The local weather lately has been extremely windy, gusty, rainy, and a bit of sleet mixed in.
Today dawned bright but cold. Forecast: More High Winds. We hate being off the cycles so long so we decided to layer up and ride the Terratrike Tandem up to the Post Office for at least a short vigor-inducing ride.
We wimped out almost immediately. The wind was very strong, cold, and in our faces, not only numbing us but slowing us down. I didn't seem to have much "steam in my boiler" and, when I asked Jacque how she was doing, she was lacking in both strength and enthusiasm as well. I now think the bitter cold and headwind were just too much for our motivation..... hee.
To call this a short ride would be to belittle the term "short". We didn't even make it a mile before we agreed to give it up and turn around. We did get a bit of brief exercise out of it but never got warmed up enough in spite of our layers.
Here's a typical example of how much clearance passing cars give us while riding the tandem:
Ride Started: 10:29 AM Ride Ended: 10:53 AM Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.9 Beginning Blood Glucose: ? Ending BG Reading: 122 Lowest Temp 53 F Highest Temp: 60 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 1.35 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 5.4 MPH 6.1 MPH 24.3 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 15minutes (!) 13 minutes 2 minutes
Jacque hasn't been available to ride with me all week, but she made time today. Thus our easy decision to trailer the Tandem Terratrike into Albuquerque and do another ride on the famed Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande.
Talk about a beautiful day for riding. Blue Clear Sky, as George Strait would phrase it, bright sunshine, nice and warm with just enough breeze to keep us from overheating. Even with Lilly snugged up against me in her belly-pack, it never quite got too hot. We took several breaks, as usual, but we had good energy and life was good. We encountered all kinds of friendly folk, the greatest majority of which did the usual double-take when they realized what they were looking at, and the invariable "Ooohh, Look at the Doggies!!!"
Our gals are always the stars of our show.
When we got back to the trike trailer, our GPS clocked in at exactly 16.00 miles. What a great ride. We'd love to have ridden all the way up to Alameda before turning around BUT we had other things to accomplish before we ran out of daylight. So we turned around at Paseo instead.
Ride Started: 12:51 PM Ride Ended: 3:49 PM Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.0 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.6 Beginning Blood Glucose: ? Ending BG Reading: 122 Lowest Temp 71 F Highest Temp: 82 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 16.00 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 5.4 MPH 7.8 MPH 19.1 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 2 hours 58mins 2 hours 2 mins 56 minutes
Things started out a little extra windy today, but I took a short ride anyway. Winds were gusty, roaring for a few minutes and then pausing occasionally for a few v
minutes of calm. I rode away from the house with no real trip plan. I figured to make up my mind about direction and route after I got down to the paved road. I had just turned the corner out of our yard when a sudden twisty gust blasted me in the face with sand and dust. I had gritties in my teeth for the next couple of hours in spite of repeated rinsings with drinking water.
No matter, it was still a fun ride. I first rode west on Frost Road and then turned south on Gutierrez Canyon Road. It runs all the way south to Old Route 66 but I didn't go that far. I had work to do on a radio repeater on the bench at home and wanted to allow plenty of time to work on it. I turned around just before the GPS 5-mile mark and rode back.
Gutierrez Canyon has some long hills to climb and smoke downward on, but it is one of the prettier areas that cyclists often ride. There are dozens of homes in that area but it is very low traffic and the winding road helps the cars to drive slow. Very nice.
Ride Started: 11:38 AM Ride Ended: 1:15 PM Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.0 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 13.0 Beginning Blood Glucose: 392 Ending BG Reading: 96 (Turns out my infusion site for the insulin pump was goofy) Lowest Temp 67 F Highest Temp: 82 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 8.16 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 4.9 MPH 5.8 MPH 31.9 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 1 hour 40mins 1 hour 23 mins 16 minutes
Lilly and I rode together today, and it was again a nice balmy day. We left very late in the morning, and it actually got close to being a bit TOO balmy.... it felt unbearable hot in several areas of the ride.
I had planned to do a longer loop-around-the-area ride today but since I waited so late I had to get back in sufficient time to drive to Albuquerque to pick up a prescription.
Lilly was a good companion, in her new belly pack, even though her body heat added to the heat discomfort at times during the ride.
Thus it appears I need to quit wasting time in the mornings and leave for bike rides earlier.... or suffer the consequences.
Ride Started: 12:25 PM Ride Ended: 3:07 PM Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.0 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.5 Beginning Blood Glucose: 388 Ending BG Reading: 125 Lowest Temp 67 F Highest Temp: 82 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.56 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 4.5 MPH 6.1 MPH 30.6 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 2 hours 19mins 1 hour 44 mins 35 minutes
For my excuse to ride the trike today, I had 3 packages waiting for me down in Tijeras, a few miles south of home and nearly at the bottom of a long series of hills via NM-14. I neglected to ask what size the parcels were, and, assuming they might occupy some space, I again hitched up the B.O.B, trailer. After begging the doggie's forgiveness for leaving them behind, since I needed the trailer space, I rode off alone.
I rarely ride this route due to the length and steepness of the hills involved, but it isn't all that bad. The worst part of the route is the narrow shoulder on North 14 and the absolute mess of the so called "Bike Path" running parallel to the road. When going uphill along this route I feel I should ride on the bike path, because I go so slow uphill. Even crawling along, the ruts, chuck and pot-holes, ridges along driveways and undermining tree roots make it a bone jarring experience that tempts me to just get out in traffic and ride on the smoother automotive roadway. IT, however, suffers the common malady of narrow shoulders, barely sufficient to squeeze the extra width of the trike's front wheels, and of course the trash and potholes that proliferate on each shoulder of the road. So ya risk your life, seemingly, no matter what you choose.
We just returned from a trip through Oklahoma, and hate all the nickel-and-dime stops we have to make to pay all the weird little tolls on the expressway. For BIKING, however, I've often thought I would be willing to pay fairly steep tolls to have some decently maintained bike paths to ride on. Oh Well.
The older I get, the more rest stops I take, which certainly deteriorates the average speeds on such rides. As does the mile up and down our goat path road to the pavement, which forces crawl speeds both directions. Good thing I don't much care what the average speeds are. Of course, I'd be thrilled if they increased as I get older and lazier instead of the other way round.
This video clip shows me entering the top end of the so-called bike trail which runs next to the main road with just a curb separating cars from bikes. It is rough and seldom repaired, and it is too much like riding a sidewalk next to traffic..... you're barely separated from the cars and it's very dangerous when going across driveways and intersections since few drivers watch their own roadway, much less a parallel bike trail, so they are NOT expecting to encounter cyclists in or entering intersections.
I finally made it down to Tijeras, after multiple rest and drink stops, and a couple of pee breaks. I was mildly dismayed to find the "three packages" were in fact fairly small envelopes that fit easily into one of my panniers, and I either could have left the trailer at home or brought Tink and Lilly with me.
I had thought about taking the long loop thru Tijeras, east on old 66, and back towards home via Gutierrez Canyon Road, but I realized if I took that several more miles it could easily be DARK before I got home, so I just retraced my route back north on 14 and Frost Road to home again.
Ride Started: 12:36 PM Ride Ended: 4:17 PM Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.7 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.8 Beginning Blood Glucose: 184 Ending BG Reading: 161 Lowest Temp 67 F Highest Temp: 78 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 15.52 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 4.3 MPH 6.3 MPH 29.6 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 3 hours 34mins 2 hours 29 mins 1 hour 5 minutes
We just got back from a trip to Oklahoma, Missouri, and back. Our GPS for some reason routed us via Old Route 60 all the way back to Amarillo, and it was nice indeed to escape the boredom and drudgery of I-40 and Route 44 coming thru OK and TX. Along about sundown on Thursday, Jacque searched the GPS for nearby lodging. It directed us to Canadian, Texas, and a B&B outfit called Kim's Cottage . It is an old office building retrofitted with an antique's store in the front and suites of lodging toward the rear of the building, antique-looking but with modern jet-tubs, beds, etc, well worth the 100 bucks it cost us for the night. We walked half a block to the Cattle Exchange restaurant, enjoyed a great meal at a non-exorbitant price, walked back, and enjoyed a very restful night's sleep. When we left Friday Morning, we weren't quite ready for breakfast yet. By the time we reached the huge metropolis of Miami, Texas, Pop. 597, we were ready, and we stopped at a real life Mom & Pop cafe: the Rafter B.
The food and service was fabulous. Twenty miles later, Jacque realized she had left her purse hanging on the chair at the cafe. We turned around and rushed back, not really worried about the purse but of course needing it. As I walked into the cafe again, nobody in there except the waitress and cook had been there when WE were there earlier. No problemo. A tall cowboy confronted me and asked: "Y'all Lose a Purse?"
Evidently all 7 people in the cafe had been discussing the abandoned purse, and they were all thrilled we had shown up to reclaim it. We made it the rest of the way home without further incident.
We've been non-biking for 12 days now, and we really regretted not taking our trikes with us. So I tried to make up for it today.
Since Jacque was visiting one of her many best friends currently recovering from surgery, I decided to take both Tink and Lilly with me on a ride. When I bought this Catrike several months ago, it came with a B.O.B. (It stands for Beast of Burden) trailer. It's very nice looking, but I have never used it before today. I looked around for suitable crates or containers I could use to carry the girls in and finally decided our largest dog crate would fit inside the trailer and have enough room for both dogs.
They much prefer riding out in the open with their faces exposed fully to the wind, but they enjoyed this riding mode too. Lilly is an incurable fusser and normally whines and cries as we roll down the road, but she kept quiet during today's ride. We'll see in the future whether she continues to ride quietly or if she gets used to it and resumes her normal complaining.
Taking a Selfie while the Rear Flag Falls Off
This B.O.B. trailer was not too bad to pull, though it did add to instability when whipping downhill at speed.
I was actually able to make it all the way up the hill on the goat-path to the house, though I did have to resort to "3-wheel drive" (rear wheel starts slipping; have to grab and turn the 2 front wheels for added power and traction) for a hundred yards or so of the mile bounce.
The weather today was pretty much picture perfect. The usual eastbound headwind was present but it was not bothersome.
Ride Started: 11:26 AM Ride Ended: 2:37 PM Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.4 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.8 Beginning Blood Glucose: 327 Ending BG Reading: 89 Lowest Temp 64 F Highest Temp: 82 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.56 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 3.8 MPH 6.3 MPH 28.5 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 2 hours 19mins 1 hour 43 mins 36 minutes
The day was bright and sunny earlier this morning, but the weather forecasts called for clouds and showers later on.
Thus Jacque and I decided to get out and ride early, even though it was a bit cool outside, and take advantage of the sunshine while it lasted.
Trouble is, by the time we got saddled up and rolling, the clouds had already covered up the sky. We took off anyway, hoping our huffing and puffing would warm us sufficiently.
It didn't. We chugged along for about a mile and the temperature only continued to punch right through our layers. When Lilly began to quiver and shiver, in spite of her wrap and being bound up inside the belly-pack, we decided to end the ride early and turn around.
The road traffic was a bit heavier than usual, and when we felt the ground vibrating from something approaching from the rear, we hoped he would give us plenty of clearance, and thankfully he did.
When we got back to the Exploder, I realized my cell phone had disappeared from my side pants-pocket and was nowhere to be found. We looked around the immediate vicinity, hoping it had not fallen far away, but still no luck. So, we loaded the trike back into the trailer and retraced the ride route slowly, hoping to find the phone still in one piece, instead of out in the roadway. Good fortune favored us, and about a quarter mile down the road we spotted a flash on the shoulder of the road, and when Jacque got out and walked back to it, sure enough it was my phone, still intact.
The ride certainly wasn't long enough to burn off any real calories. My ending BG was higher than before we started. BAH
Ride Started: 9:50 AM Ride Ended: 10:19 AM Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2 Ending Voltage: 12.3 Lowest: 12.3 Beginning Blood Glucose: 156 Ending BG Reading: 241 (Obviously didn't Pump enough for Breakfast) Lowest Temp 49 F Highest Temp: 53 F Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 2.56 Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed 5.2 MPH 6.6 MPH 19.1 MPH Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time 29minutes 23 minutes 6 minutes
