Another long ride...

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

With the car in the shop I found myself stranded until my neighbors’ with the pool came to the rescue. They have this extra car sitting in the driveway that only seems to get used in inclement weather…when Pat doesn’t want to take out the sports car or one of his motorcycles. We’ve got a pretty special friendship and when I asked about using the car, they were happy to lend it. Now…I’ll take my own car to the park, do a workout, and climb back in all sweaty after placing a couple of layers of towels on the seats…but I didn’t want to do that to their car so I skipped the Survival Workout and came home after work. This is usually a bad idea for me…I start to get caught up in what’s happening around the house and never do a workout…but I wasn’t going to let that happen. Holly was gone to Akron with the remaining vehicle so I had no good way to get to the park (I could ride but I don’t want to leave the bike unattended while I do the workout) so I decided I’d ride the bike.

I opted for the Auburn Road route and when I reached the intersection of Auburn and Wilson Mills, decided that Dan probably needed a visit from me so I could check the progress on the Honda. I pulled in his driveway to see he wasn’t there and the Honda was on the blocks and disassembled. I called him and he informed me it was definitely the water pump and he’d probably have it together the next day. “Are you riding my bike?” he asked. I assured him the 20 years he’d left it collecting dust in his attic had done nothing good for it and that I’d have it for a little while longer before anyone rode it…safely. “You and I will be riding together before this summer is over,” I warned before hanging up to finish the ride.

I’d had some cramping in my quads for the first time in a long time during my ride with John on Sunday, so I was expecting to get some more. I rode pretty hard and was three minutes ahead of what he and I had done after climbing the monster hill up Kirtland/Chardon Road. I stopped at the cemetery briefly to fill my water bottles and pushed on. Surprisingly, I completed the ride with no cramping despite the extreme humidity and the length (2 hours and 30 minutes) of the ride. I went for an immediate swim once home and then started eating all the wrong foods. I had a couple of pieces of pizza and two turkey breast and tomato sandwiches. The sandwiches weren’t too bad…I shouldn’t have eaten the bread, but I’d let myself get too hungry and had nothing real Paleo in the house. I did wash it down with an excellent smoothie I made with a banana, a cup of blueberries, yogurt and apple cider. Long bike rides tend to cover a lot of eating sins.

Bike workout: Two hours and 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 2,200.