mid morning snack). I also had some Apple Cider Vinegar in water.

Lunch was a stir fry: onion, squash, sweet potato, red and green bell pepper, garlic, basmati rice, chicken breast (cubed with cyan pepper, olive oil, black pepper and garlic powder), spinach, mustard, more garlic and a little natural soy sauce. It was tasty! (I ate to much - even though it was sound, portions are an area that I need to cut back on.) After lunch I took a cup with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and some nesquick with me (not nutritious).

Dinner was a salad: albacore with mustard, cyan, olive oil, black pepper, spinach, onion, carrot, red and green bell peppers, yellow squash, black beans, crasins, crushed almonds and sweet potato. My wife cooked some chicken enchiladas but had a small amount of my salad instead. I also had a couple bites of the enchiladas too. Then I brushed my teeth around 7; which for me is a reminder that my mouth is closed for business for the rest of the evening. That was good.

So I think it was a good start today. Tomorrow will likely look very much like today nutritionally. Exercise wise I'll do an easier recovery ride in the morning and will plan on doing the fast hard group ride in the evening. My legs are just a little tired from this mornings ride - so that's nice. My stomach is a little off, but not in a bad way. It's probably the garlic. I normally eat a fair bit, but I've had A LOT today of raw and lightly cooked.

I said it is day 1 of 10 weeks: by that I mean there are 10 weeks until the Waco century that I'd like to ride in and try for a time of under 5 hours. So it was a good start towards that goal. I'm not starting at ground zero, but I'm also not at a place where I could accomplish the goal given a chance right now. So, I need to be wise in the time to prepare. It should be fun!  : )

Sun Night...

Wow, here it is Sunday night already - and after 9 PM. With out a posting for 5 days - much has happened; but then this isn't a blog on my life as a whole but on the nutrition and exercise parts.

Last week was a low week for exercise with only three rides and only one over an hour; that was the Saturday ride. It was 46 miles, 2:29, 18.4 avg. The other rides were 10 miles on Tu and 17 on Wed - both with others so they had more relational value - which is something I don't get a lot of so I am thankful for it when I can get it.  

This week I'm planning on adding in a little more discipline that has escaped me these last several weeks. I'm setting the alarm again and am planning on riding in the mornings (unless it's raining) even if it's only for an hour. I do have one last goal on the bike that I'd like to accomplish this fall if possible: that's to ride 100 miles in under 5 hrs. [My friend Ed got his sub-5 hr 100 mile ride in on Sat! Way to go Ed!! Ed is a fellow ferret and it was great to ride with him in May on the 6 day ride.] To do that I'm going to have to start training harder again and work on getting my strength and speed up. I expect this week will be a week of training by myself with the exception of the fast hill group ride on Tuesday evening. 

Nutrition wise: I think I'm due for some detoxing. Why you may ask; or how do I know? First - I can feel it; second - I can smell it; third - I can see it! I will just elaborate briefly on the second one: my body sweats as it has done and is supposed to do to cool itself down. This is good and desirable. The difference is that in the past - I wouldn't stink; I'd just sweat. I noticed today - that my sweat stinks. For me that is an indicator that I need to do some detoxing. It's also been quite a while since I've detoxed - so I'm sure I'm due. 

So in preparations for that I will be eating spinach salads for my evening meals and fruit / veggie smoothies for breakfast. That and the daily exercise should be a good start. Then I will add some juice days the following week if needed. (Juicing has the benefit of letting your digestive tract rest and that energy can be used elsewhere. It's something I did regularly last year and due to the training of earlier this year haven't done much of.) My wife wants to join me, but I don't think she's ready for a juice fast for 3-5 days. Instead we'll use the Vita-mix in the mornings and salads in the eventing and escalate after a week if needed. (Hopefully by the end of the week I will sweat with out stinking - which is what has been normal for me.)

[Photos: someone else at the lake having fun as I rode across the dam on Saturday; the clouds at the start of my sat ride; working on 'our' boat - hoping to enjoy the lake some time soon too.]

 

Wed - high lights

This day is almost over, but I'll give 5 minutes (OK, 15 by the time I'm done) for a short reflection on it:
-5:30 wake up to be out the door by 6 to ride with C. We haven't ridden together for months, so having an hour together - some riding, some chatting - is nice.
- 7:00 back home fixing breakfast for my wife and I - oatmeal+ and some potatoes+.
- clean up, eating, etc...
- called Garmin to talk to a customer support person - explained my situation with my second unglued 305 device. He gave me a rma# and will send me another refurbished unit as a replacement. That's better than having a non-functioning unit or sending $80 for another one
- in to work
- 12:00 short meeting at Living Choice, home for lunch, salad, mailing device back to Garmin, heading to Grandmas assisted living home
- 2:00 visited with Grandma and a half dozen other elder ladies (as Grandma was out waiting in the area for bingo to start with the other ladies) - it was a high light of my day. One lady in particular was telling of her memories as a child; the Model-T that they had, her father heating bricks and putting them in the car so it wouldn't be so cold, the old local newspaper, living on a dirt road that was deep mud in the rain and they couldn't go anywhere, the tree by her window that got struck by lightning, ... so many stories... I wish I could have had the whole afternoon to just listen and recorded her stories! It was very neat to hear her share about her life as a child.
- back to work
- 5:45 quick dinner and off to youth
- 2+ hours working on the computer after getting home as ZoneAlarm seems to have gone awry and made it so one of the computers can't get on the Internet
- Now: day's almost over and a quick update. 18+ hrs spent today awake and doing various things: some planned and some not.

It was a moderate stress level today; certainly full; nice to get some exercise; good nutritionally (except for this bag of chocolate chips before me that was an attempt to sooth the stress due to this computer problem); family stresses were med-hi; God gave grace and joy - my family may like God to give a little more, but that would be a problem with the receiver not the sender ... :-)

Tue

"There were four things in there that I don't eat.." - was what I heard after riding and fixing a recovery smoothie for D.D. It had two kinds of apples, carrot, sweet potato, beet, flax seed, almond, spinach, whey protein, soy milk, crasins, blue berries, straw berries and ice.

"That's more vegetables than I've eaten in two weeks." - was what I heard as I fixed lunch for and had lunch with B.S. One fork full had Spinach, sweet potato, crasin, two types of onion, carrot, garlic, two types of bell pepper and chicken! :-) My kind of a lunch.

It's nice to hear things like this when I'm sharing meals with others.

Not feeling well

No exercise today .. and not much nutrition either after oatmeal in the morning. I spent most of the afternoon lying down. My stomach / intestines are still a little off, but I've been able to sit up and even stand for a bit this evening, so I'm hoping for a 'normal' feeling in the morning.

My lunch / dinner today was Saltines and some electrolyte drink. I'm trying to eat some of a frozen fruit/veg smoothie now, but that's not working so well. I'm heading to lie down some more...

Cow, slurpee...ride

Friday we (J., H. and I) put on cow spots and headed to Chick-fil-A for a free entree. Once a year you can dress up like a cow and go for a free entree or meal. This year they required cow ears, nose, tail and spots from head to toe for the full meal. None the less - it was still nice to get a chicken sandwich and the kids got chicken nuggets and chicken tenders.

Saturday: my wife and youngest daughter came home from camp. It was nice to have them home again. It was July 11th, 7/11 ... go to Seven Eleven and you get a 7.11 oz slurpee for free. So, no dress up required and we headed there Saturday evening with a car full. We were trying the various flavors and then hanging out in the parking lot drinking them - to save a spill in "Mom's" car. We found out that our granddaughter doesn't care for them! :-)

I was able to get out for a ride Sat morning: 46 miles, 2:24:16 ride time, 2:28 ttl time, avg speed 19.1 mph, (TT over bridge 30.5, 1:02, .52 miles). It was a good ride. I rode with the avg speed visible which helped me push a little more than normal when I ride by myself. I'd like to see the avg on that route get up to 20 - but that is just a goal or hope at this point.

No real goals other than the Waco century ride in Sept - with the hope of some training before it and trying for a 5 hr or less ride (avg 20+ mph). I've never done that before and it would be fun to try to do.

pepper corn, napkin, peanut, cheerio

The last photos were close ups of:
1 - a pepper corn
2 - a portion of a Subway napkin
3 - a peanut shell
4 - a Honey-Nut Cheerio

Family first...

Today was a day with no time for exercise as another child falls victim to the 24 hr stomach flu thing that is going through my family: 3 survivors and 3 have escaped so far.

As I was home, with fresh batteries in my handy-dandy Cannon PowerShot A710IS and plenty of free space on my 8 GB SD card ... my youngest and I started looking for a few mystery photos.

There are 4 different objects pictured below. Any guesses?

(Here are the answers...)



First object.

Second object.


Third object, first picture.

Third object, second picture.

Fourth object 1st picture.

Fourth object 2nd picture.

Fourth object 3rd picture.

Tuesday Fast Group ride

This evening was my 3rd ride with the fast group. And it was the third time I came home exhausted! It's a workout that I just cant seem to motivate myself to have with out the others pushing me.

The ride in a nut shell: we start out and ride over the lake for a few miles to where the hills start, that first part is kind of the warm up (18-22 mph in a group of 20+ riders). Once the hills start, that's when everyone puts the hammer down. That's when I just hold on and try not to get dropped off the lead group (those first 40 minutes are brutal). Much of the group will split after 30-60 minutes. From then on it's kind of like a race or a group ride that you have to keep up or get dropped. Tonight the group ride lasted about 1:45. Making friends is going to be slow as the talking is very minimal with most people sucking for air...

The trips up Valley View are long enough to require me to work and recover at the same time. If I had HR data I'm certain that I'd be seeing higher numbers than I've seen before - so I'm sure I'm getting a good Heart work out. And on the return part by myself after the meeting point - I feel recovered in my heart but my legs are spent and it's a slow ride back. Much like if I were an old horse heading back to the barn after a hard ride.

It was tough - and good. I'm always glad to have done them and hope to continue doing them as they are my hardest ride of the week.

After getting home I made a fruit smoothie - as I was thinking about it for the last couple miles of the return trip .. longing to be done and eating something to help me recover. [This is a part of the mystry photo from the previous entry. One of the many neat pretty flowers on my porch.]

Another mystry Photo - Exposed

These were the guesses on Facebook:
-Is it a Lemon or some kind of Citrus Fruit?
-looks like a colonoscopy pic to me, just wrong color!
-Looking down the center of some kind of flower?
-It's gotta be food.

And the winner is ... Stephanie: "Looking down the center of some kind of flower?"

We have lots of these in the planter on the porch. They're kind of small (the whole flower is only an inch and a half in size), but very pretty.



=============================================================
Below is another mystery photo. It is part of a larger picture which I will post after a few have guessed. As is the case with my photos - it was taken by me and has not been modified.



Yes, I know this is a place for health and nutrition ... but I'm in a period right now where it's difficult to give the time I'd like to exercising. Hopefully tonight will be another ride with the 'fast' group - but we'll see how the day progresses. (Right now I'm home with a sick kid - thankfully resting on the couch now.)



I am learning (and have known) that I enjoy photography and the capturing of neat shots since I was a high schooler - so taking photos is a nice second when I can't exercise.



So what do you think this is?

the Fourth of July

As has become the tradition - it was a very nice time at the Fourth of July party at Carlin's. I spent a fair bit of time running my grill cooking food - which is something that I enjoy.

We live in a Great country with a rich history and an uncertain future. I know several in the military and even some fine young men who are in the pipeline. They still believe in this country and the freedoms that we enjoy and sometimes take for granted; even willing to serve us at the risk of the loss of their life.

I hope we can survive the consequences of choices being made by us as a nation. Choices that make us behave as a nation that no longer wants to be under God. As for me - I thank God for the many fine men and women who have contributed to the Greatness and Significance of this Wonderful Country and for the younger ones who 'will' be contributing. May God continue to Bless America as we continue to be under Him.

Sat: Daves route...

This morning was an early start: leaving the house just after 6 AM to get to Dave's by 6:30. We rode about 44.7 miles on farm and country roads. It was much less traffic than I normally deal with.



The proof of this is: I ride with twin blinky lights so I can be seen by the cars passing me. Dave usually rides with a spray bottle of bleach and jalapeno juice to deter fast hungry dogs. Now I've been chased by dogs and it is my least favorite thing - way to stress full. I've changed my route on rides when up a head there is an animal charging already in the street with a deep "Woooffhh" as it charges my direction in almost a long distance game of Chicken - of which I am and will usually turn around and head the other way. I've meet too many cyclists that have tangled with dogs and gone down and end up with broken collar bones or road rash as a minimum. Thankfully there were no dogs today - usually there are two on the route we did.


We didn't try to kill ourselves with a fast pace, but rather enjoyed the ride and talked most of the time. We stopped at the glider airport but it was too early for activity there. With the winds as they were, I'm sure it will busy there later. I'd like to go back there and maybe investigate getting my soaring licence (something I've wanted to do since I was a kid watching them in the summer in Hemet CA.) Who knows...?! :-)


Later today will be the local fireworks show after a big BBQ and social time. I'll post some of my favorite fire works shots tomorrow.

" 'Orange' air pollution watch - unhealthy air"

Friday - today started with taking my son and his friend to the airport so they could fly to DC for a leadership conference. It wasn't too early, but early enough that I didn't plan any exercise in the morning, but rather a little more sleep.

On the way back I noticed the traffic announcement signs were showing the air quality and was surprised to see "unhealthy air" as part of their text. Today ended up being a good day of chores around the house: cleaned up and put my YZ 250 on CraigsList, made a bracket for the bathroom, worked on my son's bike, took my daughter to a sporting goods store, took a box of books to 1/2 price...$9.50 .. woo hoo, dishes, meals, estate sale with my wife, short family bike ride in the evening, and that's all I can remember. It was a nice day - even though I'm grumpy for some reason that escapes me.


Photos of my motorcycle for craigslist.


Today's smog level or air quality was 'Orange'...

Just in case you didn't know what level 'Orange' meant - it mean 'unhealthy air'.

My son and his friend in the security line at the airport - the start of a Great Adventure!

A slide show of the YZ photos (just trying this out).

Th: Short morning ride

With Monday being a hard run and Tuesday evening a hard ride - Wednesday was a rest day and Thursday was to be intervals at the dam ... supposed to be.

But, my legs were still a bit achy and my motivation was not able to push me very hard. So, it was and 'active recovery day'. About 14 miles with just a few pushes and the rest just keeping the cadence up.

No HR data as my devices are still on the blink. No new word from Garmin. As I've been thinking about the location where the unit came apart, I'm thinking it could be due to the mount that I have on my bike putting to much stress on the case when I crank the strap down. I need to send a final email and see what they're finial position is - if it's any different from what they've already communicated. So for now I am getting used to training with out HR data.


A mirror reflecting into a mirror in the bath room.


It was nice on the dam on Th morning: the wind was light and there were just a few others there.

View of the TT bridge from the dam.

Full Mystery photo

Here is the complete photo with the mystery photo(s) in the rectangles.

What is it? This is a photo of one of my oatmeal breakfasts: oats, flax seed, millet, olive oil, maple syrup and soy milk.

But, the star on the blue berry was and still is quite amazing.

Thought: take the extra time to 'see' what you are looking at.

[Good job Marlin for guessing it was a blue berry in milk.]