8/25

Had a good weekend. A small break in the routine. This weekend was a "bye" week for the group rides. So I didn't end up riding on Saturday at all. I actually spent prett ymuch the whole day lying on my couch watchng movies and napping. I got to watcht eh Browns play and have acouple beers. Overall a good day. Debbie and I got together for a buddy ride on Sunday. I actually got up earlier for that ride than I normally do for the group rides. We met at her parents' house in Solon and rode about 25 miles together. I rode my bike to her parents' house so that totaled me out at 42 for Sunday. After my ride I laid down in bed and iced the back of my knee (it's getting better, it really only bothers me every now and then on a long ride). I watched the end of "We Are Marshall" one of my favorite movies. I went there you know. Then puttered in the garden for a while. Really didn't do much this weekend but it was a good break from reality. My rides are getting easier and easier. Today is another hill day for me. We'll see how it goes this afternoon. I'm hoping for at least twice through Valley View.

8/20

Went on a ride with Debbie yesterday. I had a really nice ride. I went from Cleveland to Shaker lakes and rode around there for a while. Then I met up with Debbie and we rode probably another 10 miles then went home on Lee road. I like going through Shaker Lakes. It's so beautiful there. It's so much nicer than my regular ride home going straight up Broadway. Broadway is so depressing. It's dirty, the road is horrible, congested, and it goes through some rather depressed areas. Shaker Lakes is so much nicer. Not only does it have beautiful surroundings but it has people that are used to cyclists being on the road. I ended up riding 30 miles after work yesterday which topped me out at 40 miles for the day. My leg seems to be getting better. I didn't have any problems with the ride yesterday and i continue to ice it on a regular basis.

8/19

Yesterday was an interesting day. I was very concerned about the tendon in the back of my left knee. I've had a little bit of tendinitis since the ice cream ride. It's not normally noticeable except when I go on longer rides. It bothered me again on the ride on Saturday which was 54 miles. Rick told me that my seat was too high which makes perfect sense so I iced my knee pretty much all day on Tuesday then lowered the saddle about a centimeter which seems to have worked. I rode my regular hill ride and didn't really have problems with my knee but it's still a little sore and I suspect it'll just take some time to recover. Of course i won't really know if I solved the problem until I go on a longer ride which probably won't be for another week of so. But so far so good. :)

8/17

Had an excellent weekend. We rode 54 miles on Saturday. Charley and I managed to finish in just over 3 hours. We almost made our goal. I think I dragged us a bit because I've had some tendinitis in the back of my left knee and it was definitely slowing me down around the 40 mile mark. I talked to one of the coaches about it and he says my seat is too high. Now I need to adjust the seat and hopefully that'll solve my problem. Just about everybody finished the ride. Only one person had to be SAGged and she had a migraine that was making her dizzy. It was a hot one Saturday morning but I managed to pump lots of liquid into myself and really had no problems. I'm so impressed and proud of all of my teammates. They are all at different ability levels but each and every one of them push themselves to their limits to finish these rides. We are riding for a cure and that is a great inspiration. I didn't ride the rest of the weekend but did spend some up close and personal time with an ice bag. :) The rest of the weekend I got to spend with my son. We went to see GI Joe yesterday and we both liked it. Typical action movie. Good stuff.

8/12

Today I'm going on a buddy ride with Tammy, a fellow teammate. Looking forward to riding around on the west side for a change. That means I need to haul my cookies home in a hurried fashion today. I'm feeling a little tired from my hill ride yesterday but i didn't over do it. I only took the hills in Valley View once. I had originally thought to take them 3 times but it was really windy and I had other things to do once I got home. I managed to ride my 13 mile (actually 15) hill ride anyhow. The fundraising is winding down at this point. I sold the last of my candy today. I don't have any more events planned and I'm still waiting for a few donations which should put my fundraising minimum over the top.

8/11

We had a challenging ride for our group ride this week (at least it was for me). I really wasn't feeling it for the ride. I was tired and my legs just didn't seem to work the way I wanted them to. We rode from Peninsula, out of the valley around the area and back into the valley. The whole ride ended up being just slightly over 40 miles. I'm not sure how long it took me. I remember that I averaged 16.6 MPH which I guess still puts me on pace for my goal at Sea Gull but it was not very satisfying. The best part of the ride was going to the Winking Lizard afterwards with my fabulous teammates. It was nice to have a beer and good conversation. I was really worn out after the ride. Saturday night I got some stuff together for the pancake breakfast then hit the hay around midnight. Got up early Sunday morning to gather my things and headed off to the church. I sang and played my guitar in the service which went pretty well. Then I hurried down to the kitchen to start cooking. I was by myself for a while but a few church members came and bailed me out. The breakfast was a success. We had some good food and everyone enjoyed themselves. We were able to raise a fair amount for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Three of us also got up and played our guitars and provided some entertainment. It looks like I'll meet my minimum pretty soon.

Our ride:

8/3

I had an excellent weekend. This weekend was my parents' 5oth wedding anniversary. They had a big party and we all had a wonderful time. Saturday morning we did our group ride around Perry, Oh. (Where the nuclear power plant is located). It was a great ride. We went 40 miles, which i managed to turn into 43. It was a rather flat ride and had some beautiful scenery especially on the last residential road that followed the lake. We also passed what seemed to be county wide garage sale day. I couldn't believe how many garage sales there were. The whole town of Perry had a garage sale that day. It seems I can't have a bike ride without some sort of issue. This weekend was the fact that I wrote the directions down wrong and took a 3 mile detour. Then once back on course I hit some railroad tracks too fast and broke a spoke in my wheel. In the past I've always blamed mechanical issues on the fact that my bike is so old but this one was definitely on me. I have a brand new back wheel so the spoke definitely didn't break because it was old. But overall it was a good ride. I managed to go 43 miles in 2 hours and 35 minutes. That's averaging 17.7 MPH to those of you keeping track. Not bad considering I got lost and had to find my way.