So last night, I went for my first bike ride in a long time. Rachel took Max over to swim at her
parents, so I took advantage and went for a ride. I started out going down the block towards
Jennifer and Jonathan's house, and made the left onto Tango. That went from downhill to flat, and
downhill again as I made my way down Trentdale. I was going at a seemingly good pace, and was
cruising along. I then turned down into where the bigger single family homes are. There seemed to
be a lot more hills there. At first I was making it up the hills, but after making the same loop
3 or 4 times, I was exhausted. So after about 2.75 miles, I turned around and headed for home. As I
made the climb to go up Trentdale, I shifted and my chain slipped off. Luckily I was able to get it
back on. I made it back home, but my legs felt like lead. Total miles were 3.25. I really wanted to
make it 4 miles because that is the distance of the duathlon Skip told me about. Fell a little
short.
While I was riding, I felt like my pedals were either spinning too easily and wildly, or way too
slowly and difficult. I couldn't seem to find that "sweet spot". So I did some reading. It proved
to be eye opening. Last night while riding, I pretty much kept my right shifter between 6 and 7,
and mostly used my left shifter to change gears. When I saw a hill approaching I would downshift to
1, and kept the right shifter on 6. It seemed to take forever to get up even a relatively small
hill. After what I read today, when in first (low) gear, the right shifter should never go past 3.
This causes the chain to go too vertical. Also, by pedaling on flat ground in medium gear (left
shifter on 2, right shifter on 6), I was not building as much momentum as I could before hitting'
the hill.
I also did Day 2 of the 100 Pushup Challenge. That was relatively easy.
Total Reps: 50
Set 1: 10
Set 2: 12
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 8
Set 5: 12
One final piece I would like to mention. The past two weeks, I have felt great. My energy level was way up, my spirits were good, and overall I felt really good. The past few days, have been quite the opposite. I think it all stems back to last Wednesday. I was home with Max, because Rachel's Mom was sick. Max and I went to the pool and when we got home, we both fell asleep for like 90 minutes. That night, Max went to bed ok, but I had trouble falling asleep. I finally fell asleep at around 3:00 AM and woke up around 6:00 AM for work. I was really dragging that day, and finally crashed when I got home. I got in a quick nap, but woke up very irritable and grumpy. I haven't been able to "catch up" since. Before last Wednesday, I was going to bed around midnight and sleeping "like a log" for a solid 6 hours. I didn't exactly spring out of bed in the morning, but by mid morning, I felt energized and fully awake. Hoping I get some of that samequality shuteye tonight after my run!
