Sunday, December 4, 2011

A perfect December riding day...

Saturday, December 3, 2011
I started the morning by picking up Alaska Paul and driving to Kleifeld’s in downtown Willoughby for a ham and cheese omelet, coffee and conversation.  We needed to go visit John so Paul could see all the wonderful painting I’d done.  Paul brought up how he would like to have a vacation property in the Carolina’s for getaway trips.

“Forget those Carolina’s.  We could find a fishing cabin in some remote part of the Adirondacks for practically nothing and then we’d have our jump-off point for all of our serenity trips to the mountains.  I could take folks up that were trying to get in shape for some great hikes and climbs to cap their conditioning,” I said. 

He liked the way I was thinking.  I would like to get up there for some winter activity…snow shoeing, skiing and maybe getting up some of those peaks and taking the beautiful winter pictures I’ve seen from these mountains. 

Afterwards, I made my way to Mimi’s for some simple tasks that didn’t really burn any calories.  I was busy trying to fix an outdoor lamp that had been ruined in a wind storm, but after an hour of trying, figured the 40+ year old light was not going back together.  Mimi hurried me because she knew I wanted to get in a ride on what was a perfect day…for December.

I was on my bike by 2:30 and looking forward to a 2-hour ride without too many layers of clothing.  It was somewhere in the low 50’s and sunny…in December…as I headed for Waite Hill and my favorite course.  It began to cloud over and the temperature dropped a few degrees during the ride, but even flying down Wilson Mills at 50mph didn’t have me shivering.  I pulled hard throughout the ride, but was noticing some discomfort in my right knee and thigh, and backed off a little over the final miles.  I managed a little more than two hours and felt I’d done enough to combat the Christmas party calories I’d be getting later that evening.

And it was close.  I worked my way around the hors’ devours table, nibbling on things I didn’t recognize in the hope that I’d like something.  There were no vegetables or lean meats and I was hungry so I ate about anything that would fit on my little, plastic plate.  After consuming bunches of hollow calories, I had a couple of peanut clusters to finish off the night.  My commitment to make it through the holidays with a modicum of sensible eating was off to a horrible start.

Bike Duration:  Two hours and ten minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1900.

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