6/29/2016 9.57 miles

Was sitting at a coffee shop and the whole time I'm sitting their all I can thinking about is riding the bike.    So we did a very short ride today.  9.57 miles in the park.  It was a tad cooler then it was on the 28th.    Today is our break day, so no bike riding. We are also hold off going to Oroville until the temperature come down at lest to 90 ish to 80 ish, because the whole way going and coming their is no shade, were going to be baked potatos.  

STATIONARY OR BUST 6/28/2016 12.32 miles

6/28/2016
Decided to take the ride in doors today.  We really don't like the stationary bikes, but when push comes to shove were glad there,their and this is the best way to get our cycling fix.
We both did 12.32 miles today.
The Pro's and Con's of the Stationary bike.
Pro's
1. Their, their when you need them.
2. Your in doors.
3.  Air conditioning.  Well sometimes.
4. You work harder.



Con's
1. Their is absolutely no breaks, if you stop the timer stops.
2. You can't coast or come to a stop.
3. You can not stand up on the bike and peddle at the same time.   (for long rides that feels great)
4.  Looking at four walls gets really boring.
5. Out side you get the breeze to evaporate your sweat and make you feel cool.
6. The seats are literally a pain in the butt.   Because you tooshee is adjusted to your own bike seat.
7.  Getting off the seat is very painful, because your not use to riding on a wider seat.

HEAT WAVE 6/27/2016 8.56 miles

Well I figured out what's going on and why it's so much hotter than the last couple of times we rode out when it was really hot.  Their is absolutely no cool breeze what so ever.  Just a small little cool breeze really takes the burn of the heat off the ride and so far every time we have rode any where it's been their and it's been really nice.   But for the last 4 days or so it's been a horrible warm to hot breeze.  Well that solves that.  And guess what (sarcastic meter on high) The heat wave isn't going any were.     So all we can do is slather on the super glue, oh yeah sun lotion, drink lot's of water and hope we don't exploded into a fire ball.   
Their are two parts of our ride that I do not like.  Going under the freeway bridges.  When you enter under the bridge it's like riding blind, because one moment your in the bright sun and the next your in the dark and it takes your eyes a while to adjust.    Here I go underneath the bridge with Chris right behind me.  I see the top shape of a man and his arm his stretched out to the right.  Why would his arm be like that?  DOG!  And it was a small one too.  It was completely invisible to me, until I past it at a safe distance.    Whew!

1 mile was so crowded with people swimming, sun bathing and what not.  The time I don't take my camera is the time were it's so busy it's crazy.  

6/27/2016  We only did 8.56 miles today.    Yeah I know really killed it today.  ;)    

SIZZLING TO DURHAM AND BACK 16 miles

The heat is zapping our energy. 

6/23/2016 & 6/24/2016 we took a break.   It's been really really hot and even getting up in the morning isn't working.   Heat waves suck! Their I said it.   

Did a ride out to Durham on 6/25/2016 in the morning and it was the worst ride ever, even thought I did have a good meal the night before.   I was not feeling the love, but what I was feeling was just fatigue. Chris was in get it over mode.  When the weather gets funky he gets more focused on the task at hand, so of course he was zipping ahead of me.   What should have been a easy 16 miles turn into very hard ride.   And when you stop, you suddenly realize how hot it is, because all of a sudden it's water works.  When your moving your sweat evaporates while your moving.    Yuck.  

 From our rest area in Durham, which is as a school park, their was a lot of activity.  Even though you can hardly see it, their is a swimming trials going on.  We could hear on your mark, get set, BANG.  A lot of commotion and fun. 

 Took time to take some flattering mug shots.  So we can keep track of our weight loss.  
I call it the zombie stance.   I know it totally does not look like it, but 5 more pounds and I'll be a size 10 (tall). 
I'm 247 now.

  Here is hubby doing the Zombie.
He got the surprise of his life. We walk in mall regularly and for kick and giggles we decided to go into Jc Pen-wahs.  (Jcpenney's)  and try on some pants to see if we had actually lost more weight. It had been a while and his pants were really lose.   Low and behold he is now a 38x30 in his pants size.  He use to be a 48x30.     Good Job.
He is now 234.


I don't know if were going to do a bike ride today either.?   I can't wait till this heat wave is over.   

15.23 miles 6/22/2016

Hubby tells me oh we don't need any cliff bars, were not going to go that far, then five miles in he's like let's stop by Rite Aid and pick some up, I don't feel like we've done enough. :)  We were going to do just 8 miles and ended up doing 15.23 miles.  

Our next big Challenge is ride to Oroville CA.   That is exactly 26.2 miles there and the round trip would be 52.4.  

Not all 50 mile rides are the same.   So just because it's another 50 miles there will be a different set of challenges.  Google maps is a good reference, but we got to be careful  some times when you actually out on the rode you can easily pass up a route and add more miles on.
I'm really happy that the Cold Creek Crossing Gas Station in right in the middle.   That really helps.

Oh gee and I get to get zapped some more.  oh joy.  :(  oh well.   My hubby has no idea what he's missing.  

When we went to Butte College and back home to have lunch, we did take a half hour break, before going to It's a Grind.  So were going to probably going to have to bring lunch with us.   But were not going to do this during a heat wave.  Too hot.  

ZAP!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had my own X-File for the last two week.  Note: My hubby is completely immuned to getting zapped.  Well I'm not, sigh.   For the life of me I was like whats going on.   First I thought it was a bee, fire ant or some sort of insect'(s)  biting the ever loving tarnation out of the bottom of my left hand thight.   Yeah and it was weird too that it only happens on the left hand side of my thight and not the right.   Well I can tell you this much it really hurts, because it does not happen just one time, it happens about 4 to 5 times.   And it makes me scream.   Coming back down Neil Dow Road from Paradise really fast I had the pain and it's not like you can stop really fast with some one behind you.    When I did managed to stop, no bite marks, nothing.     Ok not bugs then what?  Next idea we go really fast, so maybe the lose rocks were getting caught in the tire and being flung under my thigh?    Well it make sense for a bit and then nope that not it either, because the whole way is nothing but lose rocks.   It would be happening a lot, in fact the whole way.     Next idea and this was the right one.  Finally I had a answer, but it's quite shocking.       It's the high voltage power lines.   When we cycled out to Butte College I got zapped going underneath the power lines and that is when I put to and to together.
But why my hubby is not getting zapped that the next mystery?   All I have to say he's just lucky.
 Here a link to copy and paste and understand the why and the how.
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29016/cyclists-electrical-tingling-under-power-linesis 

50.02 miles 6/20/2016

On the:
6/17/2016  we did  12.56 miles.
6/18/2016 break
6/19/2016 break

I've been wanting to go to Butte College for a while now and we did it, it's that that far off the beaten path from Durham.   And the plus side is even if some parts of the college are closed their is access to water.   The climb up the hills to the college were not as bad as we anticipated, so that was nice.

Stop by Clear Creek Crossing Gas station for some much needed Gatorade.   mmmmmm    It was very hot.  The hill in the back ground is by Butte College.

We crossed 99 four time to day.   Two time at Durham Pentz Rd and Two times at East Eaton Rode.

Their is a very delightful creek we follow on Oroville Chico Highway.   Parts of it go though people front yards so nice and refreshing to look at.  

After 30 miles we went home and ate lunch, before heading back out to go to It's a grind. 

Well I'm glad we were not here when it fell.  Came around and corner and tree in the path.    We had to craw under it. 
I've lived in Chico for 26 years and when your on a bike their are still places to find.  We rode though a whole section of town today that had never ever been.   

 50.02 miles

 4 hours 8 minutes

 Max speed 23.4

Average speed 12.0 

2520.3   Now that some calories burned.  












Which make the coffee even that much more yummier.  :)   Tomorrow is absolutely no cycling.    Rest day tomorrow. 

6/16/2016 12.73miles

  6/15/2016    Break.

6/16/ 2016
12.73 miles
22.2 Max speed
13.7 Average speed.
55:45 Minutes.
702.9 Calories.

The weather today was really nice, it kind of went from overcast to sunny to overcast again.


Here the tally from 5/18/2016 to 6/16/2016  It took us one month and two days to go:
382.63 miles and burn 21,537.1 calories.  I had to type that up twice, to make sure.

Feeling happy.  

32 & 52.76 miles 6/14/2016

 What a perfect day to be out on a bike and riding with my hubby.  Feeling Awesome.  

 Hey look who hitch a ride on me.  Beautiful. It looked just like a petal off a flower. I'm going to see if I can find out what it was.  It was too small to try to transfer on to a plant, so I just left it.  It has to be some sort of beetle.  

 Coming back down some kids in a car were looking at my cat and their faces were priceless.
As I was looking at them I was going 16 miles an hour and look back to see were hubby was and OMG he's gone!!!!!  Panic. He decided to were brown shirt today, why I do not know, but he was so far back he blended with the brown grass.  He had stop to answer the phone.   But for a split second I thought he was lying in the grass from a fall.    He had a good laugh after I told him.  

 After our water fight.  Ahh cool and refreshing.  We both had cliff bars to refuel.  
Chris decided to call it quits at 32 miles. But then he told me after the fact that he did not eat as much as he should have.    I on the other hand had some energy so I kept peddling 52.76 miles more.    And oh man.   Yes it was hard and yes my butt and legs are sore.   I felt feral.  
I am beginning to realize something.  Chris is good at climbing endurance and I'm better at distance endurance.

50 miles into the ride, this guy comes up besides me and want to race.   Um no.  If I would have been fresh out the gate I could have whipped his ass and how do I know that, because he had to stand up on a mild upgrade and was not doing so well.
   When I got to 49 miles a little buzzer when off in my head that said Home...go home.   I didn't even take a break, I turn the corner at 1 mile and went home.

Out by my self.  

 13.1 is my Average speed felling pretty good about that.

Now take into consideration this is a half century.
A full century would be
100 miles
8 hours
5663.4 calories burn.

P.s no cycling for me tomorrow.  Nope nope and nope.

18.23 & 29.23 Miles 6/12/2016

Some of the cool metal bike art work we pass on our rides.  This is the intersection that leads to  Keefer Road loop, but we did not go that way today.
 We made our way in a big loop from.
Horse Shoe Lake to the intersection of Cohasset, then back down the bike path to the Esplanade, cut across Mangrove then cut thought the Bidwell park.  




 

 This is the bike path that lead you all the way to down town Chico.  If I were to look back from this picture the metal bike art is right behind me.

Hubby headed home.   He felt that he did enough.  He did a total of 18.02 miles.  I on the other hand was feeling really good, so I kept on going.  

When cycling you really have to listen to your body and let it tell you what it want you to do.  I been in middle of rides and as soon as I feel something is not right I will go home, and Chris will do more riding.  With four years of riding, we now understand what our limits are.  And like my coffee binge, the food you eat the previous day really affect you the next day.   That being said Chris is listening to the advice given by the
The BIG Book of Training we have.  
I ended up riding 29.23 miles further, but after my last rest stop at Upper Park, I was like ok, time to head home.  I was tired.  

29.23 miles, 1503 calories and 2 hours & 15 minutes.

It's hard to believe that at one time going 2 1/2 mile to upper park and 2 1/2 miles home was so exhausting, it was a huge deal.




This is one of the book we got kind of after the fact.  But there is so much good advice in there.  Great Book to start off with.  Chris and I have always eaten healthy and very simple and I think that also played a key in losing the weight.     Coffee???   What Coffee?? Who me?    Yeah Coffee is my down fall, but I've been drinking ice coffee.












This is our new book we got and it is helping us train for doing 100 miles.   It's packed for every thing under the sun.  
Going 100 miles is not easy, it's extremely and mentally exhausting.    All I've heard so far is that 60 miles is the dead zone, were people drop like flies. I don't want to drop, I want to keep on going.    Once you get pass 60 you'll make it to 100.  

I'm so happy that were back up to were we should be.  We just have to keep pushing.   Tomorrow is our break day.   No riding, maybe a hour walk, but that it.

6/11/2016 9 MILES MORE

UPDATE:

Well after about 2 hours after our first bike ride, hubby got the itch to get back on the bike.  So we did another 9 miles today, but unlike the first 15 which we did slow the 9 miles we did pretty hard.

6/11/2016  24.20 miles in all 1 hour and 54 minutes and 1265.8 calories.

15 miles 6/11/2016

Very windy ride today.   NNW to N the wind was from 8 miles an hour to 17 miles an hour, with gust ranging from 16 to 30 miles an hour.   Yes this does make cycling very difficult and even on a slow steady ride it can wear you out.  But it all depends which way your facing, if the wind is at your back, you all of a sudden become a super star, because now all of a sudden your going faster than you have ever before.  Then you turn around and your like aww shit.     And then their is the wind from the side, oh joy.  It whips you from side to side.    In the beginning if the wind was to strong it literally stops you in your tracks.  So many time in the very beginning we would have to get off the bike and walk.  Now it's hard, but we can ride in it.     6/ 11/2016 We did a 15 mile bike ride today and our average speed was a balmy 11 miles an hour, oh joy.   

2/10/2016   We took a break.

21.56 miles 6/9/2016 + 12 miles 6/8/2016

No we didn't go to Paradise again.
 I didn't take any pictures today so I posted the first time we when to Paradise.  Why?   Well in this picture we were so exhausted that we basically just put the bikes down and crashed on the spot.   And it reminds me of how far we have really come.   

Any-hoo  6/8/2016 (w   a   s)  some what of a flop we did 12 miles really slowly.   We ended up taking another 10 mile ride around 3 o'clock.  What a difference. It really felt good and made up for feeling so bleh.    It's so true, if we don't do something our whole day feels wrong.  It's the mind set.   And what is really amazing about mind set's,  is that even before you go on a ride. The first moment you start thinking of the riding, even if it's the night before, your body prepares it's self.   And if you don't do the anticipated ride, your body goes into a temper tantrum mode, and believe me when it does that you listen.    So all in all we ended up doing 12+10= 22 miles so it ended up being saved from being a flop day.


6/9/2106    Today was really good we did 21.56 miles, 1 hour and 49 minutes and we burned 1094.4 calories.    Their are ground squirrels all over the place and of course the common grey squirrels.   Both are cute.   But grey squirrels have death wishes, they tend to be the one's who run in front of the

bikes at the possible last minute.   So far they all have been lucky.

  Learned some thing I did not now about dogs in the park. Upper park, by Horse shoe lake is totally lease free.  I did not now this and know that I do, I will have to keep my eyes wider.   Because dogs they literally come out of no were.   Coming back down a side rode one time and pretty fast at the last possible moment a dog came crashing out of the brush along side the road and directly in front of my bike.  How ever even though I was on the road, I got chew out for almost creaming his dog? Well I would have gotten creamed to, it was a big dog.   If I had been a car driving about 15 miles an hour I would have hit the dog.    I respect people who truly have their dogs trained.

One time I was on a dyke and this lady was getting out of a car, we struck up small talk and she told me how well her dogs were trained.  She let the dogs out of the car and they both were gone chasing a jack rabbit.   I stood there watching her yelling angrily and calling the dogs back to the car.  And what amazed me I came back by the same area about a hour and a half later and she still did not have her dog under control.      So when some one says their dog is trained, it might not mean what they think it means.   

  I love pipe vine swallow tails, but I do not like hitting them, which I have done. :(   They seem to fly out of no were and hit me square in the face.

   And there is lot's of Swallow tails out and about too, these don't seem to fly as low as the pipe vines, so I have never hit one.

BLEH! 8 miles

Well every day can't be a great day.   6/6/2016 & 6/7/2016 were a no go.   But taking a two day break is totally find,  no big deal, it happens, as long as it does not last 3 weeks.  We got up put our gear on and headed out the door at a rip roaring 8 to 12 miles and hour the whole way.   Yhoo Hoo were kicking ass now.  NOT!    Either I did not get enough sleep or it was the three chocolate truffles I had yesterday.    Yesterday......yeah.     I confess food wise yesterday was a total disaster.   It was my mom's birthday and well I kind of fell off the good wagon and landed on the binging wagon.  I had 2 1/2 coffees Mochas and three truffles.   Does not seem like a lot, but energy wise it killed me.    My hubby is laughing at me, because I don't binge drink on alcohol I binge on coffee and chocolate.  

When you go into See's candy who in their right mind is going to turn down a free truffle?   That's one.    Then mom offered me another when she opened her gifts, that two.  And the chocolate affected my judgement and I had three.  It's so good.    But yup that what made riding nearly impossible, I felt like crap.    When your going to jump on the bike (ALWAYS) make sure your eating very healthy, because that is were you get your energy.    Going to eat a good veggie stir fry tonight and make up for the gut bomb that was yesterday.    

6/5/2016 RIDING IN THE HEAT 20 miles

RIDING IN THE HEAT 100 +

Taking a break in the little bit of shade from the map showing all the trails in the park.   It's better than nothing.   Chris is literally on fire in speed and endurance, he's got the right color on.

When riding in the heat we always try to keep the rides very short from 8, 10 to 12 miles and no more.   We bring lot of water to keep hydrated and yes slather on the good old sun lotion, which after a while feels like Elmer's Glue. The Paradise ride we really luck our on how cool it was, so it was good timing on our part.

My hubby saw this cycling jersey and it was love at first sight.  LOL  It's the cookie monster.   He love his home made cookies I make it with a passion.  And it is cute.  So why not.   Were having fun when we ride.
 So It's going to be my Black Cat cycling jersey and the cookie monster.  :D   My hubby is so excited to get his jersey.  But of course bills first.

  6/3/2016
We did a 8 mile ride just to keep our legs happy.  After we came back down from Paradise on the 2nd, the next day our legs were not sore, but the back of our tights had a great work out from all the climbing.  And a nice 8 mile ride worked out any kinks.

6/4/2016   BREAK DAY!  
Today we walked for a hour in the mall.

6/5/2016
Did a 12 mile ride today and yes it was still frying.  

When you ride in the heat the movement of the bike creates your own personal air conditioning. It's quite nice when at least their a cool breeze, but to day no cool breeze.   But even so a warm or hot breeze still dries up your sweat.  But as soon as you stop, it's water works, yuck, but it's part of exercising.  I hate stopping for stop signs, because when your not moving on the bike, your all of a sudden realize how hot it really is.



   

This is just too much.  LOL

   

OUR 2ND TIME UP TO PARAIDE 6/2/2016 30.81

Update:  The New bridge support system is being build.  There digging into the rock.  

WE ROCKED TODAY!
My hubby was hard core, he stopped for breaks, but he can truly say he road all the way. WOW!   I took breaks too, but I had to walk up the really steep parts.
The first time we went up it took us 4  hours to reach the top.   This time it took us 1 1/2 hours.  We both were really surprised.
We woke up a 7:oo, had oat meal with bananas and milk and headed out the door. 

We both kept a speed or  13 to 14 miles an hour.  On the straightaways of course a little faster.   The up hill grade was brutal.  But it was very cool, shaded and so nice in the morning.  

Right behind hubby.

It was not until we got home that I realized why hubby was killing it.    My bike had a broken axle, as in broke in half.  So yeah I road all the way to Paradise and down Neal road with a broken axle and I survived to tell the tail.  

Our first break after a hour of riding.  Drinking water and eating a bite of our cliff bars.   Some kind of rodent came crashing thought the bushes toward us.   Was a little bit unnerving.   What ever it was it was loud and fast.  Maybe a large rodent.   

The Road ahead and this isn't the steep part.

Looking back down in the valley.

At the half way point with my best friend.   I don't think we look as ragged as when we did it the first time.

Some of the stuff you see on the road. 

Getting serious and focused. 

We made it. :)  Paradise California. 

The road were we came from.

Update:  The store behind us was burned in the Camp fire. :(

And now time to relax at Coffee's On. 

Up date: A Starbucks now stand here, it was untouched by the fire.

Yes it's coffee and Yes I'm drinking it.   Beside coffee taste better after 13 miles up hill.

Going back down Neil Dow Road.

On the road down some bug decided it did not like me and stated to sting me.   I stared screaming and stop the bike.   Don't know what it was?  But man that really hurt.   It's kind of hard to stop fast when your flying at 31 miles an hour.

Update. It was not a bug, it was the power lines.     

MILES

Max Speed.

Average Speed. 

Hours

Calories.