KABOOM 4. miles

Well August was suppose to be a good month.    Between Chris bike gears not working and his sprain, at lease he still ride it, when his leg gets better.

On the other hand my bike.  Yeah!   I decided to do some hill training yesterday.   Every thing was going fine until I was on my third lap.  On the way up I switch the gears to making going up hill easier and the chain fell off the gears and lodged in between the spokes.   The first time I was like ok, I flipped the bike over and fixed it, no problem.  Rode back down to start over.   Half way up again CRUNCH!   This time it was stuck, really stuck.   UGGH!!!    So I had to call my mother in law to be rescued.    While I waited for her I broke the bike down so it would fit into her car and discovered something else.


The doo hicky above the white arrow on the right that looks like a little hat is  a quick release cap.  This is what keeps the tire tightened to the bikes hub .  It's a log piece of thin metal that slides thought the hub it's self and is tightened with another small cap.     Well when I spun it off to remove it, I could not pull it out.  I had to pull really super hard and it finally came out, with the thing the arrow is pointing at, that is not suppose to come out.   UH OH!   When I looked at the quick release metal part is was bent.  2nd UH OH!.       The arrow on the right is pointing to the 1st UH OH! this is the housing for the bearings, and it should be flush with the second arrow on the left.  I should easily push back into it's housing.  No matter what I did it would not, and to top that off a few bearings fell out.   ARRHGGG!      CRAP!     So yeah, no riding for me until this is fix.    My new bike can't get here fast enough.
I don't know if I said this before, but we really rode these bike.   June 2015 we put around 490 miles on them, and the next month  540 miles.   And a whole lot more.   

8/8/2016 & 8/9/2016 17.32 & 17.32 miles

Lonely ride today and yesterday.  Hubby had a bad week, with his bike and a sore leg, from a sprain and the fact his bike gears are bent.   So he's been mostly resting while I go out by my self.   :(  Does not feel right. 

8/8/2016   17.32 miles.  I went all out gang buster style.  I keep on telling my self  I'm going to take it easy this time, but my legs have other plans.    Just sticking to the old stand by for know. From Winco to horse shoe lake, then back to 1 mile and home.    Told you we keep close to home.   

8/9/2016  17.32 miles.  Did two laps on the hill we've been training on.  Got a nice sneer from a lady cyclist I passed, that what is this fat chick think she doing.   That 240 pounds, 20 miles an hour fat chick by the way.  Well may be not going up a steep hill, but I kill it on the straightaways.   I really excited about my lighter new bike.   I'm going to go even faster.  Ok clam down, breath in, breath out......ok.   :)    Yes I am excited.   

I do not know what it is with that one corner ?  We came around a blind corner and right in our path was a lady doing push ups.  WHAT????   Why?   Well came around the same corner and their is a kid on his bike not looking where he's going and looking at his cell phone.  WHY!!!!   If your going to ride a bike. RIDE!   Keep the phone off the bike.   Sheesh that was not fun.    I would never get strap for my phone to be on my bike.           

8/3/2016 12 miles

Did yet another 12 miles yesterday and yes the ground squirrels were every were.   They remind me of little surf board, because when they run they skip across the dry grass and their bodies are so stream line and long.  It's a sight to see.  
Ok yeah I have bike on the brain.  I wish I could buy it right now, but I have to wait. :(     I usually very patient, but it's a new bike!
Well as fate has it while we were talking about him getting a new bike for him self.  His bike that was park next to the bench does dive to the ground and bends the gear sifter next to the chain.   And with hitting the brick wall, I think that was part of what make it crack.    He can still ride it, but he can't sift gears.    Now it looks like he's going to get a new bike.

Instead of getting a Trek like I am, he just going to stick with the Diamond back.   

Note: Both cookie pictures are the same cookie, cooked two different ways.   If you are interested in the Recipe I suggest you check out my  Other Blog site called  http://susenkitchencorner.blogspot.com/
Then  type into the search bar AVOCADO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.  You find the old version and the newer version.
  I been toying around with the idea to come up with my own energy bar.  Yes the Cliff bars work great and they are reasonably cheep 99 cent is not bad. On a good week of riding that is over 12 mile mark, Chris and I can eat at least about 20 cliff bars.  That is one cliff bar for every hour of riding and 2 for every hour of riding two hours.   That comes out to $19.80 a week or $79.00 a month.  That's only if we keep up or riding and do over 300 to 400 miles in a month. 
If I make home made cliff bars we get more bag for our buck.   Now for the idea I already make a very healthy version of Avocado Chocolate chip cookies that is 76 calories for each cookie, the old version was 187 calories.  If I can modify the cookie recipe to include more healthy stuff like figs, and nuts and the other good stuff that gives us our pep, during the ride.  It would save us $$.  And this way we could really control the sugar amount in each bar.  This might be a work in progress.  But I am going to see what I can do.   My hubby is ecstatic about the idea cookies for energy bars.     

NEW BIKE YES I'M EXCITED

Well I didn't win a bike, but hubby is getting me a new bike.  YA It's a Trek 7200 fx.  A friend of mine has one and it's feels so smooth. They let me ride it around and it was love at first ride.  

And no way are we ditching our old bikes.  They are the one's that started our weight loss journey.  But I do have to admit in the beginning we were not very knowledgeable about up keep.  But now we are.      No more bending the rims, no more spokes popping off, or bending anything.   That is so nice.    I can't wait.   And toward the beginning of September he's is also going to get a new bike.     The old bikes are going to be shorter rides and the new bike are going to be for longer rides.   I can't part with our old bike, there is just too much blood, sweat and tears put into the bikes.      

8/2/2016 OUR BREAK DAY well sort of. 6.6 miles

Today was our break day, but I still ended up riding 6.6 miles, but this was not all at the same time.  We did our exercise today to make up for the fact we did not do a long ride.  We have 10 different thing we do.   

My poor hubby fell of his bike, well not quite.  His peddle hit the corner of a brick wall and he toppled and the wall broke his fall, but he was balanced on it and could not pull him self off.  So I had to pull him up. Poor guy, well at least he didn't fall off all the way.  

I posted a picture of the Fresh Peach and Cherry smoothie I made a couple of days ago.  Really hits the spot on a hot day. No sugar added, it was sweet enough on it's own.    

8-1-2016 14.57 Miles.

Getting back on track.   And yes we did see more quail, but at a safe distance and their was babies, about the size below, with the male. Tiny baby quail are fluffy balls of cuteness.

Well I guess I got a fan.  Came down the road and a little girl who look to be 9 or 10 was wide eyed and waving at me.  Cute.   

When we go to coffee shops before our ride we take our big back packs that carries our computer.  I was like all loaded up and went what the heck I got on the scale.  I weighed 270 pound.   Right now I weigh 242.   Yeah you can say the back pack is heavy.  

 

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7/31/2016 12 miles

Did 12 miles yesterday.  Very good ride.   But I really do think the quail have it out for us, not yesterday, but today on our short ride to the coffee shop we had a herd of 20 to 25 quail flew in front of us safely.  Chris and I looked at each other and started laughing.  
Yippy the rest of August is going to be hot, but not 108-110.  mostly 99 to 92 with only two day being 101. 

Week got three week and two day of good riding together, then Chris goes back to Chico State.   So riding with my hubby is going to be a challenge.  And any long ride together are going to be a problem to, because he will be studying.    So a new month with new challenges.