Summer Dreams

When Liz and I were cycling today, I thought about my dream in the middle of the summer to take full-day bike trips, stopping at little local cafes on our route for delicious food breaks. Wow--that didn't happen. We took 2 trips up to Ashfield--round trip nearly 40 miles with the extension we put on it. And once I biked with Gina and Bob to the Straw Bale Cafe for breakfast, but that was just a 20 mile trip. And while we stopped to eat every time, my fantasy really involved having that as a first stop, continuing further out into the boonies, stopping at another cool place for an early afternoon meal, and heading home.

We stopped doing long rides (over 15-20 miles) early in August, because Liz was having trouble with knee pain. And then I had surgery for appendicitis, and couldn't do anything for 3 weeks and now I'm trying to build my endurance back up, between rain drops.

But I've also realized that doing long rides on Saturday and Sunday takes a lot of the weekend. We spend Sunday afternoons with Bennett and Grace and Melinda are coming for dinner on Sunday evenings, so if we're riding all Saturday and Sunday morning, we have the afternoon to do errands, and only have Saturday night free ( I'm not saying visiting with Bennett, Grace and Melinda aren't fun events that we don't look forward to. Hmmmm--lots of negatives--I hope the meaning is clear). it's just that there's little room to be spontaneous or to make plans with other people.

So I have to say that I'm enjoying 10 miles bike rides. It takes less than 45 minutes, it puts minimum strain on our aging body parts, it's a great workout that's building our cardiovascular systems, and we have plenty of time and energy to do lots of other stuff. That's the other thing about long rides--our get up and go, got up and get.

I tried using our elliptical trainer yesterday because of the rain. I'm really having difficulty doing cardio inside--I hate giving up on cycling outside and am having unrealistic fantasies about a very mild winter we can cycle right through. But I figured out I can watch any ABC programs on my i Pad and prop it in front of me. It wasn't bad to exercise to Modern Family--the time went fast. It hurt my back for the rest of the day. Liz and I are looking onto trainers we can put our bikes on to train on them all winter--that will save my back. Aging . . . I got a set of emoticons for my keyboard, so I probably won't be able to resist putting them in all the time.


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