I thought I was

I thought I was going to have a nice long ride into work on Tuesday, it was 65 outside, so I would be hot by the time I climbed to work. I got dressed (too much probably) and rode to MiV. Mom was going to pick me up & work & we were then going to go volunteer at HEB's Feast of Sharing event downtown. I'm 2 bites into my eclair, my pre reward for riding to work when I get a text from Llama "Call me before you go to work" So I called.

She said she wasn't going to be able to go tonight cuz she was up all night in the process of getting sick. Her throat was burning and the left lung had also been burning and she had 'drainage' again. So she was going to make a doctor's appointment and felt she shouldn't go tonight.

Bummer.

I ate the rest of the eclair (I'm pretty sure it wouldn't keep very well), grabbed my tacos & hopped back on the bike.

Once home, I took my clothes out of my panniers, put them on and drove to work w/ my tacos & smoothy.

Oh well, it could have been worse, I could have been on the way to work & not heard the text until I got there, but I would have had Kearney drive me home to get my car.

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Total miles for this ride: 1.9
Total miles for the month of November: 62.07
Total miles for 2012: 2834.3
Miles to go:  -822.3  miles til 2012!! 165 til 3000
Odometer
Cross: 1377.9

Short but adventurous ride w J3

Sunday I had a short but adventurous ride w my favorite riding buddy, J3.
He wanted to go geocaching, so Onn(Llama) brought his bike down from Temple.

I decided he needed his birthday presents early (though I was impressed that he was wearing a "CYSMNY-'can you see me now yellow' t-shirt so cars would see him!)

Off went went in search of the 3 geocaches. We took the long way to avoid 45th street, I'll ride it but figure my sister would kill me if she knew J3 was riding on it.

First geocache was an easy find. We left Parker the WV bear travel bug for someone else to pick up and grabbed a Tigger TB to take to San Angelo, Yay more geocaching w/ J3!

Onward to the second cache, we had 2 hills to ride up. J3 was in the wrong gear on hill #1 but made it successfully on hill #2. The second cache was a home for Chimney Swift, we quickly found it then made our way out of the hood to find the 3rd cache.

Decided to park & lock up the bikes & walk to the cache. I think J3 liked where it was hidden--it was one of the light pole caches where you have to lift up the box. After signing the log we took the long way back to the bikes. On the way to the parking lot by dps, I saw a Car2Go, I haven't ever used one & decided J3 would love the concept, so I pulled up the Car2Go app & we 'geocached'  to the car. Once there, I waved my card over the sensor, the doors soon opened &  we were on our way. I had the car in too low of a gear & we were quickly passed on Bull Creek. Of course J3 had all sorts of questions:

J3: Can I sit in the front seat?
Me: You don't have much of a choice, just put your seatbelt on & don't tell your mom  J3: Do you know whose car this is?
Me: It's a rental car, if you see one on the street, you can swipe your card & borrow it J3: How much does it cost?
Me:  38 cents a minute or $14 an hour.
J3: not bad
J3: where are we going.
Me: Home
J3: what about our bikes?
Me: We'll take my car  to go get them on the way to meet Onn (aka Llama) for dinner.
J3:  How many minutes is it to Cheddars?
Me: about 15
J3: that's not too many, can we take the Car2Go?
Me: (thinking to myself) 'oh no, how do I explain the boundaries to him?'
Me: If we take the car past a certain street we have to keep paying for it even if we don't drive it.
J3: oh, that would cost too much money, we'll drive your car.
Me: you're smart
J3: Look, someone left their credit card here.
Me: No, that's so we can fill up gas if we need to.
J3: Cool.
J3: Where are we going to park it?
Me: right here, near the house.
J3: Then what happens?
Me: We log off and if someone needs the car, they come get it.
J3: How long will that take?
Me: (guessing)it will be gone by morning?
J3: Really
Me: Yeah
J3: When can we drive one again?
Me: next time you come to Austin, we'll take a bus downtown, geocache, then drive a Car2Go back home.
J3: cool

Love that kid!

Now if only I worked downtown I too could become slackless!

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Total miles for this ride:3.12
Total miles for the month of November:33.26
Total miles for 2012: 2808.6
Miles to go:  -796.6  miles til 2012!!
Odometer
Cross: 1352

Not much in November...so far..

It's almost halfway through November & I haven't been on the bike much at all. Took it easy for a week (no exercising at all), decided it was time for a ride while it was so gorgeous (highs in the 80's in November!!), so off for the recovery route I go. The recovery route is the Shoal Creek to Great Northern route from my house. It's the route I road numerous times post stroke. Instead of the normal route I did intervals, of course I forgot that heart rate monitor which is wonderful for intervals, but I still did the intervals & used my internal heart rate monitor as a guide. Every once in a while on that route I have flashbacks to using it as a rehab & then I realize how far I have come & what good shape I'm in, that always feels good.

 Then the time changed, so I decided to run a few days, since that was painful and the weather was beautiful, I decided to commute home & back to work.

I was a little hesitant because it was still the week of time change & drivers are crazy. I brought my big headlight to work & my new 'can you see me now yellow vest', then around noonish I realized I forgot the blinking light for on top of my head, the extra tail light, by reflective leg things & a water bottle. Water bottle was easily resolved, I used a disposable one that my office mate was going to recycle. The other I would just have to do without & ride more cautiously & defensively. I would take the Possum Trot route home, very limited traffic & leads to more lit streets that are used to cyclists being on the road.

Nothing dramatic happened on the ride home, like I figured would happen. Except, Once I opened the door to the house I realized I needed to head to the library to return a DVD that was due in 2 hours!  Nothing dramatic happened on the way in the next day, except the hills are still there!

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Total miles for these rides:12.32, 8.73, 2.1, 10.11
Total miles for the month of October: 33.26
Total miles for 2012:2805.48
Miles to go:  -793.52  miles til 2012!!
Odometer
Cross: 1349
Road: 13116
Notes: least amount of rides in 1 week since April.

October Stats

While October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Awareness Month, Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Awareness Month, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Dwarfism Awareness Month and of course National Squirrel Awareness Month (see wiki for more October events) October was ride your bike a lot of long distances month for me!

 Rode almost all the way across Missouri, it's 248 miles by car from St. Louis to Kansas City, we rode 239 miles! Wow! It was the mot I've ever ridden in a week and the most long distance riding I've done back to back, 6 days in a row of over 25 miles per day, no wonder I was sick at the end.

Then there was Livestrong followed my Mamma Jamma.

Now that October is over, I'm not forcing myself to have to ride, I'm going to ride when I want to. Realizing I only have 228 miles to 3000 miles, I feel the need to get those in, we will see what happens, if it happens, great if not, the mileage is still a personal record for this old lady!


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Total miles for the month of October: 437.71
Total miles for 2012: 2772.22
Miles to go:  -760.22  miles til 2012!!
One way commutes in October: 8
Total one way commutes: 74 (I've exceeded my goal of 50)
Odometer
Road: 13103
Cross:1328

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