7/30/2016 8 miles

Took a late evening ride 8 mile ride.  It felt really nice to feel a cool breeze as we rode. 
But what a ride.  At the beginning of the ride Chris almost hit a quail that came out of no where.  His face was flush.   Then close to the end of the ride again.!!!!   A bunch of quail that were hiding under a tree decided to run across in front of us. At least this time their was more room between us and them, but still.  One decided it need to go back to the tree so it flew in  front of the bike.     On our way up to Horse shoe lake something was going on.  A ambulance and firetruck were headed up to the lake, followed by two police cars.   But they did not stop at the lake they continued up past the parking lot and down the hill we have been using as training for hill climbing.   I'm thinking someone broke a leg, or arm or heat exposure.       

TAKING IT EASY TILL THE HEATWAVE PASSES 8 miles

Decided to post a progress photo.

Ok well like I said I hate the stationary bike.   Chris did on ride and he came back looking really depressed.   We both looked at each other and decided nope.   It's been around 108. 109 to 110 and the UV index is 8, 9 and 10.  YIKES.  I do believe the other time we have rode in the heat the UV index was not that high and their was a cool breeze. No cool breeze.   So we are still riding our bike, but more easy riding than going all out.  Were doing 4 to 8 miles.  Nothing exciting  But keeping the legs moving.   The air feels like a oven, but were not going that far so it's doable.    To give you a perspective of how hot is is, Chris rubber hand grip melted off and mine are feeling very sticky.   When we get home I'm probably going to wipe down the seats with leather cleaner it also is for vinyl, so they don't crack.  Some time after Friday is suppose to cool down.  I can't wait.

Came around a corner and low and behold we saw a proud ma ma Turkey Hen with 12 babies.  She had a raft.  I did not get all of them little squishes on the photo, but believe me there their.  So cute.  While I was being paparazzi, she was like cool and collective like ya I see you, just keep your distance.    This hens have very powerful legs and sharp claws.   So we let ma ma be.    

  

DANGEROUS HEAT

Oh Joy.  We took a break on the 23 and decided to take the 24 off two because our legs were not really talking to us.  Then I just saw this today.   Crap. That probably me the UV index is thought the roof.  Stationary bike here we come. 
I hate the stationary bikes, but oh well. 
Our break consisted of riding our bike.  :)   But only 6 miles.   We don't consider that a official bike ride, because it dose not feel like anything.

Well it's the 25th and someone won that bike, it was not me.  Oh well many next time.  It never hurt to try.  

Now you really got to wonder about all the people who still ride their bikes in this extream heat wave.   Nutzoid.   And let me add when we rode in 107 the UV index was not as extream.

7/22/2016 25.23 miles

Did 25.23 mile ride into the wind. Yay. 
Note to self do alternitive exercising on days were not riding.  We decided to do some squats on the same day we road and well ya, we could feel them.  So sense our break day is tomorrow we will do every thing on that day.
So one day long ride, next day hill climbing, break day exercising & walking.  And then once a week like Saturday or Sunday a long ride.  In that order or something like that.   

Well I filled out for this contest, no I'm not going to be cycling the Tour De France any time soon, but hey why not.  Who says I can't dream big.  Right now I'm doing Tour De Chico.

P.s if you want to win the bike the contest is not over.!!!!!!! I believe it ends on the 25th.. Check it out.

 Oh no!    This is what we saw on our ride today. This is further up the Sky way.   A semi hit a power pole and started a bad fire.  We were taking a break at Star Bucks and all of a sudden their was a loud zap and the power went out, then we heard the loud fire truck and police sirens going off.   Road our bike out past Raleys and this is what we saw.  

7-21-2016 20 miles

A better day today.   Rode out to Durham and then when we got home we took a break, then rode out to a coffee shop.  So by the time we get home it will be 20 miles. 
 As for the kittys their not going anywere, we got a 120 page of rules and regulations or pet right.   Their staying.  So that's that.
Stress ball me can relax.  
And I got some happy news. I am now officially a size 10. YAY!   Down 7 pant sizes.
My hubby and I have been changing up our exercise routine, in order to lose more weight we have to so were doing squats, sit ups, calf raises, jumping jacks and a lot more.  A size 8 for me is not going to magically appear like that.  It's a lot of hard work.

I might have stated this before, but the first 6 miles of a ride for me is the hardest, but something amazing happens after the 6 miles, I have no idea how to explain this, but it just all of a sudden get fun and easy.  :)      Weird.     


Oh yeah  I had to look up the word enchiladas to see how to spell it and well a gazzilion pictures of enchiladas appeared.  For the rest of the day all I could smell was cheese and enchiladas.  Cheese is not a staple in our home.  But it was a week ago.  I made enchiladas with cheese.  It was every thing I dream it could be.  
I call it Fresh Garden Salsa & Green Apple Enchiladas.   YUMMY!     Like I said the more you ride the better food taste.  

Don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try the Enchiladas.   :)   :LOL

14.60 miles

Did a  14.60 miles today with my hubby.  Are whole ride got ruined really quickly, we were right behind another rider who ran over a ground squirrel.   :( :( :(     So RIP little squirrel.             

CYCLING POST PONED :( :( :(

 No that is not my hand, but yes it is a Picture of a Large Dutch Brother and YES I DID DRINK IT!!!!!   
My Hubby and I are an emotional mess, well I'm am an a emotional mess.   Our lives are being turned upside down and my two fur babies below are grave trouble. :( :(      With in the last past 4 days our the new manager has told us no animals in the apartments, after the fact we live their 6 years.   I am going to fight it. We have till the 22 of this month, then if their not gone we will get evicted.  
Cycling is the last thing on my our mind right now.   
I do not have children of my own, these are my babies, they complete my husbands and I lives.  I can't not function as a normal human being with out them.  

This is Fiona she was abandon and out side alone and very skinny for months on end, she came to us and only us. She would not approach any one even the local cat lady. 





This is Kahlua she was a trash cat.  Some lady stopped by the dumpster and threw her out of the car into the dumpster area.   Kahlua being a cat twisted her body and ended up landing in a bush.                                              I hope this get resolved as fast a possible.

HILL CLIMBING 2 7/10/2016 21.06 miles

Well my charm didn't work and my hubbies right.  The grade on our little hill is steeper than going up Neil Road.  So Hubby 1.  Me 0. 

Yay the road was closed off, so no unexpected cars veering around the corner.   But oh man their were a lot of people walking up and down the road. I mean a lot.   And we were getting the weirdest looks, because we were going up and down the hill over and over.  We did it about 5 times.    But I guess somebody my size isn't suppose to be able to do that.  And Mr easy rider, my hubby is just creaming me.  But the more I do it the better I'll get.    One lady we past several times that was walking up the hill said.  "Your riding up a really hard hill."        It is very hard.    And it's hard to believe at one time we avoided it.  Now were like here we come.


 I really enjoy seeing the kids faces when they see my Jersey.   Priceless just priceless.  A little girl with a huge smile on her face waved at me.   So I waved back.   Chris Jersey is on hold for now.  I think we should have some extra spending money at the end of August.  So I really can't wait.
Even thought the speedometer reads 19.95, it will probably read 21.06 give or take a few numbers.  Were not home yet.

 Had some more fun on the way back up thought the park.   We past a guy in the most decked    

1

out Jersey, shoes and in fact the whole enchilada.  He was bad ass.  Well  for all that he had he could not pass us.   I could hear him clicking though all this gears.   When we get dropped you know their professional.  This guy was not peddling easy and it took him a while to catch up with us. 
Yeah I have to admit racing is really fun.   I like it, Chris won't admit it but he likes it to.  

Side not I typed in Enchilada into Google to get the proper spelling and all these images came up.  It looks so good, I could even smell them.   nom nom nom.   But my version is going to     

 be toned down.   Less cheese.  Lot less cheese.

This is what Hill Climbing does to the average reading on the speedometer.

21.95 7/9/2016

 The weather in the morning has been nice really nice for bike riding.  It was a bit windy, but that fine.   S 15 mph  Gusts: 23 mph.    17 mph gust are good.  23 mph are pushing it for us.  
Here is the thing when your riding with the wind you all of a sudden become super cyclist, your invincible because your speeding along effortlessly.   Then you turn your bike around and ride back into the wind and your ego is hurt as you realize that the wind is no long at your back.  Whoop Whoop Whoop    
When Chris and I first road into the wind, it stopped us dead in our tracts, we had to walk  

bikes.   That is when going 2 1/2 miles was really the bomb.  

I love it.  We rounded a corner and a tiny tot was holding the lease of a small dog with the father and sister looking on.   With out the father saying a word he pulled the little dog out of the road and held onto the dog until we were gone.  So cute.  
Another totally crazy thing we saw were Giants on bikes.  I don't know how to say it other than that.  Chris is 6 feet 4 inches.  I'm  5 feet 9 inches.   I can not get on Chris Bike.   

The two guys that road by us had to be at least 6 feet 8 inches tall and their bike handle bars were level with my face.  Yes I stared and yes my mouth was open.  They both made Chris look tiny. But they were not heavy, they were both very lean, muscular and both wearing high end cycling jerseys.    

No turtles today or quail, heck we didn't see any animals today.  Weird.  But instead we got all of our minerals. How you might ask.  We were riding down the bike path and their was this guy with a leaf blower, blowing the crap out of a side

 parking lot, mind you he did see us.   Most of the time they stop to let people pass, nope not this time Chris and I got blasted with sticks, dirt and who knows what else.  I had to spit out a twig that got caught in my mouth and my eyes were filled with dust.  This is the only time I was glad that we didn't put on sun lotion.   Everything would have stuck to us. 

We passed a random pit bull wandering out by him self.   Kind of scary, but he seemed to be too tired, he was panting really hard, like he had been running.  So Whew...   We will run into a

dog that will chase us sooner or later.  That is not what I'm looking for to. 

Speaking of dogs their is a old lady with a tea cup chihuahua and the dog is old too.  She has a death wish for this dog I swear.  This dog is smaller than a squirrel.   She never ever has it on a leash and let is walk either too far behind her or too far ahead of her.    And here favorite places to take it are blind corners.  ARRRRGGGGHHH
When were coming home around a corner the last thing you need to have in your path is a dog that small.    We know to expect now, but in the beginning we almost creamed the dog twice.   

For tomorrow I'm going to have to turn the charm meter up on my hubby.   I want to practice my hill climbing, but not at the mini hill.    Neil Dow Rd is my aim.    

HILL CLIMBING 7/7/2016 14.10 miles

 As you can see my hubby is Mr speed demon going up hill.  I need to get some more practice in hill climbing, so were changing up our routine and adding hill climbing to the mix.   One day regular riding then the next day hill climbing, but not crazy.   We only went up and down four time, which was about a mile.  The steepest part is very short, yet very steep, that the picture below, with Chris disappearing around the corner.
The above picture is leading up to the steep part.  This area is right by Horse Shoe Lake, if you keep going straight ahead.   

It's steep, but not long enough, so were going to look around and see if we can find something equivalent to Honey Run Rd, if not this is going to have to do.
My average speed going up hill was 5 miles an hour. Whooo Hooo. LOL  
Chris average speed going up the hill was I think 7 or 8. 
Tomorrow we get to take a break. 

14.10 miles

Max Speed 21.4
21 miles an hour was going back down the hill to ride back up it again.

Now this is the Average speed for the entire ride.  This goes up and down a lot during the ride.  I really wish we had one of those computers that tracks every thing.   Now that would be neat.  

1 hour 11 minutes.

734.6 calories.

NEW BIKE SEAT 7/6/2013 16.95 miles

 YAY!   New bike seat.    Well it turned out that I had the first seat to far forward, this is what caused the break. So now I know.  Not going to let that happen again. 
Four days off the bike, no big deal.  Some of the cycling books I read say that you can take up to a week off, to give your body a full rest. 
 It was a really great day for a ride.  Seen a lot of cool stuff.  Over toward the bike path their is a small path that passes a really small pond and their a little drainage ditch.  Came around the corner and saw about 5 turtles sun bathing, no they didn't have on their little bikini's on.  But        they were so scared of us they all splashed into the water.  We stopped walked up to the edge and one was hiding and as soon as we looked at it, it

 fled the scene and hid in deeper water.  And I found some wild grapes and their ripe, so were going to go back and pick some.   Their not as sweet as store grapes, but their still good.

Well their a stretch of road called El Monte Ave it is only 0.5 miles.  Every time we come home I go as fast as I can on it. Their is a site called GCN Global Cycling Network.   And in their part on weight loss, they recommend after a ride, going hard at the end, because it revs up your metabolism and after your ride, just doing nothing you will burn more calories.
So I start out like I always do and go fast and hard.  15, 16, 17 ,19 , 20. miles an hour with Chris right behind me.   He's getting really good at keeping up.    As I'm flying along, another cyclist passes me, he going really fast, but not for long.  All of a sudden he starts dropping in speed 20, 19 miles an hour. So I passed him at 23 miles an hour, but that was only for a few seconds.  Mind you this is not easy and yes I am breathing very hard. I even drop it to 18 to 17 and he's now behind me, but not doing so good.    I stop at the intersection to wait for Chris who I found out later even passed the guy.   Now he was way skinnier than we were.   He had stopped under a tree and I could hear him hacking, coughing and heaving.   I read enough cycling do's and don't and for a woman to drop a guy isn't a don't,  but it's really the worst thing you can do.    That is why it feels so good.     Now as for my hubby he now's that I like going fast on this section of road, so I not dropping him.  That guy is question was racing me, that were the drop come in.
Hey we've gotten dropped plenty of time already.  We will be out on our ride flying along and a pack of cyclist will come by like were standing still.  Being skinnier has it's advantages.  So when I'm 180 pound I should be able to max that stretch of road at 30 mile an  hour.  Maybe.  
And what's funny is when I'm pushing my self hard like that the happy endorphins are going crazy, because I feel really (Really) good.   I do believe it's called a riders high.   Yup that right I get high on the bike. :D  LOL
 

LOL 7/2/2016

The Rec Room and office are being refitted with new locks and alarms and all that jazz.  So we can't get to the stationary bike to ride and that goes for tomorrow too.    LOL  Just our luck.   Here we come shopping mall. When you can't ride, you walk.     But it's going to be a Epic hour walk.   LOL        

7/1/2026 8.27 miles.

Yeah it was hot to day, but not as hot as that one day.  We did 8.27 miles ride today.
Yeah it's fun to go far,  but doing smaller ride are good too, because it all adds up in the end.   And it's better to do something rather than nothing.

What is so cute it we have two very young squirrels who live right around the corner and now every time we do a bike ride there, their coming and going, like clock works with tails swishing around and run to and from trees.  So cute.   So when we come to that spot we slow down because they come out of nowhere and the last thing we want to do is flatten a squirrel.      

And I broke my bike seat.  It broke right as I pulled up to the front door, talk about luck.  Well at 247, I'm not going to be stupied, it happened. The last time I broke my bike seat was a year ago.   Hopefully will more weight loss I will graduate to not breaking my seat.     In the beginning it was awefull. We both were continually getting more flats, bending and breaking our spokes, and bending the wheels and not to mention the seat.  Now it's not that bad, we've actually gone 8 months with no flat tires, no bent rims or spokes.  That's really nice.   Chris is pretty close to his ideal weight,  25 more pounds lost and he's right at his goal weight.   I on the other hand still have a ways to go.

On the ride today we were talking about running vs cycling and in the heat when you run you don't create any type of air, because your moving too slowly.  Cycling you always have air movement and like I said before that help so much.   Their were people running in the park and Chris and I were cringing.  

As for my bike seat,  that is going to present a problem.   Looks like it's back to the stationary bike for a while.