Today's Almost 6-mile Tracking
I've been feverishly cutting firewood recently, motivated entirely by our frosty winter weather, with single digit and low temperatures hovering around ZERO for the last week. This has tended to keep me off the people-powered wheels.
I really miss it when I don't ride the bike. Jacque has set up her trike indoors with the Catrike trainer option (expensive wheel chocks and a double roller bracket for the rear drive wheel to spin on without actually moving) and I've put some time in on it but it's just not the same as actually riding and it's noisy and boring and hard to stay interested in long enough to really burn up some calories. Cutting down Juniper trees and cutting them into stove lengths and splitting the big ones and throwing it into the tractor bucket and stacking it at the house is exercise, and lots of it, but it merely leaves me sore in the back and muscles without the after-effort "high" that comes after a good bike ride.
ANYway. I got 2 full bucket loads of wood piled up close to the door (tractor front end loader scoops, that is) and decided it was time. Today was so beautiful I decided if I was ever going to get at least a "Quickie" bike ride in, I should do it now. The time when I made this sudden decision? About 3 PM.
The sun goes down fast this time of year, so I needed to hustle.
First, I checked my recumbent 2-wheeler's tire pressure by squeezing them by hand. The rear tire was good and stiff but the front was a bit squishy. When I put the air chuck on it the pressure reading was ZERO. The slow leak takes a toll when left alone for so long. Then I gathered up the necessary gear: GPS/Radio handlebar setup, full water bottle, pannier with batteries and necessary extra gloves and gear, bike helmet, etc, etc. When I finally got rolling it was 4:00 PM. It looked like I had plenty of daylight yet so I had no fear. (Silly Me)
I was pleasantly surprised that "the legs still work". It takes weeks to build up stamina and strength in the ole muscles, but seemingly only a few days to "lose it". I had to do more downshifting than I'm used to, but I was able to climb all my normal hills without walking. Slower, yes, but it was great to be out and about on the bike. See, when you're outside actually rolling on a bike, the motivation is easy. Generally you have a destination to go to, and once underway, you can't just get tired or bored and stop and get off....... you are not close to your couch or fridge and thus must keep going even if you turn around and abort the original trip. Unlike on an indoor stationary bike setup. Anyway, the temps on the wall thermometers were registering over 40 degrees today and it may well have exceeded that, because I only wore a light cloth jacket and my reflective vest, and got overheated fairly quickly. I did the normal "chicken ride" up to the Post Office, picked up the mail, and turned around for the ride back. Going west of course is a fairly long, mostly uphill, grind. Coming back is the easy part with only a couple of small uphill pulls. That is where it gets COLD with the faster speed, lack of work going downhill, and the sun now quickly sagging behind Sandia Crest to the west. Still balmy compared to the last few days, though.
Now if I can only keep it up on a mostly-daily basis......
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.5
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.4 MPH 7.3 MPH 26.1 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 45 mins 4 secs 15 minutes 55 seconds
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