"Honda's done..."

Thursday, August 4, 2011

I called Dan late in the day and he indicated he’d have the Honda done before dark. “I’m just gonna take a long ride out to see you then and I’ll get there around 8. What’ll I do if you’re not done?” He’s always done when he says he will be…but if he wasn’t, it would be too dark to ride home. “Guess I’ll give you a ride,” he said. He says little, which is okay because I say so much.

I left around 6:30 p.m. and took a route that would take around 90 minutes. It gets dark by 8:30 p.m. now, so I was cutting it close…I don’t ride in the dark. Things were going well and I was riding strong about 45 minutes from his place when I felt the back tire going flat. I can get flats when I’ve got my bike in the car, but this was the first one since John gave me his bike. The rear tire…its always the rear tire because its such a bitch to change…was flat. Fortunately, I’d purchased two tubes on my last trip to the bike store and quickly went about changing it out. I quickly noticed the tire was thread bare…why I hadn’t seen this earlier I don’t know…and hoped the new tube would make it to Dan’s. I re-inflated…able to put about 90 pounds with a hand-held pump and well below the 125 psi I prefer…and got on the road. Having low pressure in the back tire slows you down since the tire is now flattening out more and putting more rubber in contact with the road…friction slows you. I was worried I’d never get to Dan’s before dark, so started pushing harder. I came across a pack of four riders working together and hammered past them. I pulled into Dan’s drive as dark was closing in around us. I was feeling twitchy and asked him for something to drink with sugar and salt in it. “Got water,” he said. “You don’t have anything else? What do you put on your cereal in the morning,” I wondered. He looked at me as if I’d gone daft. “Water,” he said…again.

I left Dan for home…a civilized place where people put milk on their cereal…and made a great smoothie and fried up some catfish fillets in an egg and corn meal batter. It was actually pretty good. I’d weighed in after my shower…the first time in over a week because I was sure I was up some from all the dessert I’d eaten over the weekend…but again I was down. I’m not at 182 pounds and the 170’s are seeming like a reality. My friend Randy is concerned that I’m placing too much emphasis on the weight and should re-introduce some junk food into my diet, but I explained to him (we were texting) how the smoothies were my junk, which I loved, and the weight was coming off without a lot of effort. His texts suggested that I should also relax and enjoy the workouts instead of pushing so hard all the time…but I don’t push the biking so much though I do try to beat old pr’s on the Survival Workout.

His points were well made, though. Often time’s people get too wrapped up in pushing all the time and injuries follow. Or the intensity is so great…diet or exercise…that it can’t be maintained. I’m not feeling that way on either front…which is good. Thanks for worrying, Postman…and do your run today.

Bike workout: One hour and 40 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1,500.