Another day, another 20 miles.

Another fantastic ride today. Moreso because I really wasn’t in the mood to go on a ride. I didn’t sleep well last night (our 50lb puppy is convinced that she is a pillow puppy, and ends up kicking me (and Gary) in the head, taking over all of my pillow, and generally making it really difficult to sleep; oh, and our 17 year old miniature poodle has to go out about every 5-6 hours, so, if I go to be about 10:30…. Yeah… I’m always up at least once during the night, and lately I’ve been having a hard time falling back to sleep once I take them out – because of course the puppy wants to go out, when the old lady does…), it was overcast, and I was still tired.

But, when Gary asked me if we were going for a ride, the only possible answer was yes. So, off we went. And the first 5 miles sucked. We had a wicked headwind, and we were both struggling. However, at about 7 miles, it all seemed to get better, and we agreed to ride 10 and then turn around. The road we ride on is uphill on the way out, with a headwind, making it downhill with a tailwind on the way back, so we figured that coming back wouldn’t be too bad. And it wasn’t. While we were going 10-12 mph out, we were going 20 most of the way in, and up to 34mph in spots. (Which is kinda fast on a bicycle…)

We didn’t get any rain (well, we got sprinkled on a little bit, but that doesn’t really count, and given that it was in the mid 70s, it felt pretty good), but we were keeping an eye on the mountains; there are some ‘Flood Area’ sections on the road, and we are in the land of flash floods. However, there wasn’t any significant rain in the mountains (you can tell by the clouds), and so we didn’t have to worry about that (the flood areas aren’t that wide, but it would still suck to hear a flood coming…).

So, another 20 miles; looks like we’ll get 70+ in for the week, which isn’t a lot, but we’ll work our way up to 150+/ a week in not too long.

And it seems like the combination of diet and exercise is starting to work. The numbers on the scale are still somewhat frightening, but they are going to right direction, and, more importantly, clothes are starting to fit better, and the mirror is kinder to me. So I’m feeling pretty good about all of that. And I’m really enjoying the riding. Especially rides where I expect to struggle the whole time, and finish feeling good.

I think I’ve also nailed down the kayaks that we are going to get. I just have to figure out the finances (it’s the end of the month, so I’m not sure I can swing them quite yet, but I’m getting close). And I’m very excited about it; I’d really like to get out on the river.

And as a total aside, Fiona is going nuts in the motorhome with her squeaky ball; she’s running around, dropping it, pouncing on it, grabbing it, making it squeak, and doing the whole thing all over again. She amuses herself quite well. Although this is also a hint that she’d REALLY like to go outside and play…. Unfortunately, the sun has already set, so she’ll have to be content to play inside…