I haven't gotten off my butt and ridden since last Tuesday, I see. I've been busy, the weather has messed up a couple days, we had a funeral to attend on Saturday, and other weak excuses.
I was all riled up to ride yesterday, Monday, but wound up hauling a load of electronics junk to Albuquerque, afterwards we went to a movie for Family Home Evening, and I ran outa time.
But, Today, with Jacque's encouragement, I saddled up and rode around while she drove to town to pick up sewing machines.
It was close to noon when I got going, but it was still nippy outside and it made for good riding weather.
It was 33 degrees when we awoke this morning, and even though it was a sunny day, it has been cool all day. It won't be long before I dig out the serious cold weather gear: Insulated gloves, polar fleece skull cap, fade mask, etc. The only outer garments I ever wear in even freezing weather in the years I've been riding are lightweight shirts and windbreakers. Anything with real insulation quickly overheats me and causes sweating, which wets the clothing and then REALLY gets cold. Thus the cyclists habit of adding and peeling layers as we approach hills etc: Zipping on the windbreaker when topping a hill to stay warm while zooming downhill, and peeling it off when climbing such hills.
I like to use errands for cycling excuses, and I recently found a users manual for a drill press I'd sold a couple months ago to a neighbor and Church friend. She and her hubby live about 8 miles from our home, so I decided to hand deliver the manual ... on the Catrike .
It's always frustrating to navigate terrible stretches of pavement, and Mountain Valley Road filled that bill this time. Cracks that barely register in a car with more weight and larger wheels make a severe stress and pounding on a bike or trike. But hey, I survived, and after only a couple miles of that nonsense, I was on Old Route 66 which, for the section I ride regularly, has new pavement and a lovely wide shoulder without too much shoulder garbage scattered along it.
Riding a recumbent trike, situated so close to the ground, it is easy to spot debris and also to slow down or even stop to pick up detritus and throw it out of the road. Just a few hundred yards past the Mountain Valley / Route 66 junction, there were several large pieces of lumber lying in my way on the shoulder, and I picked them up and heaved them completely off the roadway. If I had been in my regular dinosaur-powered vehicle, I would likely have taken such wood pieces home to put through the wood stove. Then again, I may never have spotted them at 60 MPH.
After a few miles I was getting woozy and found my blood glucose (BG) was 120 and falling, so I ate one of my emergency cookies and rode onward. Another few miles and I distinctly heard the telltale bleep-bleep of my insulin pump complaining it had run out of insulin. This had a deleterious effect on my BG since it was over 200 when I got home. So at present, after refilling the pump and plugging it into a new section of my belly fat, it's Diet Root Beer until the blood glucose gets down where it belongs.
Ride Started: 11:15 AM Ride Ended: 2:52 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 12.9 Lowest: 12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose: 225 Lowest BG mid-ride: 120 Ending BG Reading: 218
Lowest Temp 53F Highest Temp: 71F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 19.41
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.5 MPH 7.1 MPH 32.3 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
3 hours 32 mins 2 hours 43 mins 48 minutes
Oh no! Not the DIET root beer! Talk about deprivation!
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