Farthest ride yet this season!!!!!
I only started 4 hours later than I wanted to, but it was okay as the temperature was cooler today (and perfectly wonderful, I might add!).
I started out on 36th, then hopped over to 53rd, eventually to Bellfountain Road, which I rode all the way to Alpine. I then crossed 99 and took a side trip on Old River Road. It was HWY 99 all the way back to town and then I cruised through the college campus.
I rode real leisurely, even chatting on the phone for a while. I didn’t push it at all until mile 25, when I started to get bored. At mile 30 my left foot started burning like something awful, but a quick break cured that. At mile 35 my hands went numb, which has happened once before on these new handlebars. At mile 40 I just got plain tired, a feeling I didn’t think I’d get back at mile 10. I cut the ride a little shorter than I had planned due to this, but it was still a good ride.
I saw the wild countryside. I rode by wooden churches with parking lots on dirt and old one-room schoolhouses. I rode by endless wheat fields. I waved at guys in trucks, tractors, and on the farm baling hay. I felt like I was transferred into another world that I’d forgotten still existed. It seemed odd to me that I encountered it so quickly and easily and close to the city life of all the work-a-day minions. I reflected on the fact that the only reason I had this countryside/step-back-in-time experience was because I was riding my bike. There would be no other reason I’d be in that part of the state. I liked that thought, and enjoyed that reflection. I am lucky and blessed to be so healthy and free to have these sorts of experiences.

Stats:
start: 10AM
conditions: mid-70s, sunny, some wind gusts
altitude change: 945 ft
time: –
ride time: 3:14
miles: 46
average mph: 15.3
max mph: 31
average bpm: watch is still broken….
max bpm: –

It appears that I am eating pretty well. Though I question the accuracy of FitDay.com’s nutrient tracking. While I do not record the exact type and amount of food I eat (for instance, I tracked “mashed potato” when I actually ate pieroghies as they were not listed in the food database) I am pretty close. However, it appears that I am getting an awful lot of nutrients. FitDay.com did not add any vitamin D to it’s salmon, the one thing I know has vitamin D in it. It also appears I am eating a lot of vitamin A, which I consider to be pretty unlikely considering I am not even eating that much in the vegetable realm lately. At any rate, it is fun to look at. I can pat myself on my back for eating well!

I started using FitDay.com again. One of the features I didn’t notice about it before is that it will track your activity progress. This is way more fun than adding it up myself. I wish I started this at the start of my riding season! This was a slow riding week for me, being the week after the Tour de Blast. But I promise you, this week will look phenomenal!

Today I rode to Camp Adair to meet Jim and Dana and pick cherries. They’ve been talking about how wonderful and full of fruit trees this area is for a while, and they were spot on. We found several beautiful trees so full of cherries you could barely see the branches.
It was a hot day, though. It was the hottest day I’ve been outside yet this year. I knew it would be hot, which it why I chose to keep the ride short. What I didn’t bank on was the degree to which it affected me. I searched lawns for hoses, I stopped at markets and tried to climb in their locked ice boxes. By the last half mile, I kept repeating the mantra, “Too hot, gonna die…too hot, gonna die.” Thank goodness a cold shower was waiting for me.

Stats:
start: 10:15AM
conditions: 95 and sunny, hot, hot, hot
altitude change: 100 ft
time: 3
ride time: 1:53
miles: 25
average mph: 14.3
max mph: 25
average bpm: high
max bpm: high

I haven’t hiked much this summer. What? It’s summer already?! How did that happen so fast? I better get out there and do things like walk every trail around Silver Falls Park with my father. We speed walked, covering a minimum of 9 miles in 4 hours and viewing 13 different falls. It was a perfect day; blues skies, temp in the mid 70s. What more could one ask for?
View all photos taken at Silver Falls

Earlier this month, my cousin Becky married her long-time boyfriend (8 year!) Miles at Drift Creek Farm (my aunt Bonnie and uncle Case’s house). It was the most elegant wedding I’ve been to in years and I got to see some relatives I hadn’t seen in over a decade.
I am still low on photos from this event, so if you are reading this and have some pics, I’d LOVE to see them! (Thanks Peg for the gems you sent me! )

My lovely aunts Jan and Geri standing with me. I think I am holding a rubber band. I don’t know why that seems so exciting.

This summer I’ve been making up for decades of near-outright-child-avoidance. Zoe and Brian’s kids are really little treasures, so affectionate, , so energentic, and so vital. Spending time with them makes me long for a world without preconceptions, Here are some photos I captured when we were playing with isight/Photobooth last week.