Sunday,
April 29, 2018
I was heading for Pennsylvania
and a weekend of hiking and camping with one fitness goal in mind – piling up
steps on Fitbit. I was targeting my
record for consecutive days of more than 20,000 steps and my single-month grand
total of 605,000. If the weather
cooperated and I continued to hit my 20’s, I would easily shatter my previous
best.
Well…I had 14K by the time I
left work and headed for Pa., but it was raining when I arrived at my
site. Determined to hit 20K, Dakota and
I headed out and before we returned with her a muddy mess, I’d topped 23,000.
Saturday was more of the same,
weather-wise. I couldn’t let it stop me
though, and plowed off down an abandoned rail trail that had very little
maintenance done to it and was covered in briars. We were walking along the Allegheny River
when suddenly I heard the retort of a shotgun from a local gun club located
just across the river. I turned to see
Dakota’s reaction. She had already turned
for home at a rapid clip. I called to
her and encouraged her to come with me, but as the shooting continued, she
began climbing the extremely steep slope next to the trail to escape the
noise. I tried to lure her back to me,
but she was having none of it and so I turned around and headed for home, which
she approved of.
We managed another 24,000 steps
for the day, but when I returned and was cleaning the mud off her belly, I noticed
something crawling on her fur. I plucked
away the first tick I had ever found on her and over the next half-hour found
10 more on her and then three on me.
Apparently the Pennsylvania woods are loaded with the little blood
suckers.
We hiked Sunday morning before
getting in the car for the ride home, but I needed more steps and so headed out
for Hale Farm and Village upon my return.
Dakota had had enough and elected to stay home. I spotted a Loon on Indigo Lake as I hiked;
the first I have ever seen in Northeast Ohio.
By the end of the day, I’d
totaled 613,000 steps for the month so tomorrow – the last day of the month –
will be gravy. I suspect this record
will stand until after I retire and head onto one of the long trails I want to
hike. And my feet are sore…
Wednesday,
April 25, 2018
When it comes to rain and
cycling, I’m a confirmed, proud baby. I
don’t mind getting wet myself and if it starts to rain while I’m on a ride, no
big deal. But I WILL NOT start a ride
when the roads are wet or it’s raining for a couple of reasons. Brakes are not as good when wet, though I’ve
yet to really test this with the disc brakes that came on ‘Locke’. Wet tires do not grip the road as well, thus
making curves more hazardous. Vehicles
have poorer visibility, and finally crap gets all into my gears, chain and all
over the bike and I hate to clean that mess up.
A mist had been falling before
I arrived home yesterday, so I grabbed Dakota and headed out for a 6-mile
hike. When I reached Hale Farm, I noticed
the sheep and lambs were in the pasture close to the road and feeding peacefully. I couldn’t help but remember the
confrontation with the farm owner several days earlier when he essentially
accused Dakota of killing and eating his lambs and chickens. I’m still puzzled by his accusation and not
accepting my explanation that I was sure I’d have noticed her chowing down on
his livestock. In any event, I couldn’t
help but call out to the helpless animals.
“You guys are making me hungry,”
I said in a soothing, ‘come on over for dinner’ voice.
They looked at me…and then
Dakota who was paying absolutely not attention to them…and scurried to the far
corner of the pen.
I mean maybe they understand
English, but not well enough to get sarcasm? I felt a little bad, but not much
and continued on the hike. It never did
rain during the entire distance and a couple of cyclist rode by making me wish
I’d gotten out on ‘Locke’. Once I got
home, I spent the next hour cleaning out the traveling dump I drive in until
the insides of the Toyota were sparkling and smelling fresh. I called Miggie about dinner.
“How about I walk into
Peninsula and meet you at Fisher’s?” I asked, knowing that if I did so, I’d top
30,000 steps for the day.
She agreed and I started off
thinking how I needed only to average 20,000 a day for the rest of the month to
break my single-month record. This would
give me a good cushion should anything come up over the weekend of camping that
would make hiking problematic.
I made it to town in a little
over 70 minutes, but I will admit my legs and feet were getting tired. I have a lot of work to do for the coming
long, multi-day hikes with a backpack filled with what I’ll need to live for
that time on the trail, but that’s a worry for another day.
Hike:
Two hours and 30 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 875.
Bonus:
30,000 steps.
Tuesday,
April 24, 2018
The April rains are back and they
don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. As you know if you read this blog regularly, I
monitor my steps each day with a Fitbit.
Last November I decided I’d try to average 20,000 steps a day for the
entire month. For me, that’s about 12
miles of walking. Now…I get over 10,000
a day doing my job so it’s a lot easier to hit that goal than, say, most
Americans spending their working hours in an office. I reached that goal back then, accumulating 605,000
for the month.
April started with one of those
rain days that kept me from even thinking about going for a hike. By day’s end I’d walked only 4,000
steps. I’ve had one more of those types
of days this month so when I reached the halfway point and got it in my head to
try to break my single month record, I knew it would be an uphill
challenge. Since then, I’ve been
averaging 22,000 a day and if I can maintain that for the final six days of the
month, I should come in around 607,000. It’s
something to shoot for, at least.
John was due to come over and
head with me to Fisher’s for ribs. The rains
were still fall, but I HAD to get in my hike with Dakota. We managed a six miler and I pushed the step
total well over 20K for the day. John
however, was sick and never made it so I made pea soup, not really Paleo but a
pretty good meal, and stayed in for the rest of the evening.
I didn’t try to put the arrow
bars on ‘Locke’ just yet since I couldn’t ride.
I think I’ll be able to work them on without disrupting the handlebar
tape job…something once you start messing with you always wish you hadn’t. Rain due for Wednesday, so probably no biking
again. I really should get out my pack
and add some weight to my hikes by carrying it.
Maybe tonight…
Hike:
75 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 450.
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Monday,
April 23, 2018
I love ‘Locke’, my new
steel-framed Fuji bicycle. Designed for
the next phase of my life, retirement, when I hope to be riding rail/trails and
toting camping gear in panniers attached to its frame, it is comfortable,
versatile, and possessing a range of gears that will allow me to climb the
steepest inclines, if I’m in shape.
But it’s missing
something. Since my triathloning days,
which began in the early 80’s, all of my bikes have been equipped with profile
bars – addition to standard road bike drop bars that allow the rider to rest
his/her elbows on pads just above the handle bar and with hands forward and
outstretched. This brings the body lower
and bent over the frame and handlebars making the rider more aero-dynamic. It can be a little uncomfortable for extended
rides and although I’m no longer that interested in how fast I ride, which was
their point, they add a different position to put yourself in and on a long
ride switching positions regularly is very helpful to comfort.
I tried switching my old pair
of Scott profile bars from UB Express to Locke, but the clamping system would
not fit on Locke’s handlebars so I took the bike and bars to Performance to see
if they could figure a way to get them on.
“Man…I just don’t see how we’re
going to get these on,” Mosato, the clerk/mechanic who’d sold me the bike said.
I agreed and we went to look at
new ones that would fit. I took a look
at the stickers, around $150 for the top of the line and recoiled.
“Holy shit! I thought they’d be like fifty bucks!” I
said.
“Yeah…they’re a lot. These minimalist ones aren’t too bad though,”
he said, pointing to a pair that looked like it would fit better on a kid’s
tricycle.
I picked them up, rested my
arms where the elbow pads would be and considered. “Okay…I can always upgrade if they don’t
work,” I said. Deal concluded.
I headed for a hike at
Brandywine Falls. As is usually the case
at the falls, there were gobbs (a lot) of people hovering around the falls, but
very few back on the trails that drop with and from the falls down into the
Cuyahoga National Park valley. It was
warm and with many up and down trails, I broke a decent sweat over the next
hour and four-plus miles of hiking. I
certainly would have liked to put in a hard ride, but time and coming darkness
had conspired against me and so I made the best of it.
Mosato didn’t have time to put
on the handlebars, so I will give that a go one night this week. I hope to bring the bike along on my trip to
Pennsylvania this weekend where I will be doing some camping, maintenance on a
cabin, riding, and hiking with Dakota. It’ll
be a test weekend for the Adirondacks, but I think I’m ready already…
Hike:
60 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 350.
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Sunday,
April 22, 2018
Sunday looked like it was going
to be the best day of what so far had not really been a spring at all. At nine, it was already in the low fifties,
sunny and promising another ten degrees of warmth. Miggie’s daughter was coming over and the two
of them wanted to ride on the towpath into Peninsula to get breakfast at Fisher’s.
“You’re coming with us – aren’t
you?” she asked as I was suiting up to ride.
It was the last thing I wanted
to do. I had time and the right
conditions to do a 40-mile ride and I had every intention of doing just
that. They would be riding on an
over-crowded towpath at gentle (for me) speeds – something that though fun
would be anything but a workout. I
wanted a workout.
“You guys go. I’ll ride the first part with you, but then I’m
going to do a long one,” I said.
Diana looked at me and asked, “how
long will you go?”
When I said forty miles and
about 2.5 hours, her eyes opened in disbelief.
“It’s really not such a big
deal when you’ve done it consistently your entire life. I would imagine I’m over 100,000 miles of
riding by now,” I said matter-of-factly.
I don’t know if that’s right,
but it must be close. I’ve been taking
long rides since I was 12 and that’s over fifty years now. I’ve had some summers where I’ve ridden 5,000
miles and other a thousand or less.
Average? I’d think 2,000+ which
would put me over 100K, so that’s the story I’m sticking to.
I did manage 40 miles and it
did get pretty warm. Sweat was streaming
into my eyes and making vision cloudy to the point that I had to stop and take
off my bandana, which seemed to be streaming it directly into my right
eye. The ride took two and a half hours
to complete and I was feeling it towards the end. Once cleaned up though, I loaded Dakota in
the car and headed for Jason’s to look for a biking helmet for Miggie. I had a plan to hike after completing that
mission.
We arrived at Horseshoe Pond
and found the trails extremely muddy, but neither of us complained too
much. With three miles under our belts,
we headed for home.
It was an excellent workout weekend. Monday should be warm again and after a trip
to Performance to see if he can install my profile bars, which do not seem to
want to fit on my new bike, I’ll go for another long ride – hopefully.
Hike:
60 minutes. Bike: Two hours and 30
minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 hiking and 130 bpm on the bike.
Calories
Burned: 350 hiking and 1,875 biking.
Bonus:
22,000 steps.
Saturday,
April 21, 2018
I arrived early Saturday
morning at Mimi’s to get more of her property under control. Mimi’ yard, which is probably a couple of
acres, collects sticks from her trees and others, like squirrels collect
acorns. I raked and picked and hauled
many loads of them off the grass and back into the woods, but like trying to
relocate naughty black bears in the Adirondacks, I’m pretty sure they’ll grow
legs and return to the yard this week. Once
they were removed, I spread fertilizer on the front and back yard. For the second week in a row, I picked up the
smell of a dead animal as I worked, which I again mentioned to Mimi.
“Are you sure it’s not me? You mention it every time I get close,” she
said.
“I’m sure it’s not you. I mention it when you’re close because I want
to know if you smell it, too,” I said.
She didn’t. Later, as I was finishing up and returning my
work gloves to the potting vase on the work bench, I noticed some brown fur in
amongst the gloves. It was a dead
chipmunk. I called Mimi out, showed her
the body and solved the mystery – kind of.
I was driving to the park for a
hike afterwards and continued to notice the smell. I held my hand to my nose and had the true
answer. It had curled up next to my
gloves, which I’d worn all over the property for the past two weeks and so
carried the smell wherever I went, but now I was just a little grossed out and
knew I needed to wash my hands before hiking, which I did at Performance Bike,
a stop I had planned to make before beginning.
“Where can I wash my hands?” I
asked Justin, the sales clerk, as I walked in the store. “I have dead animal smell on my hands and it’s
kind of gross.”
He didn’t question me further,
but pointed to the back of the bike repair area. I picked up what I needed and left with no
one offering to shake my hand.
After a 4-mile hike, I attended
my brother-in-law’s surprise 60th birthday party where I limited
myself to Paleo-type food rather effectively, though maybe too much
quantity. It brought back memories of my
own, three years earlier, and much discussion of ‘where did the time go?’ with
my brother, sister, and brother-in-law.
Where does it go? How well am I using it? Will I be happy with my choices ten years
from now? Well…it is anyone’s guess, but
I doubt for one minute that I will look back and wish I’d spent any extra time on
the job. Retirement – please hurry up.
Hike:
60 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 80 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 350.
Bonus:
25,000 steps.
Friday,
April 20, 2018
I drove home with the
temperature hovering near 50 and feeling bad for Dakota. I knew I would be hopping on the bike and
passing on our long hike, but a trip to the Adirondacks is only four weeks away
and I need the training.
Though I broke from the Paleo
Diet because of my birthday, eating some cookies and ice cream cake, I’ve
managed to get back to it and hold the weight where it was – down ten
pounds. I thought about that as I began
to climb Everett Road hill on the bike.
I’m using harder gearing and staying in the saddle, a sign that the
conditioning is kicking in, as well.
I pushed hard throughout the
ride trying to make it a fast one because my daughter had asked me to join her
for dinner as part of my birthday week celebration. I attacked every hill and rise and felt
comfortable doing it. I shortened the
ride to about 24 miles so I would have some time to take Dakota on a short hike
before leaving.
Heidi and I walked to Larry’s
Bar and Grill holding a warm, pear pie.
She has made it before and it is delicious and she figured the owner,
Alan, would appreciate a piece. We set
it in the middle of our table and I grabbed a fork and began eating from the
pie plate.
“Dad…they’ll bring plates if
you’ll wait and then if someone else wants a piece they won’t be grossed
out. It looks like a little rodent got
to it,” Heidi said.
“It’s my birthday pie and so I
really don’t care who doesn’t like it,” I said.
Two of Heidi’s friends had
joined us at the table and nodded agreement.
In short order, they both picked up forks and began eating from the
dish, as well.
“It’s how you protect your
immune system…by eating some germs,” I said.
“Makes it stronger for when some bad germs come along. I think mine is like Superman’s by now.”
My logic got them to thinking
and again they nodded agreement.
I ate a turkey Reuben, but
passed on the fries, which was a struggle.
Heidi’s plate, inches from my hand, held many, but I fought off the
urge. I left early and they all stayed
to watch the CAVS and have some drinks.
The weekend should be
productive. The forecast is calling for
riding and Mimi yard cleaning up weather.
I hope to do both.
Bike
Ride: One hour and 45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 120-135 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 1,250
Bonus:
22,000 steps.
Thursday,
April 19, 2018
So…with this posting I’ll have
exceeded the posts I wrote in 2017. I
feel good about that because the catharsis associated with the writing…and the
things I’m doing that make me want to write…tell me I’m back on track for who I
want to be. I’m eating sensibly
again. I’m exercising and looking forward
to it. I’ve set goals and I’m working
towards achieving them. I think I’ve got
better balance as a human being or I couldn’t be writing and feeling these
things. I intend to stay on track.
My sister asked me to stop over
so she could make me a birthday dinner and so I headed for Mentor from the
farm. My neighbor agreed to let Dakota
out and feed her, though I did have some guilt about not taking her on our
after-work hike. For me, I stopped in
the North Chagrin Reservation and put in the steps I would need to get to
20,000 for the day.
As I walked though, I considered
why I was doing it. It was overcast and
cold and there was no one else hiking. It
was a day to just say ‘what the hell’ or do something inside where the
conditions would be more favorable. And
yet I was walking in the woods, listening for the sounds that made it special
and looking around with each step hoping to site something living and
scampering. One black squirrel, perched
on a nearby downed, rotting tree watched me closely. And so I stopped and returned the stare…and
it was then that I concluded there was just something in my DNA that made the
woods special and the reason I’ve roamed them freely since I was seven years
old and growing up in Connecticut surrounded by them.
There is peace and solace in
these woods and I go and walk them to feel it.
I can’t say that I’m conscious of it every time and all the time, but it
is there for me and draws me back. It’s
definitely one of the reasons I brought my children and friends to the
Adirondacks. I think they’ll suddenly ‘feel’
it and want it all the time, too. Some
have. More will in the future because I’ll
continue to do that.
The forecast is semi-promising
for the weekend and I’m hoping for a couple of good rides. Adirondacks are four weeks away and I want to
be bounding effortlessly up some peak or over some challenging trail. Solace awaits…
Hike:
45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 80 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 275
Bonus:
21,000 steps.
Wednesday,
April 18, 2018
Happy birthday to me…
Sixty-three. How our perspective on what is old changes as
we age. I thought of my grandpa as a
very old man when he was in his sixties, but not so my dad even though he
looked and acted every bit as old as my grandfather had. Now I’m there…and beyond…and thinking, ‘this
ain’t so old’.
April continues to act like
late February to early March. It was
below freezing when I took Dakota out to do her thing first thing in the
morning. I had the day off and planned
to do both a hike with Dakota and a bike ride before heading north to have
dinner with my kids. Hiking wouldn’t be
a problem and the forecast (those lying sacks of …) was for temperatures in the
fifties, so I maintained my hope that I would ride, as well. After breakfast at Molly Brown’s, which was a
Paleo turkey and spinach omelet with an un-Paleo order of rye toast, we went
for a 90-minute hike that included the beaver marsh, trekking along the
railroad tracks, and siting numerous creatures of the wild such as painted
turtles (about 20), a great blue heron, a Canada Goose standing guard on one
leg over a momma on her nest, a red-tailed hawk, a pair of wood ducks, and the
skeleton of something – likely a rabbit – on the of the trail. The sun was out and although it was chilly, I
found myself beginning to sweat and getting anxious to get home and hop on the
bike.
We finished the hike around
1:30, which would only leave me around 90 minutes to ride since I had to fit in
picking up a Dutch Apple pie from Patterson’s before heading to Jason’s for my
birthday dinner (that’s right – non-Paleo and with ice cream, would be the
highpoint of the day). I put on a
long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of socks, pushed gloves and a hat into the
pockets of my riding jersey, and rode out of Indian Springs my 2 p.m.
I hadn’t been able to ride
because of the weather since having ridden consecutive and exhausting days the
previous Friday and Saturday. I wanted
to cover my 24-mile course and knew I’d have to push it to have the time I
needed to get the pie, and so I began by attacking all rises and climbs from
the start. I realized early on that this
was going to be a good ride – the result of weight loss, hard training, and
several days off – early on. I pushed up
the Everett Road hill and cranked in a hard gear over the flats and small rises
over the next ten miles. There is such exhilaration
in riding hard and knowing that you’re not going to tire and this was one of
those rides. I cruised hard for the
ninety minutes I had to ride and arrived back at my place feeling like I could
have easily gone another hour.
Sadly, I did not have time to
ride 63 miles, but I know I’m ready to.
I bought some new hiking shoes which I’m beginning to break in for
climbing in the Adirondacks – weather permitting – towards the end of May. If the weather cooperates here in Northeast
Ohio and I can get in 4-5 rides per week, I have plenty of time to be close to
peak form. My 64th year is
going to be a good one.
Hike:
90 minutes. Bike: 90 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 hiking and 130 bpm on the bike.
Calories
Burned: 525 hiking and 1.125 biking.
Bonus:
19,000 steps.
Monday,
April 16, 2018
Weather. I sure love to whine about it. And that’s good because it’s so productive
and works wonders making it better and more to my liking. I say it’s been a weird winter, but that
would assume there is something that would be considered normal. There isn’t, so quit bitching.
Sooooo…Friday, it was 80 and
Saturday, it hit the high sixties, but began to rain. And when I woke up Monday morning, it was
still raining and my roof was leaking.
Oh…and it had dropped into the thirties.
All day Sunday I waited for it to let up because I’d walked over 20K
steps on six consecutive days and wanted to continue the streak. I thought with some rain gear and an
umbrella, Dakota and I could get in a good one.
But it never even pretended to let up and so I resigned myself to an
easy day. I did manage another Paleo
eating day, though I broke down and had toast with my omelet for
breakfast. I’m down ten pounds and I
wanted toast.
Yesterday dried up after the
early morning drizzles, but flooding was occurring throughout the Cuyahoga and
Chagrin River valleys – including road closures near my home. I stopped to check out the put-in point for
my kayaking at Russell Park and found the road was gone and the river twenty
feet up the drive.
Dakota didn’t care about the
wet, muddy conditions and so once I arrived home, we suited up and headed out
for a long hike. I stayed off the
trails, which would be ankle deep in mud, and put some extra steps in climbing
the closed section of Everett Road. My
step total was high, but my heart rate never got much above 80 and I longed for
a hard ride.
The forecast continues to look
bleak for riding. Snow is again in the
forecast and I’ve left the plow blade on the truck at work. That’s right…April is two-thirds over and I’m
still thinking about plowing. Well…when
winter leaves for good I’m sure I will put myself in the best condition of my
life. I’m charged up to ride hard, climb
bleachers with a pack and tackle some big goals this fall. Weather…I’ll show it…in June?
Hike:
90 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 80 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 525
Bonus:
24,000 steps.
Saturday,
April 14, 2018
I try to plan my weekends based
on the Weather Channel forecasts I review the day before, but in Cleveland
weather forecasts are simply suggestions.
In any event, the prediction was unequivocal. Rain all day.
100%. No doubt about it. With this information, I gave up any notion
of going to Mimi’s for yard work or of doing another bike ride. I figured I’d use the day to at least visit
with Mimi and my granddaughter in between running chores.
Then I walked outside Saturday
morning to temperatures in the sixties and overcast skies, but no rain. Dakota, out for her morning poop, looked up
at me as if to say ‘let’s hike while we can’.
Maybe we could make it…
We started on our 5-mile loop,
me carrying an umbrella and doubts about staying dry. We completed it in a little over an hour with
hints that the sun might poke out. I
called Mimi and told her I’d be over later and put off my visiting plans while
pulling on my riding gear. In less than
five minutes I was on the road.
I followed the course I’d done
the day before without making the mistake of going down the very steep slope to
Bath Road. My legs were far from fresh
following the previous day’s effort, though.
And the wind was still pushing in my face as I pushed my exhausted legs
over the final part of the ride. As I
coasted up the driveway to a stop, I knew I was spent, but that a ride of 63
miles on Wednesday was not out of the question, should the weather cooperate.
I went to Mimi’s and did some yard
work for a couple of hours and watched the steps on my Fitbit climb towards
25,000. I was anxious to return home,
shower again and climb on the scale. All
this effort was undoubtedly going to mean something.
And it did. I was down another half-pound and loving it. I celebrated by eating a burger that night,
though I passed on the cheese. My pants
were hanging loosely again and my belt had no more notches to use. I may need a new one because I’m not stopping
until I’m down another five at least.
Bike
Ride: One hour and 45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 120-135 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 1,250
Bonus:
25,000 steps.
Friday,
April 13, 2018
The forecast said temperatures
in the 70’s and no rain. As I went
through the day at work, I kept going over where I’d be riding my bike. With the weight falling off from the combination
of the Paleo Diet and increased activity, I was starting to think about a
birthday ride on the coming Wednesday of 63 miles. It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone
that far…the summer of 2014 during Tour Ohio, but my conditioning is coming
together. Now if only that weather
holds…
I was on the bike at 3:30
p.m. Dakota watched forlornly from the
screen door, wondering why she wasn’t heading out for a hike. “I’ll take you when I get back, Dakota, but I
just HAVE to ride,” I said. She nodded
in agreement.
I figured I had a couple of
hours and could do 35 miles. I started
out on the towpath to avoid parts of Riverview Road that was so full of holes,
it appeared to have been part of a war zone…or anywhere in Cleveland. With hikers and runners out in abundance, the
decision was not such a good one, though.
I reached the bottom of the
closed section of Everett Road in ten minutes and was already sucking on my
water bottle. It was hot! I did the climb staying in the saddle and
working the quads hard. With a trip to
the Adirondacks only four weeks away, I want to get in some decent climbing
shape and working a hill on a bike while seated works those same uphill
muscles.
With the gearing on Locke, the
climb is actually very little problem. I
had four easier gears that I didn’t need, which is saying something about both
the gearing (fabulous for steep climbs) and my conditioning. Once out of the valley, I rode south along
Revere Road, a new route for me. It is
lightly traveled, which is my first criteria in rating roads, but my second, a
decent shoulder, was pretty much non-existent.
I knew it would dump onto Bath Road, which I would take back to
Brecksville Road for a long stretch of the ride. As I got closer to Bath though, I saw the
sign at the top warning of a steep grade.
As I rode down, I was thankful I wasn’t riding up – it was that
steep. Then I reached the bottom and looking
west on Bath Road, noticed it was just as steep and with its winding nature,
heavy traffic and a lack of a shoulder, quickly concluded that I’d be turning
around and climbing back the way I’d just come down. Shit.
I dropped into my third lowest gear
and slowly, but steadily, climbed back up.
My heart beat hit about 170 and my thighs were burning from the
combination of this effort and the ride up Everett Road fifteen minutes
earlier. Mid-summer and maybe a thousand
miles of training under my belt, this wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but
we were a long way from there. I reached
the top with that burning in my quads that warns of a heavy lactic acid
build-up, which normally says ‘you’re about to be done’. Well…I wasn’t about to be done. And did I mention the winds were blowing
about 20 mph and gusting over 30? I made
my way north as my legs began to recover.
That strong wind was at my back for the time being…
For the next half hour, I rode
the rolling hills on Brecksville Road and sucked down a full bottle of
water. I headed east and dropped back
into the valley on Akron-Peninsula Road near the ski slopes, which still had
some dirty snow pack on them. Now I
turned my bike back into the full force of the wind and was riding on legs that
begged for a break. I would not come for
another eight miles.
I limped into my development 45
minutes later a beaten cyclist. Dakota
greeted me with that happy ‘I can’t wait to hike’ look and bounce, which I did accommodate
after changing. It was a short one,
though. The remainder of the night was
one of recovery. Still, it was a good conditioning
ride and the bathroom scale had a very encouraging report – down ten pounds in
a little over three weeks. It’s all
working…
Bike
Ride: Two hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 120-135 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 1500
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Thursday,
April 12, 2018
Did spring arrive? I was dressing for my hike, which would
follow a trip to Appalachian Outfitters to look over camping gear. I need a couple of things and have two trips
planned – one for the end of April and another mid-May – and know that a day
pack is amongst my future purchases. A
bed roll that doesn’t leak air would be nice, too. Anyway, it was in the low 70’s and I realized
jeans were not the answer. I dug through
my dresser and finally dug out a pair of shorts. I put them on, walked outside and declared to
Dakota, “my legs sure are white!”
I bought my last backpack over
15 years ago and, like with so many products, there have been some major
improvements. My pack weighs six pounds
empty – too heavy – because it is too big.
I thought that made sense at the time, bigger is always better, but in
reality I just try to fill it up, which weighs me down. I could pick something up now that would
weigh 1 to 1.5 pounds less and that’s significant when you’re walking all day,
which I plan to be doing in retirement.
They also make them with compartments to hold water bladders, with the
hose feeding through and opening near the shoulder for easy access. But the feature I like most is a mesh bracing
that lifts the pack away from your back, creating air space of about an
inch. I sweat profusely without a pack,
but when carrying it directly against my back, the soaking sweat becomes even
more uncomfortable. This single feature
would be reason enough for me to make a purchase. I’m holding for now, but it is $250 I know I’ll
need to invest.
I reached the trailhead at the
Everett Road Bridge around three and hike a rugged trail for the next two
hours. I broke a sweat hiking for the
first time since last fall, which felt good.
On a hike of six miles, I never saw another hiker. Unlike the North Chagrin Reservation, the
trails in Peninsula are farther from population centers and thus less
convenient to reach. That, and the one I
was on was actually steep and difficult, meaning I will continue to have fewer
hikers with which to share. Okay with
me, though.
I finished the night at the
Courtyard Café in Brecksville where I enjoyed a burger with an old friend. It wasn’t Paleo entirely since I ate the bun,
but I did say ‘no’ to the fries he offered to share. I’m down over seven pounds now and my belt is
already out of loops. I’ll drop another
ten by summer’s end and should be lean and ready for the 150-mile hike of the
Northville/Placid trail and the four peaks I want to climb in September.
Hike:
Two hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 700
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Wednesday,
April 11, 2018
Since last August, I’ve been
walking Dakota through different parts of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park
pretty much as I did in the North Chagrin Reservation. I keep a leash with me, but let her walk
without until someone approaches and, from body language, I can see they are
uncomfortable. I know dogs are supposed
to be leashed, but I also know she is completely passive, disinterested in
other people and dogs (particularly if I’m holding a stick), and minds me. So I break the law.
I had just passed through the
park and was walking along Oak Hill Road past Hale Farm and Village. The road has only six houses on it and with
almost no traffic, I let Dakota walk off-leash.
She tends to walk several paces behind me and moves over to the grass
when I tell her as a car approaches. On
this particular evening, a Gator was approaching, which should not be on the
road (though I do it myself at the farm).
I had seen the Gator several times on the Hale Farm property and took
the driver to be a caretaker/employee of some kind. He pulled alongside me as Dakota, walking on
the berm, moved over to say ‘hello’.
Somewhat aggressively he said,
“I need you to leash your dog. We’ve
lost some chickens and lambs.”
At first I was stunned to silence
– a very unnatural state for me, but my brain had gotten ahead of my mouth and
was trying to decide if he was kidding.
“Are you kidding? I'm walking in the road and she doesn't have to be on one,” I finally said.
“No. I need you to leash it,” he repeated, with a
bullying authority.
“My dog walks at my side. I’m pretty sure I’d notice if she was eating a
chicken or a lamb,” I said.
“That’s what everyone
says. Leash it,” he demanded, implying my blood-thirsty killing machine ate half a dozen chickens on a hike while I stood by cheering her efforts.
Unlike Dakota, I am not passive
and I hate bullies. “If you were a
better farmer, your chickens and lambs wouldn’t be out here on the road where
my dog could eat them even if she wanted to,” I said.
He glared at me and asked, “So,
you’re not going to leash her?”
“No, I’m not. I’m walking in the road nowhere near your
farm or chickens or lambs – if you actually have any since we’re busy doubting
each other. And let’s face it – you don’t
think for a second my dog was killing anything.
You may have lost livestock to the many coyotes and fox that prowl these
woods and your property and you’re lousy at protecting them so you thought you’d
take your frustrations out on a peaceful dog owner. Well guess what…you picked the wrong guy!”
He reached for his pocket as
though he was going to pull out a pad and write something down, giving me his ‘tough
guy’ stare. I returned it and said, "and you're driving on the road illegally with that thing."
Realizing he was wrong and
being an asshole (doubtfully – one of the characteristics of being an asshole
is not knowing you’re an asshole), he drove onto his farm.
But he did truly mess with my
serenity for the remainder of the hike.
I let him get to me because I’ve always hated bullies, but gained
nothing in the exchange. I wish I could
just walk away from such confrontations, but something in my DNA always flares
and puts me nose to nose with an antagonist.
Ah well…something else to work on during my trip to perfection. Quite a long journey…
Hike:
75 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 - 90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 500
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Tuesday,
April 10, 2018
It has been two weeks and two
days since I began the Paleo Diet in earnest and I am down 7 pounds in the time
period. That’s too much fat for such a
short period of time, so I’m shedding some water, too. Still, I feel better and know it is
working. The biggest difference in my
case is less about it being Paleo – eating fish and vegetables every night –
and more about not following it with a huge bowl of ice cream an hour
later. I’ve been passing on all the
snack food and pastries constantly available at the farm, as well. If I just continue that part and add grains
and dairy back after 30 days, I know I’ll continue to shed fat pounds.
It was a night for the Survival
Workout, but I couldn’t motivate myself to do it. It remains cold – high thirties at best – but
that’s no excuse. I wanted to get in a
long hike with Dakota and couldn’t do both.
I owe her that. She’s going to be
13 in a couple of months and that’s past the time when canines start to slow
down. My thinking is that as long as I
keep encouraging her, the longer she’ll go.
Right now, she still handles it all easily and acts like a puppy when I
reach for a stick. No signs of slowing. We headed for the Everett Road Bridge, but
again extended the hike by picking up the Perkins Trail and climbing through
the woods overlooking the river valley and Hale Farm. I was fortunate to hear the screech of a Pileated
Woodpecker and then see this large, beautiful bird fifty yards off the
trail. One raccoon, opossum, and three
deer later, we were back to the road and completing a seven-mile hike.
The forecast says we’ll see the
seventies before week’s end, but that snow showers are in the mix over the next
ten days. I think I’m going to risk it
and take the snowplow off the truck. I’m
sick of this winter. I’m ready to ride,
run, camp and work out in t-shirt and shorts.
Hike:
2 hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70 -110 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 700
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
Sunday,
April 8, 2018
Two weeks ago I’d woken up and
decided to get my lazy ass out of bed to do a morning workout. This is almost unheard of for me. I get up every morning around 5 a.m. to go to
work and love the chance to sleep in a little on the weekends. And I’ve always hated working out in the
morning – except for times when I could ride my bike to work. But something had to change. I hadn’t done the Survival Workout
consistently in over a year and was determined to get it going. I did an abbreviated version that day, but
nothing since.
Until yesterday. Dakota and I started with pushups, feet
propped up on the picnic table across from my home. I could only manage 45, but that was five more
than the first time out. I did crunches,
dips, and pull-up at a chinning station – also across from my home – before
heading down the towpath trail to Indigo Lake.
I did a second set of everything at the train station at Indigo before
hiking up the side of the hill overlooking the tracks to look for more rocks
and logs to lift. I found both in the
right sizes and did overhead lifts and biceps curls before descending to the
tracks and back to the house for a third and final set.
What a difference over two
weeks earlier when I’d only done 11 total sets.
I’d managed 16 of different exercises and could feel the ‘pump’ in my
arms and chest. I love that feeling,
which comes with the knowledge that I’d worked hard and that I’d be sore as
hell in two days. Untrained muscles
experience and actual tearing of fibers at the mitochondrial level and this
pain intensifies for 48 hours before subsiding.
When done regularly and following a very similar routine, muscles
quickly adapt and this pain does not recur with every workout. Change things up a little, and it will
return, but only as a reminder that you’re doing something hard…and right.
The Paleo Diet continued at
breakfast at my new favorite diner, Molly Brown’s in Cuyahoga Falls. Outstanding food, great service and decent
prices. Their omelets – when you’re not
doing Paleo and can have cheese and sausage – are the fluffiest and best I’ve ever
had. I chose a vegetable omelet though,
and a side of fruit instead of toast and home fries. Later that night it was a dinner of lean pork
chops and Brussel sprouts – good, but not filling.
So…I’m exercising and eating
right. I’m planning two trips – one in
April to Pennsylvania for some camping and hiking with Dakota and another
towards the end of May in the Adirondacks.
The Adirondack trip will hopefully include a hike up one of the lower
mountains since the big ones will likely have a snow pack on the trails above
3,000 feet. The pack was about 6’ deep this winter, which in some areas won't melt until early June
and is better traversed with snow shoes to keep from breaking through every ten
steps. I’ve done that and it sucks.
Focusing ahead and setting
goals, which helps so much to keep the balance in an ever-changing personal
life.
Survival
Workout: 45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 100-150
Calories
Burned: 450
Bonus:
15,000 steps
Saturday,
April 7, 2018
Since getting my Fitbit two
Christmas’s ago, I’ve found that it definitely pushes me to do more
walking. I tend to average 20K steps a
day during the work week, but struggle to get those kind of numbers over the
weekend…work accounting for about 13K of the 20. Kathy has a Fitbit and requested me as a ‘friend’
so she could see how many steps I was doing a day…and then do more.
“Good luck with that. I average 20K per day,” I said, which fired
her up.
“I had one friend I used to
check on after she went to bed and then I’d go out and do some more just to
beat her,” she admitted. She is rather
competitive.
Knowing she would be checking
on me, I found myself with only 1,500 steps by mid-afternoon and walk time with
Dakota. My normal course, which was
about five miles, would never do. I looked
over a map of the park for trails that intersected with my normal hike and
found one to add. With Dakota in tow, I
headed out.
We walked over to the Everett
Road covered bridge and then started up the newly closed section of his road as
it heads up and out of the valley. At
the halfway point, Riding Run Trail crosses the road and so we hopped onto
it. I found it to be a challenging, but
enjoyable hike and discovered the remains of at least two old homes off what
was likely once a dirt road. We made a
3-mile circuit and returned to the bridge before returning home.
Dakota had a minor limp as we
walked the final steps, which totaled over 15K for the hike, or about 9
miles. I pushed it out to 18K before the
day was over, which should give Kathy something to shoot for. I hope she was out until midnight picking up
steps.
Bonus:
18,000 steps.
Friday,
April 6, 2018
“I’m taking a walk with my
morning cup of coffee over to the beaver marsh if you want to join me,” Kathy’s
text alerted me.
It was Friday morning and I had
the day off because I’d worked on Good Friday the previous week when the farm
was closed to complete a couple of projects.
I’d let her know I was off to see if she wanted to ride at some point
during the day.
‘Sure. Stop by on your way and pick me up,’ I
responded.
And again…that glimpse into
what my retirement days could look like.
Granted – I’ll do more than just walk to the beaver marsh and ride my
bike, but the spontaneity of the morning has such great appeal. We walked there and then sat on the railings
overlooking the marsh on a cold, clear morning.
There were other old people like me on the path, too, which wasn’t too
surprising.
The reminder of where I now
live wasn’t lost on me, either. I love
that I can walk out my door, pick up the 130+-mile towpath, and walk to a
marshy habitat like the Beaver Marsh is really something special. After a long talk about life’s changes and
how they were affecting both of our futures, we headed back home. I completed two projects in the house over
the next several hours before suiting up for our bike ride. I checked the temperature because it was one
of those borderline days for clothing at 49 degrees. I opted for an extra layer on my upper body,
but decided against the riding tights.
Kathy had to stop at Century
Cycle to have an adjustment done to her bike and was planning on meeting me at
the parking lot for the paved bike/hike trail at the top of SR303 in
Hudson. I rode the four miles there and arrived
just as she was pulling her bike from the car. If it was 49 degrees in the
valley, my body told me it was either dropping everywhere or much colder on top
of the ridge. In any event, my feet were
starting to get cold and I switched from riding gloves to my insulated riding
mittens which I’d been carrying in the back compartment/pockets of my riding
shirt.
It was now windy and
overcast. Rain was in the forecast for
the evening, but that was still several hours away. We headed north on the paved trail, aiming
for the Bedford Reservation – 10 miles away according to the trail map at the
trailhead. Thirty minutes into the ride,
Kathy, looking at the odometer on her bike, said, “we’ve gone 13 miles already.”
“Impossible,” I replied.
“It says so right here on my
bike,” she said pointing to the on-board biking computer while we waited to get
across an intersection.
“Kathy – we’ve been riding for
thirty minutes. That would mean we’ve
been going 26 mph for that time and I can assure you we haven’t been riding
nearly that fast. In fact, we can’t ride
that fast,” I concluded.
“Well – it says we’ve gone 13
miles and yup, we’ve been averaging 26 mph.
I’m going with that,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. I knew she was baiting me and took it.
“Lance could barely ride that
fast when he was on EPO and we’re not Lance!
Besides, the trail we’re on is 10 miles to the turn-around…and we aren’t
at the turn-around…so how could we possibly have gone 13 miles?” I sputtered.
I was losing and it was
fruitless because she had the evidence on her bike. We rode on and hit the turn-around in around
48 minutes. It was definitely getting
colder. The return trip was a gradual uphill
and somewhat more into the wind. Kathy
had not done too many rides to this point – in fact only her second of the New
Year – and was tiring as we closed in on the parking lot. Once there, she loaded her car into her
vehicle and headed off while I continued the trek home. Unfortunately, I was now moving west and into
the teeth of the wind just as the rain/ice began to fall. The next half hour found me with frozen toes
and legs turning a purplish-blue. When I
finally arrived at more door and checked the temperature, it had dropped to 36
degrees.
‘No wonder I’m freezing my butt
off,’ I mumbled. I had ridden 36 miles
though. My longest in a very long
time.
Bike
Ride: Three hours
Training
Heart Rate: 120-135 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 2000
Bonus:
27,000 steps.
Monday,
April 2, 2018
A couple of weeks have come and
gone since my last blog, but where that might normally mean I hadn’t been
working out, such was not the case.
A couple of weeks ago, I walked
my old Survival Workout course in the North Chagrin Reservation. I was looking for a particular rock that I
used to do my biceps curls and found it where I’d left it – just off the trail
and leaning against a stump covered in a mossy, green fungus. It’s hard to find just the right rock. You need to be able to hold it in one hand
and it has to have enough weight to test the biceps over ten plus
repetitions. This was the perfect one
and I happily toted it the mile back to the car and tossed it in the back seat. Once home, I dropped it on my driveway
determined I was going to get the workout started again with that rock as my
foundation.
The next morning, a chilly
Sunday with snow still on the ground, I climbed out of bed, put on my workout
clothes, called to Dakota and headed out the door. An hour later I’d done 14 different sets with
muscles that would surely rebel the next couple of days…which they did.
I also began the Paleo Diet a
week ago. My weight had climbed
dangerously close to 200 pounds, peaking at 199. I hadn’t been checking, but knew from the way
my pants fit and what my mirror told me.
Though I’d started riding again, I had done nothing to cut back on
consumption, which included a bowl of ice cream 3-4 nights per week. Paleo means lean meats, fruits and vegetables
and goodbye to grains, dairy and most things that taste really, really
good. If I can get myself doing the
Survival Workout regularly again, weight will fall off with this regimen. I know from experience having dropped 15
pounds the last time I followed it.
Discipline is the key. Temptations
abound.
I’d been able to ride the new
bike, Locke, several times through the month of February as it was a mild
winter month. March however, came in
like the proverbial lion and did not let up.
Rain and work conspired as well and it was not until yesterday that I
got outside to ride again. I had done a
couple of workouts on the trainer and so I was confident that I could tackle
the Everett Road hill and a longer ride.
The temperature hovered in the mid to low forties and I dressed
accordingly. The climb out of the valley
created a free flow of sweat, which tended to freeze my head over the remainder
of the ride. At one point towards the
end of the ride, I heard my phone ringing.
I had a contractor at the farm and thought it might be him so I pulled
over to take the call. It was Savannah.
“You can get East Coast Custard’s
ice cream truck to come to your house for a party and pay a $30 travel fee plus
whatever people eat. I’m thinking it
wouldn’t be right NOT to have it at my rehearsal dinner and maybe since they’re
in my backyard, they’ll wave the travel fee,” she said.
“Now that’s an excellent plan. I think the father of the bride is
traditionally the one that pays for ice cream trucks, so I’ll pick up the tab,”
I said, figuring I’d be off the Paleo Diet by then – or at least on that day.
I completed the ride
discovering new riding roads. I descended
from Brecksville Road back into the Valley on Columbia Road. It is in atrocious condition, but I rode down
this winding, pot-holed road with both brakes fully engaged. It dumps down onto Riverview Road a short
distance north of Boston Mills ski slopes, which is an excellent riding road
with a wide, smooth shoulder. I
completed the 25-mile ride in a little over 90 minutes, cold but pleased. I hopped on the scale before jumping in the
shower and was even happier to find I’d dropped to 193.8 pounds…and that after
just a little cheating on Easter Sunday.
Tomorrow should hit the sixties, but with rain in the forecast it may be
back to the trainer. Progress made. Discipline intact.
Bike
Ride: 90 minutes
Training
Heart Rate: 135 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 1125
Bonus:
23,000 steps.
