Longest ride in years...

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

It was a day for the Survival Workout and I’d made up my mind to do some extra running, as well. I did all the usual stuff when I exited the car and then began jogging down the trail. When I reached the steepest bridle trail in the park, I tried the side stepping running heading up. As I was doing this motion, it occurred to me that it was likely the kind of twisting on the knee a torn meniscus would find objectionable…and then I felt a tweak. I stopped and finished the hill walking, but tried jogging again when I reached the top. Nothing doing. I could feel some pain and figured making it worse had no upside. I completed the workout without further lower body moves to play it safe.

I returned home feeling less than satisfied and since it was such a perfect night, elected to go on a long ride. I decided on my Old Mill Road to Pekin course and took it to my 54-mile turn-around but on the return trip, lengthened the course by a couple of miles by bringing it back through the park. I thought it was going to be 60 miles, but ‘Map My Ride’ only confirmed 57 of them. Still, it was the longest ride I’ve taken since beginning the blog and probably the longest in 5 years or so. That, and I did it on the heels of a tough Survival Workout that had included at least some running.

I’d been eating poorly over the weekend with the Peach Cobbler and all…and then I’d had about a pound of ribs on Monday. I was sue the weight was up, but after a double…well…weigh in time. As I climbed aboard the box of truth something told me I was in the 181 neighborhood so when I saw 181.5, I pumped my fist in the air and let out a ’yes’! Holly is getting sick of hearing about my weight loss…she was in the room…so I told her anyway. “Down another half a pound,” I exclaimed. “Whoopy poo for you,” she said…only it wasn’t poo she said.

On the negative side, I’ve been scratching at blotches over various parts of my body that I’ve been trying to convince myself were multiple mosquito bites. I finally had to concede that it was poison ivy. I’d been cleaning up the weeds Mimi was pulling…with gloves…on Saturday and she’d told me to be careful of the stuff, but I’d forgotten. Well…I’m paying the price now for my stupidity and forgetfulness. Leaves of three…let it be.

Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes. Bike workout: 3 hours and 25 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm for workout, 130 biking.
Calories burned during workout: 600 for survival workout. 3,000 biking.