June rides, summer begins

[north woods gal]

Covered up with as much make-up as I could stand (I rarely use, any, now) and gave it a try for our breakfast outing. I did fine. Only people who commented were people that knew me, anyway.

Must be a bad week for wipe-outs. A neighbor saw me walking on the road this morning and asked me what happened, of course. He then told me about a young gal who was pumping hard on a tri bike, going the other way on one of our neighborhood roads, when he passed her in his truck, just this week. She was heading down a long hill at high speed. At the bottom of the hill, the county is in the process of putting in a new culvert. It is marked with a caution sign. For now, it's just covered with rough gravel and yet to be paved over. I know the spot. Rode over it a couple of times just before my accident.

The gal apparently knew the hazard, too, but remembered it too late. She jammed on both brakes and went too heavy on the front. Yup, did a nasty endo. My neighbor saw it all in his rear view mirror. He reversed, quickly, and gave her first aid. He said her face now looks like mine, but she got beat up in a lot of other places, too. Nothing broke, though. Called an ambulance and that's the last he heard of her. She's in my thoughts, whoever she is. As we all know, accidents happen with any kind of biking. Please be careful, everyone.

As for me, I almost made it to 2.5 miles on my walk, today (which I now call my substitute bicycling ). Hit 2.2 and called it good. Our neighborhood roads are all up and down, so very pleased. Very hot and humid, though. Bugs were bad and that was out on the road. Can't imagine how bad they would have been on my trails. Those are still too wet and slick for safe walking.

[Crankin]

I bet going out for breakfast was worth putting on the concealer! You are lucky your DH is also retired, so you have someone to talk to while you are recuperating.
Our flight was uneventful, but I read the whole flight, which woke me up a bit and then I could not fall asleep, despite being exhausted. It seemed like I fell asleep pretty close to dawn and woke up at 8:00. Couldn't get myself out to ride while it was still cool, though. I finally went out around noon and did a little 9 mile ride. Being it was 90 degrees and getting humid, I was surprised I could move at all. But, I achieved my goal of making myself feel better and more awake. My back, hip, and groin are screaming, though, because of all the walking, no foam roller and little stretching. I seriously need to get myself in better shape, as I am seeing changes in my body I do not like. It's not so much weight, though I could lose a couple of pounds, but rather gained inches in my hips, and some not so toned/muscular skin on my arms, abs, and back. It's not horrible, but if I don't do something now, I will pay. So, I told my DH I wanted a few months of personal training for my 65th birthday, which is in November. My instructor of my class is having a baby in August, so when she comes back, would be a good time to start. She gave up her business career to do full time training and teaching, and I trust her.

[north woods gal]

You're probably suffering from some jet lag, on top of everything else, Crankin. I really, really hate flying. It takes me several days to get back on track. Staying in shape for me is now a never ending battle. I'm in my 60s, too, and it does take longer to fight back and get in shape. I feel your pain. That's why being sidelined from biking biking, right now, has me a little nervous. Can't stand exercise for exercise sake, but the biking really isn't exercise for me. Just something I'd still do even if it wasn't good exercise. I'll figure out something, even if it's just vigorous walking. Only need something temporary till I can get back on the bike.

[Crankin]

I don't usually get jet lag from just a one hour difference in time, though I suffer terribly when flying to California or Europe.
I got into bed at 7:45, and again, despite complete exhaustion, I didn't fall asleep for a long time. My alarm woke me at 4:50, the normal time I get up for my boot camp class. I did go, but I did not ride there. I could have slept another 3 hours. Thankfully, the class was more weights/strength today, because cardio stuff may have killed me. The 3 sets of burpees almost did.
I am going to rest tomorrow and I have a 35 mile ride on Wednesday.

[emily_in_nc]

We had been planning to ride today but didn't end up doing so. We're still at my mom's in NC, not great cycling, but the reason for not going today was that my DH had several lesions taken off at his dermatologist a few days ago, and he still has scabs and sensitive spots on his nose (2). He didn't want to risk the sun, even with sunscreen. Secretly, I didn't mind, as it is so hot and humid right now, and by the time we could have had breakfast, gotten ready, driven to Mom's, and gotten our bikes out and hit the road, it would have been 10 am. That's just too late to ride in this heat and full sunshine. In Florida, though it's hot and humid as well, there is a lot more shade where we ride, and more clouds in the sky too. The roads we have to ride on around Mom's have zero shade, as they are newer neighborhoods with smaller trees.

So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We have so much to do here in the couple days before we start out on the road back to Florida on Thursday morning, that it looks like we won't get another ride in while we're here. So, a rather long hiatus as by the time we get to ride again, it will be two full weeks without riding. By then I'm hoping I'll be missing cycling so much that the heat and humidity won't sap my motivation!

NWG, that gal's crash (endo) sounds like mine (other than the reason for endo'ing). She is very lucky if she just got banged up but didn't break any bones -- or teeth. I hope she'll be okay. Glad you were able to get out and enjoy yourself a bit!

[north woods gal]

Looks like we're all in the same boat as far as doing what we can with the weather we have. Our recent heavy rains have pushed our lake level as high as I've ever seen it. My trails are still walkable, but lots of washouts and tree limbs, down. That will just have to wait, though, for any repair. For now, I'm content to just walk every day around the neighborhood out on the roads. Yeah, old trail warrior me is now very glad to have nice roads to walk and, eventually, bike, too. One thing in my favor is that I've never balked at riding my trail bikes, even my fat bikes, out on the road. Who says a road bike has to have skinny tires?

Been a crazy first month of summer, for sure.

[Crankin]

Well, I finally made it to the group ride, but I had to force myself! I rode to the start, 3.7 miles and off we went. This group uses human arrowing, so I volunteered at the third turn, unfortunately, right before 2 climbs, so I was playing catch up for awhile, as we had one really slow person with the sweep, and I had to wait. Thankfully, he stopped at the top of the second climb. Since we were still in Acton, I had to keep forcing myself not to turn around and go home, as my groin was killing me. But, I knew once we got to the next climb, it would be flatter after that, so I kept going. We stopped here, and someone went back a different way with the slow person. Then, we got a really nice road that its a scenic bikeway, which I don't ride too often anymore. We stopped at a pond to use the porta potty and I decided at this point, I would take the bike trail back to the point where I can quickly access roads to get me home, like I did a couple of weeks ago. I was not going to the lunch, it was getting hot and by this point my hamstrings were cramping. The trail is shady. Glad I made this choice, because otherwise the I would be riding through both town centers, totally unshaded, with added heat from cars at lunch time. I enjoyed the trail, although I had to slow a bit because of my hamstrings. When I got off of the trail and turned onto the first side street, I stopped and finished my Skratch Lab bottle, poured some water on my head, and then headed across the highway, which leads to a short, steep hill. When I got within about a mile of my house, after the last climb, I drank the last of the water. I never do that. It's only 80 out, but humid, and thankfully, partly cloudy.
I may need a massage! Enjoyed the ride, but I need to do more of these.
34.5 miles