Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 6.3 miles, averaged 11:39. HR 137.

AM: 3.1 miles, averaged 11:37. HR 135

PM: 50-mile ride. HR 161.

Thursday Night Dirt. Hot and uptempo ride. About 19.3 MPH for just under 90' and HR was 170 BPM. We stopped for beers at someone's house who lives on the loop as we have done the last few weeks. After we did some racing down Sheldon. I set a few PRs on the segements after a few beers :-)

Lunch: 6.6 miles, averaged 11:43. HR 141.

Pretty hot out. Long stretch of lower to mid-90s. Quite dry though.

PM: 3.2-mile walk with Megan. HR 78.

AM: 6.7 miles, averaged 11:31. HR 132.

Happy 4th!

PM:

AM: 40.1-mile ride. HR 140.

Detroit Ride with the guys. Hot but dry and early enough that everything was good. Lots of glass from the 4th festivities. Good pace 18.5-19.5 MPH and it felt comfortable on flat tar. We stopped for coffee and went I came back out the guys told me I was losing air in my rear tire and they tried to get it to seal. One of the guys helped me plug it, but I had two other punctures, so the guys helped me put in a tube. I am pretty out of practice as I think the last flat I changed was a BMX bike when I was 15-17 or so. And I used a flathead screw driver as a tire lever.

We got that settled and took off and my front tire blew right of the rim. I was able to ride on the rim and get to the edge of the road safely. The told the guys to go. They offered assistance in various forms, but I had already held them up enough, so I called Megan. I sat on a nice lawn area outside the coffee shop and soaked up the sun and some water.

We went to Griffin Claw Brewing after for a heavy lunch. It was a good day, even with the bike issues. I am still waiting to get the bike into the shop. I am afraid once I do, parts will take forever to arrive given the shortage of parts and bikes and the long lines for service. Probably going to switch back over to running until I can get that settled. I am not sure I can ride two long with the plug. I did put a tube in the front when I got home to practice changing flats a bit and got a sense of how the CO2 cartridges work.

AM: 7 miles, averaged 11:19. HR 132.

Hot week coming. Dry so far. Yesterday afternoon humidity was 25%. Extremely low in these parts.

PM: Started our usual walk, but Megan had to sit down a few times, so I ran to get the Subaru and take her home. She's fine, but we both underestimated the temps and air quality. Those air quality warnings are there for a reason for vulnerable populations. I feel bad as she wants to exercise and doesn't have many options, so I think we are going to try to get out in the mornings.

Evening: 4.3 miles, averaged 11:37. HR 130.

Cooled down a bit. Nice enjoyable plod.

AM/Lunch: 7.2 miles, averaged 10:58. HR 134.

Quite hot at 11:00AM. About 87 or so. Took it easy and just ran with HR. Felt pretty good really.

AM/Lunch: 7.3 miles, averaged 11:40. HR 134.

Hot!

Evening: 4.5 miles, averaged 11:22. HR 127.

AM: 4.5 miles, averaged 11:35. HR 131.

Hot. Going to be a hot ride tonight.

PM: 50.2-mile ride. HR 154.

Hot ride, but a fun one. Ride was pretty fast, but I did some sweeping to make sure we didn;t lose anyone. Rode there and back as I have been. We stopped for the beer stop at Tom's even though he wasn't home. He had our permission of course, but pretty funny.

Lunch: 5.1 miles, averaged 11:41. HR 138.

Hot. Cut it shorter than planned. A bit dehydrated from last night's ride and beers.

PM: 3.5-mile walk w/ Megan. HR 72.

Got some storms earlier and though it is more humid the air temp was down, so we figured it would be okay for Megan to go out. It went fine. We saw a very large snapping turtle "guarding" one of the entrances and thought it best left alone. Poor thing looked really tired.

Lunch: 8.3 miles, averaged 11:29. HR 135.

PM: 3.7-mile walk with Megan. HR 76.

We decided to drive over to the house, park, and walk around the subdivision and then a bit on the Polly Ann Trail. It's a great spot. Absolutely over the moon. The trail connects nicely with some dirt roads and parks/trails, as well as being a great, fairly shaded stretch of flat dirt to run on. It's going to be awesome.

AM/Lunch: 104.4-mile ride. HR 148.

I planned to ride my bike today even though it needs to be serviced. I wanted to do a hundred miles, but here was also a email about a group ride of 66 miles. I rode to the meetup point which was around 8-9 miles away figuring 80+ would be fine. I started out at 7:20, which is very early for me in the summer. We went over some of the most hilliest portions in the area. My legs didn't want to move, but thankfully the guys were willing to do an easy ride. We went up this crazy steep and rocky seasonal road, which was both fun and very challenging (7 MPH and I was all-out effort).

Toward the end I decided that I would go back to the meetup point and get some water and go out on portions of the Thurday Night Dirt route. Doing an out and back on Paint Creek was out of the question as there are so many people out and it is flat and felt like cheating, so I hit a few more hills and headed home. I actually felt pretty solid, though tired.

1 Cliff Bar for breakfast

4 Maurten gels during the ride + 1 Cliff Bar

3 bottles of electrolytes

3 bottles of warm sink water from Paint Creek bathroom

Just under 6.5 hours moving time with less than 20' of stoppage time. I am not sure I will ever race this distance, but it is a fun challenge and should really build my endurance.

Lunch/PM: 7.2 miles, averaged 11:56. HR 122.

Legs were a little heavy and tired, but not bad at all. Kept HR about as low as I could.

PM: 3.4-mile walk/jog w/ Megan. HR 86.

We did a total of almost 1.5 miles of jogging, which was good. Drier and cooler weather and better air quality was a big factor.

Found an excellent veggie burger recipe from Cookie and Kate. Her stuff is generally really solid and these were awesome.

Lunch/PM: 10 miles, averaged 10:54. HR 132.

PM: 6.3 miles, averaged 11:01. HR 139.

Megan had an ultrasound today. Everything looks good. She ended up having to sit down when we were leaving as her blood pressure dropped significantly. They took her to triage and got her looked at. I don't think I have ever seen so many nurses and doctors. They kept her overnight for observation. I feel alseep in the room for a bit and then went home to feed the nap, feed the cats, run, grab a quick bite and headed back over to the hospital for a little while.

PM: 7.3 miles, averaged 10:43. HR 134.

It rained a bit today, which we needed, but it made it kind of humid. Cooler temps though. I skipped the Thursday ride as I needed to clean my bike and didn't want to get it muddy after cleaning it. Also still trying to keep miles off it. Waiting to hear from the shop when I can get it in. I think It has been at least a month.

Lunch: 8.1 miles, averaged 11:19. HR 132.

Warm, but the humidty from yesterday is gone.

Night: 4.5 miles, averaged 11:37. HR ~122ish. (Monitor wasn't tight enough)

Lunch: 7.3 miles, averaged 11:40. HR 138.

Mid-80s and climbing throughout with air quality warning. Wasn't too bad a my geezer pace, but then it got a bit hot coming down Auburn.

Night: 5.3 miles, averaged 11:55. HR 126.

Warm and humid. Still solidly into the 80s after 9:00 PM.

Lunch/PM: 7.8 miles, averaged 11:07. HR 135.

Very humid, but not too hot and overcast, which made for decent weather actually. I got a few sprinkles here and there. Nice run.

PM: 9 miles, averaged 11:38. HR 139.

Started out okay, but couldn't keep my HR down after a while, so I walked about 3/4 of a mile home. Low on fluids I think.

PM2: 3.25-mile w/ Megan. HR 83.

Night: 4 miles, averaged 11:40. HR 127.

PM: 7.2 miles, averaged 11:48. HR 137.

Evening: 3.25-mile walk w/ Megan. HR 79.

PM: 5.2 miles, averaged 12:12. HR 137.

HR was quite elevated for the very slow pace. A little anxious these last few days. Medication is helping, but it is still there a bit. Thinking I might need a little socialization, so I am going to do Thursday Night Dirt tomorrow. It rained last week.

Night: 6.4 miles, averaged 11:52. HR 130.

Nice run around the lake in the dark. Cooler, but quite humid.

Lunch/PM: 3.7 miles, averaged 12:07. HR 137.

Resting HR very elevated. Almost 60, but usually in the 40s. Quite high for the very slow pace. Might just need to step back a bit tomorrow and for a few days. I feel like my medication hasn't been working as well the last few days, but I think I just need to make some life adjustments.

PM: 50.3-mile ride. HR 163.

Rode to the meet up point. Felt a bit rough and got dropped pretty hard. Kept up a strong effort. We stopped for beers and then did some racing down Sheldon. Good times.

PM: 3.2-mile walk/jog w/ Megan

PM: 6 miles, averaged 12:10. HR 134.

Evening: 4.4 miles, averaged 12:05. HR 135.

Lunch/PM: 4.3 miles, averaged 12:49. HR 136.

Hot. Cut it short when my HR wouldn't stay down.

PM: 6 miles, averaged 12:44. HR 138.

Lots of pushups. Did some meditation.

PM: 6.4 miles, averaged 12:14. HR 139.

Meditation after lunch.

PM2: 3.2-mile walk with Megan. HR 85.

HR elevated. My dad has been having some health issues so my anxiety is up even with meds, but they do keep it lower.

Night: 4.4 miles, averaged 12:03. HR 127.

Nice night for a jog, but I had to crap the entire time and almost got taken out by a car.

Lunch: 7.2 miles, averaged 12:29. HR 132.

PM: 3.25-mile walk w/ Megan. HR 79.

PM: 4 miles, averaged 12:19. HR 134.

PM2: 41.6-mile ride. HR 146.

We were scheduled for a beer stop and pool swim. I offered to sponsor beer this week. I felt very anxious and awful riding to Tom's. I was going to just drop off money and go home, but felt somewhat better as we road to the standard meetup point. I volunteered to lead B group. I started out okay, but died and felt very bad. Asked if people knew the route and would look out for each other as I was leaving. Limped back to Tom's as the cooler was outside and had 2 ciders. Grabbed my bag and limped home. Decided a few days off or at most walking might be beneficial.

Off.

Closed on the house today. Did the walkthrough and signed papers and wet back over after for a bit. I didn't want to leave. Went to White Horse Inn and had a fabulous dinner in the open air. We went there for our anniversary. It's a historical and Michigan gem.