Cycling, Fitness and Other Things
Middle-Aged Man
Tonight’s Run
01309 days
After riding to work and back home, today, I needed to run (why, I do not know). Teri and I met Tracy there. Also was the High Desert Runners, including Zac Patten and his mom, Tania. Teri and Tania ran together, while Tracy and I ran together. Zac ran with the runner’s group. Tracy did an intense workout at the gym, and was beat, so I need to take advantage of that!
I wanted to run 2.0 miles, but since it was still over 100 degrees, we agreed to run 1.0 and then walk 1/2 mile. After the resting walk, we ran 1/2 mile to finish. The last 1/2 mile was to be a faster pace. This run was hard. I was glad that was over.
I am now eating dinner and vegging on the couch…
My Ride Home
01309 days
Today I decided to ride my bike to work, and I did not anticipate the weather being 110 degrees outside on my ride home. But I iced my water bottle, got on my bike, and rode the ten and a half miles home, it was very hot, there was a lot of heat coming up from the concrete. The wind was up, with gusts at 20 mph. I do not like the wind and now the heat. It was warm, very warm (a new record high, 110.2), in fact the last half mile or so I got light headed, I took the remaining amount of my water, that was now jacuzzi temperature and poured it on my head.
While, it was hot, it was still doable. I hope to do it again this Thursday. Here is my motionbase activity. Average speed is 15.5 mph, it was slow, but hey it was hot and windy.
The image is from my weather station at the house. I think it is cool.
Rode to Work
01310 days
With gas prices being so high, I needed an excuse to ride to work, also my daughter can use the car, so it all worked out that I would ride.
I am not a morning person, so to start riding in the morning is hard on me. I felt tired from the first block. I managed to ride 16.5 mph average, but it is cool (for summer) and took me about 37 minutes to travel 10.3 miles.
When I got to my bike locker at work, the lock would not open and I was in a bit of a panic. My work will not allow bikes locked to anything they have to be place in the bike lockers. I have locker number two and the stupid lock would not open. I believe it must have been changed, but the combo was only off my one number, so I do not understand why it would not open. This was the second ride after winter, so there may be some corrosion, but the lock felt fine when I moved it around. I call my friend Mark to use his locker (number 4). I locked up my bike and went in and showered.
It is to be hot today (expected 110, man that is hot), so expect a whinny post about the ride home at 4:00pm.
Trying to Be Activate
01310 days
After three days off from work for the holiday and weekend, it is hard to get in activities when you return to work. I personally would like to do two activities a day for the month of July, but finding that kinda of time is hard.
Today, I did my walking. I walked at work with Tracy and with my dog late in the evening. I managed to get in 19,279 steps (9.43 miles).
After work and after dinner, I lifted some weights, not as much as I wanted, because I was going swimming. Today was a personal record, it was the first time that I was able to do five chin ups. I have a goal of being able to do 10, so I am half way there. I did some core exercises, like bird-dog, planks and side planks, hum, that was not my favorite thing to do.
I went to the pool and it was not crowded at all. I had a lane to myself, (that was nice). I did about 1/2 hour in the pool workout. My goal for this month is to swim as hard as I can for each lap, rest (get my breathing under control) and repeat. Today most of the work was doing the free style, with the exception of 10 non-stop laps in the middle doing the breast stroke. My side seem to hurt today, it may have been from doing some core exercise earlier.
In about a month, I want to do a Splash N Dash. A 400 meter swim and 3K run in Ventura. The distance is a little over 17 laps in the pool. I am a little nervous, because I have never really swam in the ocean and I do not know what to expect. Will the waves be up, making it hard to breath? Swimming is easy in the pool, when I get to the end, I can push off the edge each time. In the ocean there is no pushing off. So, I will need to be in the pool for at least double the distance of 400 meters , like 34 or 35 laps. I can swim that now, but I want to do it a high intensity, (more burn, less fat).
Ride in the Afternoon
01311 days
For my second activity of the day I got on the bike and rode out to 110th West. It was a hard ride. It was about 100 degrees and I started in the middle of the day after church. The wind was up, and at times was blowing in my face at 25 mph.
It was much slower than Friday’s ride (17.2 average), today I managed to ride at a 15.5 mph average. The wind and heat much have been contributors to the slower speed. I came home kinda whipped, but nothing a small nap could not handle.
My heart rate was down comparing the last two rides. Average of 159 to today’s of 150. Overall it felt good to stop. My calf is getting tight after the ride, but that is to be expected.
Today’s Run
01312 days
This is the third day of running in a row. I was a bit nervous to run three days in a row after being laid off due to injury. My calf is sore today, but I do not sense it is being hurt.
I got out after stretching at 8:00 am, yes I slept in. I went to bed at 11:30pm, so I have no excuse except being lazy. I ran the same path as the last two days. I was running those two miles in 19:51 at a 9:53 pace. That is best pace of all three days, to me it felt slower, but I liked it.
After the run, again to Starbucks for a tall Iced Coffee and a blueberry muffin.
Second Day of Running
01313 days
I wanted to run a few days in a row. In my mind I want to work myself up to running about six days a week, Monday through Friday running short distances and before work, followed by Saturday with a longer run. Right now, I am using small distances just not to get so beat up. I am only running a slow two miles. However, I am running on the curb, because I can get out of the house quickly, without having to drive somewhere.
Today was day two of running. It was much harder than day one, because I got out at 9:00am and the temperature was 80-85. Second, my calf started to talk to me. I backed off the pace (10:27, compared to 10:10 from yesterday). To me, the pace is good for a “return to run” status. At times, I want to “kick” it up, but I have to tell myself that I need to work in to it.
Also, the reward at the end of the run was Starbuck’s. Today, it was a tall (Starbuck talk for small), Iced-Coffee.
Just Had a Birthday!
01317 days
One of the reasons that I started to get fit was that feeling of getting older, way older. One way to mark age is counting birthdays. Yesterday, I had one, I just turned 49! Overall, I am OK with it. Normally, I do not do so well with having the day remembered by family and friends. I often wish that they would not say anything and just ignore it.
The good news is that I am starting to feel fit and that helps with my self image. That makes it better to handle the “special” day. The gifts and cards were nice. Often I get items that I cannot use, but this year everything I received was great, from videos, cash, gift cards, and a Garmin Foot Pod. Since the last item is a fitness item used with my GPS, I will be posting on how it works its way into my fitness routine.
