5/31/2016 8.42 miles

Yeah you could say it's HOT!   109 degrees.
Only did 8.42 miles to day and burn only 463 calories.  We were going to take a nice cool morning ride, but had some stuff came up.  So we road in the heat of the day.   Hard Core LOL, well for us anyway.   You won't catch me in a snow storm cycling uh uh, I'm not that Hard Core. 
Were having a heat wave,  and it's not suppose to cool down in another week.  Were going to aim for early morning rides.

Just an interesting side note, because this is not a very long post. But ever sense Chris and I started cycling food has started tasting even better after long rides.   Were foodies and that might explain why at one time I was 325 and Chris was 327, but not now.  :)     Back then we really love home cooked food, but the more you ride and the less you eat, it changes your perception on how you view food. We still love food, but now it's the experience of having a long ride, then eating and savoring each morsel.  Before we ate just to eat, now we ride to eat.     But we don't eat right away after a long ride.   We'll split a whole or half of a cliff bar depending on how many hours we are on the bike, get home and we wait one hour, before I make dinner, this way it prevents overeating.  That was a skill that had to be learned, because in the beginning riding just 6 miles Chris and I would be ravenous and if you want to lose weight that can have the opposite effect.  It took a while, but we did it and now it's just part of our routine.

5/29 & 5/30 12 miles

5/29/2016
Did a hard 12 mile ride with hubby.  Going fast is fun. :)    We kept our speed between 17 and 20.

I picked up a very large hitch hiker with wings and it had a very large body. eeeee I don't know what kind of insect it was, but it was as long as my index finger and it was on my arm.   So I had to flick him off, that bug was too big and he look like the ones who bite.   I've been bitten before by a kissing bug and oh do they hurt like a (*).  Bee stings now seem like nothing now.

Between the bugs, squirrels, dogs and random people, we always have to keep on our toes.  But the bugs get in your eyes and mouth.  Yuck!

Some happy news.  I'm (Finally) off my weight plateau of being 255 forever.  But I learned something you can maintain the same weight and still drop 3 pants sizes.  I did not know this, until it happen to me.  I maintained 255 right thought size 16, 14, 12.   That kind of really weirded me out until I look into it more.    I am now 253.

5/30/2016
Yes we took a break today.  A coffee break. :)

 Drove up to Paradise to Coffee's On.
I had a Ice coffee and hubby had a White Chocolate Mocha.
There coffee is well worth the drive.

32.21 MILES 5/28/2016

On the 5/24 & 5/25 we took a 10 mile ride, nothing really exciting.
On the 5/26 & 5/28  I had a two day job painting a window for Thrifty Bargain.  That was 16 hour of stair stepping, so I still got my exercise.  You can see the picture of my handy work below.

Today we did a total of 32.21 miles. And again the riding slower is really paying off.  And I'm so happy to be back up to were we use to be.  :)    And it feels real good to see the calories read over 1000.    It was really hot to day so we had to use ample sun screen which turns us into

human fly paper.   Yes it help protect you from the sun, but after a 2 hour and 24 minute ride you collect all the dust and dirt from the ride, very unpleasant, but's it's either that or a sun burn, I close to be human fly paper.
Our route took us to Horse Shoe lake, then out to the road that leads out to the airport, but instead of going to the airport we, turned and went to Park Ave and out to Durham and then back home.

On the way their was a sprinkler shooting water out over the road, so I could not resist  ride thought it a couple of times, as hot as it was it felt really good.

On the way out to Durham there were lots of doves and orange and black birds, I'm just going to have to guess that they were Oriole birds.  What ever they were they were fast.          

Their are also a lot a Flickers, so pretty and they make a very distinctive sound.













                     Dove's too.   So today was a very good day.  :)

Side note. The Spelling mistake has been corrected.  Bargian?  It's now Bargain.

                                                                                          

5-23-2016 SLOW & EASY 12 miles

My Hubby left me in the dirt yesterday, but it was ok.   He did the 12 mile loop fast, while I took it nice and easy.  And today we both did absolutely nothing.   On our break days we do walks or hikes, to keep our legs happy.   Sitting down is almost impossible because like I said our legs own us.  They will literally tell you when you need to get up and move around and if you don't they scream at you till you do.

Table top mountain is 47 miles round trip, and it's has a killer up grade.  When we get more toned maybe we'll try it, but not now.  Going to Paradise has a  killer up grade, but round trip is only 27 miles.  We done it before and I would like to try it again.  And mind you we did have to walk up the steep parts.   Here some pictures from our picnic today.   

We decided to go up to a place called Table Top Mountain it was so nice and the weather was perfect. Nice big clouds were passing over, so we were in the shade more than the sun.   

 Hiked up a ways to a grove of trees where their were lot's of thistle, prickly but beautiful.

 Bee-utiful.

  Hubby and I looking for Lizards. 

Found one.

And another.  This guy must have just eaten a big meal, he let us get really close to him.  They normally don't like to move after they have eaten.

Looking back at the grove of trees.  

5/22/2016 20 miles

This is really so true.  It you do something easy your going to get half ass results.  If you train hard you get better results.

Yesterday I ended up adding on another 8 miles to the 12 mile hard ride we did, so all in all I did 20 miles.   And no I did not go break neck speed I rode around 12 to 13 miles an hour.   I (told) my self to day would be a break day and tried to make it a break day.  But it didn't work, ended get back on the bike and doing the 12 mile loop.   My legs own me.

Why the loop?  Well for one thing no flats, and that saves a lot of money.  When we were riding on the roads, it was flats left and right.  But I do have plans to go out back to some of our favorite riding spots.

The Cycling Paradox:  For some strange reason kids, adults and dog who are walking in front of you and who do not see you coming for what ever reason seem to automatically move in the direction closer to your bike.  I have no idea why?   No matter what their is a gravitational pull.    It's like my bike and their bodies are magnetized.   Yelling out on your left is basically useless.   No matter how polite I am, I get the finger and rude glares.   Even going slowly still scares the crap out of some people.  And don't get me started on headphones.  I'm thinking about getting a air horn and blasting it off from a distance. The way I figure is no matter what I'm going to scare them and I'm going to get glared and cussed at.

5/21/2016 12 MILE HARD RIDE

                                                                                Today we did rode for only 12 miles, but instead of taking it easy we kept a steady pace between 16 to 18 miles an hour.  It was over cast and very windy so going certain directions made the ride a little more challenging. 

The ride was really nice. It was cold, but once you get going you warm up really fast.  No crazies like dogs off the lease, or some one coming around a blind corner going the opposite direction.  And with all the people we past every one had their child either on their shoulder of by the hand.  
 Today their was so many people up a Horse Shoe lake aka: The pond.  That's what I call it, it's just way too small to be called a lake.   This little tiny lake had an enormous amount of people standing on the bank fishing.   The picture really dose not justify the scope. 
 And from While wood park to Horse shoe lake is about 2 1/2 miles and the side of the road was crammed with park cars.  And if you look behind Chris head you can see a tractor hulling more people in.

 Below we stopped back by 1 mile and the water is filled back.  They do this each.year, the creek brings in tons of dirt, rocks and wood.  

 Chillaxing at our favorite rest spot.  :)  Our squirrel and ground squirrel watching spot.   No Cliff bars today, because our ride was only 55 minutes long.  We only eat cliff bars every hour.   
I'm feeling really happy.  Yes I can admit I am a coffee addict.  Heck I have a coffee Facebook site called
https://www.facebook.com/CLUB-ACAA-331262083700778/

So ya you could call me a addict.  But I'm happy because I have been off of Dutch Brother for 4 days now.   Yeah I know 4 days, don't laugh.  It's a big deal for me.    I've been drinking more ice coffee.  But here is the really bizarre thing, I have been looking for a replacement coffee to break my craving.  And who knew it would be Decaf Coffee from COSTCO?    I find my self looking forward to the decaf coffee than the dutch brother.     The last time I had a dutch brother it made it taste like chocolate water. 

So  ta ta for now.   Looking forward to going in circles in the park.  :)    

                                                                                     

WHAT A AWESOME DAY 40.51 miles

Yes today was a awesome day.   And what made it awesome?  We had not plan ride this far.  We were thinking of doing maybe just 20 miles, but the weather was so nice and we both were really feeling good.

Today we tried a different cycling tactic, instead of barreling out of the door and keeping our speed between 14 to 16, we decided that it would be better to slow down and keep our speed a little slower between  11-14, however their were some areas were it's hard not to go 15 to 16.  

We been doing a lot of talking about practicing pacing our selves.  Because the number one cause of people dropping out of community bike rides is they don't pace them selves and they go gung ho.   And the 60 mile mark is the killer, it's were people drop like flies, because they don't pace them selves.

And I can say that today is proof that it works.   Yes people past us going faster, but we had to bite our lip and realizes that the prize was the distance rather than speed.    Although it is really fun going fast.    But toning it down conserves

energy.

For fuel both ate 2 Cliff bars and 2 Luna bars, one per hour.  
Over all it was a
40.51 miles
3 hours and 17 minutes.
2047.9 miles. 







Afterward we when home refreshed up and (drove) back to the park for a picnic.  We had a bagel sandwich with avocado, and two slices of low sodium turkey.  So so yummy.  Everything tastes better after 40 miles.   

And to make the day even better I look over my right shoulder and a baby mantis was looking at me.  Squeeeeeee.    So cute and so tiny. 

BACK BEHIND BARS! 18.23 miles *

Handle bars that is.  Ok well writing about health isn't my thing.

Five weeks later and I'm back behind bars were I want to be.   Feel so good.
My hubby and I have been doing about 12 to 13 miles for two days, then we do a break. Today we did 18.23 miles and burned 989 calories.  

You think that after that long of a time we would be cooked.  Nope our legs were singing opera and yes they do remember and yes they are very happy.
     

  Road out to one of our favorite spots for watching lizards and instead of lizards we found tiny frogs.  So so cute.  And he blends in so well with rocks.  No froggies were harmed in the making these pictures. 
The joy of riding let you experience nature in a way that being in a car or motorcycle you can never really appreciate.  Well I hope to do a lot more posting.    Slow and steady wins the race.  So slow and steady here I come.  :)

They drained all the water out of 1 mile and are cleaning it, looks weird with all the water gone.