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.
