Motivated to Succeed

7:25 AM - Sunny and blue skies temperature of about 44 degrees at the start and 75 at the end. Went biking before the Memorial Day parade in Galway this morning. Did about 31 miles followed by another 20 after the parade was done. The parade is always good because you see just how many people there are in this small town. It seems that every person in the town shows up for the festivities. Sometimes a bit weird though when you run into half the people you graduated high school with. Kind of like a mini reunion.

Funny thing at about mile 6 this morning, going up a hill and two deer jump out of the woods onto the road and just freeze. This was my maiden voyage with my new rims that I bought last week so I wanted to test them out. They are really quiet though and smooth riding. I had to scare the deer off the road so they wouldn't charge me by clearing my throat really loudly. Saw a couple other bikers out there. None waved back when I greeted them.. humbugs!

Biked into Charlton and back for the first half, then up around Galway Lake (big mistake. The roads up there are so bumpy and uneven!). Coming down into the village, I was speeding, going 38 in a 30 oops! Then I was drafting off a Ford Ranger pickup and look over on the left, and theres four police officers chatting probably about doughnuts and coffee. Luckily for me they didn't pull me over! Biked to my house, and then went around the block for the last 5.5 miles. Kind of funny that in the country to go around the block you have to drive that far!

Emma and I had a yard sale at her house on Friday and Saturday and sold a lot of stuff. All the profits are going into the wedding fund. We're going to try to sell more stuff next weekend too! So far total profits to date: $892.20!!!

Total Time: 2:51:43  Total Distance: 51.12 miles  Average Speed: 17.9mph

8:15 AM - Sunny and blue skies, a bit breezy. Temperature at the start was cold and only about 38 degrees. I biked to Saratoga and met my mom and Su at Borders for coffee and a bagel. Su had to bring her car into the shop to get a tire fixed an an oil change. I hung out there for a bit and then biked home, via Ballston-Galway Road which goes by Pizza Etc. I felt really strong today for some reason and there was no soreness from yesterday's ride. I think I'll take that as a sign that I am definitely getting stronger!

Total Time: 1:59:30  Total Distance: 35.01 miles Average Speed: 17.6 mph

 4:00 PM - Cloudy and breezy. Temperature in the high 50s or low 60s. Decided to go biking with my sister Su to the track. She was going to go jogging with a friend but we wanted to go sooner rather than later as it looked like rain. Plus I had just finished a paper I have to hand in tomorrow so I suited back up and went on a recovery ride with her. It was really nice, though she didn't get to run as the track team was using the whole track when we got there. Biked home afterwards.

Total Time: 41:46 Total Distance: 9.09 miles  Average Speed: 13.0 mph

*Another two miles (10:00) around the house after the second ride, chasing Aggie and then went around the property and down onto the road and pulled Harry albeit slowly on his skateboard. He really likes "boarding" as he calls it.

8:00 AM - Very chilly, in the mid 40s and rain, rain, rain. As I sat on my bike on the windtrainer in the garage this morning watching the rain pour down onto the hood of my car and pool in puddles around the basketball hoop, I started thinking about how much I've done in my short-ish life. In the last 22+ years I have done a lot: Eagle Scout, 13 years of perfect attendance, rode my bike from Ticonderoga, NY to Old Orchard Beach, ME, earned my BA in History, nearly earned my MS in Adolescent Education, completed 2 marathons and most recently 1 century ride. Oh yeah... and gotten engaged to my best friend!!! So as I was sitting there on the bike I was pondering where I am going in life, how much lies ahead of me, and everything that came before today. I feel like life is getting increasingly complex, and I truly am starting to understand the argument that there are not enough hours in the day.

Today's book of choice was Stewart Lee Allen's The Devil's Cup: Coffee, the Driving Force in History. I read the first 68 pages in Allen's work, and boy was it interesting! Perhaps one of the most interesting passages was towards the end of the ride when I was reading about the first known suppression of coffee drinking which began June 20, 1511 by Mecca's religious police. They testified that coffee caused mental alterations in the drinker and was therefore a type of 'wine' outlawed by Islamic law and the Koran. It's interestig to look at historical interpretations and how much society has chagned over the centuries. To think that people viewed coffee as an intoxicant is mind boggling. While I know it is a stimulant, I hardly think you can put it in the realm of drugs such as marijuana, opium, alcohol, etc etc. I will try to read more of this book tomorrow!

On a sadder note, today is my last bike ride as a 22 year old. Tomorrow I will be an old man of 23. :(

Total Time: 1:00:30  Total Distance: 20 miles

10:30 AM - Today's my 23rd Birthday! Temperature about 50 or so. Rainy and misty; much like all those cool pictures of the highlands and such. I went outside and hopped on the bike and read more from Stewart Lee Allen's The Devil's Cup.  Today's 70+ pages I read were really interesting. They centered on the Islamic World and the Christendom during the 15th-17th centuries and the various rules and laws enacted with regards to coffee drinking. There was an interesting passage about Murad IV, an Islamic ruler in the early 1600s that actually went out at night in disguise to the various cafes in Istanbul to root out enemies. He was chronically driven by a fear of being killed and targeted (as any ruler probably would be, eh?) and in the process of going to cafes and taverns he found that most of the people in taverns were simply drunk off their butts and talking incoherently or about nothing of importance. On the other hand, the cafes were frequented by intellectuals that he feared were plotting the undoing of government. He went so far to make it punishable by death and beheading of anyone visiting a cafe, drinking coffee, growing a coffee plant, or found with coffee beans on their person. In addition, no coffee was allowed to be exported from the Turkish Empire. Up until the early 1700s, the Islamic World maintained its monopoly on the yummy stimulant.

Total Time: 1:00:30  Total Distance: 20 miles

"Since hot beverages were rare and water unsafe, workers took midmorning beer breaks. Beer for breakfast, ale for lunch, stout with dinner, and a few mugs in between. The average Northern European, including women and children, drank three liters  of beer a day. That's almost two six-packs, but often the beer had a much higher alcoholic content. People in positions of power, like police, drank much more. Finnish soldiers were given a ration of five liters of strong ale a day (as much alcohol as about seven six-packs, or about forty cans)."

"Almost everything had some liqor in it, especially medicines. Anything that wasn't deliberately fermented went off in the summer heat. In the winter, the beer froze, causing the alcohol to separate into high-proof liquor. We can be sure the resulting moonshine did not go to waste. To make matters worse, the main nonalcoholic source of nutrition, bread, is now believed to have been plagued with the hallucinogenic fungus ergot, the base ingredient for LSD. Drunk doctors, tipsy politicians, hungover generals: the plague, famine, and war. Add a pope on acid, and medieval Christianity starts to make a whole lot of sense."   

- pp. 128-129 from The Devil's Cup, by Stewart Lee Allen

5:30 PM - Got out of work and the roads were wet and the skies were all cloudy. Very humid and temperature of about 65. Figures that the sun came out when I got on the bike. Biked for 45 mins and read up to page 193 in the Stewart Lee Allen book. I'm going to finish it tonight before bed! Up early for work tomorrow and then going to Emma's for the Tag Sale Round #2.

Total Time: 45:30  Total Distance: 15 miles

5:30 PM - Windy, sunny and mid 70s at the start. Didn't know how today was going to go as the culminating bike ride of my killer mileage week. Ended up going well though. Brought two water bottles with me. I rode down into Charlton and back along the normal routes. Stopped once to use the restroom (aka some farmer's field) but man today was stinky, literally! I don't know if you all know what I'm talking about but sometimes there's really sweet smelling manure and fodder. I don't mind that. But I think a combination of the wet weather and sun contributed to make for some 'stinky manure'. Almost made me gag every farm I passed. I spent an hour last night putting new red grip tape on my handlebars! They look hot. Add to that the biking gloves Emmy got me for my birthday on Thursday and I was one smokin' biker! Most of my splits (5 miles / lap) were between 16:30 and 17:30. I wasn't pushing super hard. Now time for a shower and driving to Emma's to help with the yard sale tomorrow morning! We sold a ton of stuff I guess today while I was at work! I am anxious to see how much money we will ahve for our wedding account!

Finished The Devil's Cup at about midnight last night and then read the first 40 pages of my next read, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom during my lunch break at work today. It is a very moving, and surprisingly quick read.

Total Time: 1:52:31  Total Mileage: 32.80 miles  Average Speed: 17.4 mph