Back to 100 Percent

Today's Electronical Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio
By 100 Percent we mean that we have thus far ridden all week, so far, this week.  Astute readers may note that means only 1 day, today, unless you count Sunday as the first day of the week, in which case you will force us to admit we are only at the 50% level.
What with snow, wind, and other excuses, we of course have let WAY too much time pass without benefit of aerobic exercise, which we obtain most readily by riding the trike or bikes.  Today Jacque was sewing quilts with buddies until well after noon, so we got off, as usual, a bit late in the afternoon.  Then Jacque worried it was too late.  Then she worried about the gathering dark clouds outside.
I would have put it off until tomorrow but after 10 days of tomorrows I was desperate to get in a ride even if we had to turn around after only going a short ways.  THEN, don't it beat all, it actually spit a couple drops of RAIN on us as we were unloading the trike down at the pavement of Frost Road.  Undaunted, we took off anyway, like a herd of turtles, so to speak.  Thankfully the 2 drops that threatened us turned out to be all there was to be as we rode.  The daily wind had calmed down and we actually had a fairly stress free ride.  At least for the first hundred feet or so.  Just as we were strapping all our gizmos and gear on the trike, ready to take off, an attractive young lady walked past us and entered the bike/pedestrian trail ahead of us.  She was maybe 50 yards ahead of us by the time we got rolling, and within a few dozen seconds we passed her with self satisfied smirks. 
Trouble started for us almost as soon as we passed her:  She began jogging.  Dearest Readers may note our average speeds on the trike run in the neighborhood of 4 to 6 MPH which is not much faster than walking and DEFINITELY not exceeding the speed of the average jogger.  We were struggling up our first minor hill and this twenty-something jogger was right behind us and gaining. 
Our genteel pride being at stake, we put all we had into it and barely stayed ahead of her long enough to top the first hill and then did our usual gravity-aided smoke-speed of maybe 20 MPH down the backside of the hill.  This put a satisfactory distance between us and the merciless joggerbabe and we thought we could safely stay ahead and maintain our foolish pride.  Trouble is, more hills separated us from our destination, and we haven't ridden enough to even have decent stamina, much less speed of any kind, unless coasting downhill of course.  Within a few minutes of climbing the next hill we were creeping along huffing and puffing and watching the runner approach again at a rapid pace in our handlebar rear-view mirrors.
Rather than let her pass us while we were still moving so slow one would need a time-lapse photo session to register movement, I told Jacque we were stopping for a water break, and watched the fair lass trot on into the western horizon, hoping we would not encounter her again for the purpose of embarrasing ourselves. 
She passed us again before we got to the Post Office... she had run almost a mile ahead and passed us on her return run.
Not much fun being outrun by runners.
Of  course, on OUR return ride which is more downhill and we average 20-30 MPH, we encountered no runners fast or slow, although we did encounter several dogs and their human servants, attached to them with leashes and other restraints.
Trip Started: 4:13 PM    Trip Ended:  5:12 PM
Starting Battery Voltage: 13.2    Ending Voltage: 12.6 (Recharge Time!)
Lowest Temp  45 F      Highest Temp:  51 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.27
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.4 MPH                                6.2 MPH                    26.0 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
58 minutes                             41 mins 6 secs           16 mins54 secs