Solving the foot ache...

Thursday, July 14. 2011

I had to ride and I had to beat the sore feet thing. The balls of my feet were still a little tender from the ride on Tuesday and I hadn’t gotten any gel inserts for my riding shoes yet. I was headed for the drugstore to make the purchase when it occurred to me that I might be able to fashion something myself from some squishy household item. Maybe cut up one of the sponge, scrubby thing we use on the dishes? I went to the garage and started snooping around and landed on some inserts from a pair of hiking boots no one wore. They had inserts with a heavy heal cushion…something I could chop all to hell and insert in my riding shoe. I went to the riding shoe and pulled out its insert to see how I’d fashion the new one only to discover the gel insert I’d placed there about five years ago. It was squeezed into the toe of the shoe…no where near the ball of my foot where it could do some good…so I pulled it out and duct-taped it to the bottom of the bike shoe insert in the appropriate position. I tried the shoes on and felt the squishy cushion under the ball of my feet and figured I had it licked. Now for a long test ride.

It was perfect riding weather. Some breeze in my face on my way out…which meant a push coming home, cool and sunny. I felt particularly strong and was able to push hard on the pedals without pain during the early phases of the ride. The true test would come in the hills when I had to stand on the pedals and had been out for over an hour. I rode through Waite Hill and out east on Eagle Road to Sperry…pretty much all uphill. When I hit the halfway point without pain, I decided to put the hammer down and ride hard all the way home. I did…without pain…and thrilled that I hadn’t gone out and bought something I already was carrying around in my shoe every time I rode.

There was a house full of kids when I returned from the ride. Heidi and Savannah were hosting a little party of ‘Harry Potter’ people. They were watching the last movie before heading to the midnight showing of the final episode of the series of eight. What a phenomenon! I can’t think of anything from my formative years that had half the impact…with the possible exception of Beatle mania in 1964 when they made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show (yeah…I’m that old). Anyway, I made one of my special smoothies and the ones who partook loved it. Holly…now totally on board with the Paleo diet…made a dinner of sautéed onions, zucchini, strips of beef and some left over salmon. She doesn’t like the way I’m eating but knows she can’t argue with the results.

Bike workout: One hour and 48 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1600.