Finially A Bike Ride

[Photo: Ahhhh ... snow. No snow here now, but 5 months ago it was Amazing!! Now it's just hot; with 'hot' forcasted for the next several months...]

June 4th was my last ride - prior to this past Sunday morning. Sunday morning I was able to get out and rode 26.26 miles according to my GPS. Nothing spectacular, but that wasn't the purpose .. instead it was being drawn to ride again! I've missed it.

Every time I take my bike off the rack, I am thankful for it. It's a great bike that rides super and with regular care it performs like a champ. Certainly I am the limiting factor ...!

I rode the bridge Time Trial, but forgot to stop at the end, so I think my numbers were just over 30 mph avg for the 1/2 mile and max HR of 177. For the whole ride it was avg 18.5 mph, max 45.7 and avg HR of 148.

There were other cyclists out and I was able to ride up and chat briefly before continuing on. I'm looking forward to this Sunday's ride already. I'd like to leave a little earlier so I can ride for more than 85 minutes. I've mostly been running and working; the weights and cycling have fallen away due to priorities and time.

Training wise: I'm having a hard time pushing myself to the higher training heart rates. In the past when I was cycling focused I'd get my intervals in on the bike. Recently I've been running intervals on the track .. but I'm not seeing the numbers that I was last year. Working those higher numbers is more uncomfortable ... , but I need to get that mental desire back to the point where I can push through those discomfort barriers. We'll see.

Don't forget to get your rest, and try to lay off the Blue Bell (I'm talking to myself here).

Two Full Photos...

Here are the two full size photos (not just the zoomed in portion as in the last blog entry). One is a hard candy on a cup-cake (something I don't like to eat) and the second is the word "Game" on an old TV (you can see the RGB rectangles with their analog intensity values..).

:-)

Two New Mystery Photos

Ahhhh ... a few minutes to enjoy my camera again ... nice!!

So, lets see if anyone knows what either of these two 'macro' shots are. Both these shots were inspired by my kids; one by my daughter by accident and the other by my youngest son. I'm still pleased with the quality of this Cannon A710 IS Macro lense! It takes GREAT macro shots.

So, be brave, any guesses...??

New blood...

My wife has (had) never given blood before .. well before today that is! :-)

I had mentioned it in the past: as something we can do together; and she doesn't know her blood type, so we could find that out and her cholesterol level too. So, today we went and did that together as one of our errands. It was Good!

It being the 4th of July weekend - it's probably a good time to make extra blood available. And we have these neat Carter Blood Red White and Blue T-Shirts that match that we can wear together: and are planning too at the 4th of July party we are planning on going to. (It's kind of fun, even if it's a little corny, to wear the same shirts; for us it's good for our marriage and relationship - and that important; so we do things like that together.)

I will throw out a plug for those that haven't given before or haven't done so recently: giving blood is a great thing to do. To have a body that has good blood, and can surrender a unit of it for someone else that may not have good blood or needs it - it's a pretty unselfish and thankful thing to do. So, please consider giving blood sometime soon this Holiday weekend: Your blood may save the life of another person!

Exercise:
It's been a looooong time since my last update. Life has been very full do to work and schedule changes. I've not been able to ride much, but have been running a moderate amount: an interval at the track once a week; another moderate run; and a 7 mi run on the weekend (for fun and enjoyment). I've not been doing weights due to my schedule change, but am still trying to do pull ups (able to do 1 set of 10 reps and then need assistance on following sets). I have been doing some cross-fit type of workouts though - and they've been good.

Hydration:
With the warm months I've been trying to stay hydrated and have noticed my body water content is up from what it used to be. This is a good thing I think as water is so vital to a well functioning body. (I have a scale that gives weight, fat% and water% - based on some entered body information. The absolute number may be off, but the change is what I'm watching; and my change in water is about 2% up from my previous normals.)

[Photos: my wife and I with our shared 'blue' post donation wraps, one of my greetings to my wife..., a nice sunrise this week.]