The Crash and The Journey Back

The Appalachian Journey Would allow me to camp Friday and Saturday nights... Would allow me to test the come back... Was thinking about it today while riding... I have someone who is committed to ride with me... I have so much doubt in myself right now... This weekend, I tested myself on a hill - 3rd Street in Vinton - https://www.strava.com/activities/2728537715/segments/68165480458 -- managed my 3rd best time ever and rode all the way up without stopping.  Surely did me in for the rest of my ride.  - Oh well, I had a great time just riding around making up the ride as I went along.  I was in no hurry to get back home.  I think I could have ridden a few more miles.  I got sunburned and my biker tan is spot on now.  I missed those tan lines last year - ha ha ha Here's Saturday's ride:  https://www.strava.com/activities/2728537715 Today I went back to the boat dock at Carvins Cove to see how fast I could go on the fireroad.  I wen...

cool bridge over the train tracks On the list of things I love, two things are in the top 5 - riding a bicycle and Virginia Tech football.  My 2018 to do list had included riding my bike from the mall in Christiansburg along the Huckleberry Trail to a game at Tech.  Of course I didn't get to do it last year.   Last Saturday I pulled it off.  I had wished for cooler weather, but here lately there is no such thing.  None the less the ride from the mall to campus was amazing!  Smooth, paved path with good scenery.  A few other users none of which seemed to be going to the game.  Odd I think.  If I lived in the area and had access to the trail, I'd go to every home game this way.  I wish I had left earlier in the day and allowed more time to explore the stuff along side the trail and take more pictures, but like I said it was going to be a hot and sunny day so I figured I'd limit my outside time as much as I could before the game....

4-day weekend = 4 days of riding in a row. Nothing was easy about these rides.  I miss my cardio.  I miss my ability to climb.  I am thrilled that I was able to ride 4 days in a row.  Haven't done that in a long time, plus after the work week last week, it was fantastic to not have to be there Friday and instead have a little fun.  The weather has almost been perfect.  Still a little too hot, but sunny days every day!!!! Friday - drove and parked near the Blue Ridge Parkway - did a 17.5mile out and back kind of ride. Saturday - 22.23 miles starting at home.  Kept running into obstructions to my ride, greenway closure due to a 5k race, a hill that I totally forgot about and ended up walking up half of it, and another road closure on the way home. Used parts of 3 different greenways. Sunday - 22.26 miles starting at home again.  Went another direction this day - cut through a cemetary and a business park. Used another greenway and rode adjac...

I'm getting the itch to ride more and more; but mother nature decided to unleash the heat and humidity.  I want to go to the Cove after work a day or two a week now instead of coming home, eating dinner and racing the sunset.  It's just been sweltering.  Freaking heat and humidity.  I forget that it's nice enough to ride in the evenings almost all the way into mid-December, so I'm being impatient which really isn't good for me - "don't do anything stupid". I'm starting to dream about things to do next year.  I will continue to build my base back this year and try things here and there.  I discovered at Fallon Park two Thursdays ago that straight, steep uphills in the grass are basically impossible.  I got off my bike and could barely push it up the hill.  It hurts my butt (hip) way too much.  This again humbles me and reminds me that my destroyed hip still has a long ways to go.  I still want to beat that three year projection JESSE! ...

Today's destination was Mill Mountain.  Not the hardest climb in town, but this needed to be done.  There are two "road" ways up - the new road and the old.  Today I chose the less steep, but longer new road.  There are several off road routes up....  will try those in the future.  The catch with them is the trails are narrow and the cost for going off trail the wrong direction could be high.  I also am very slow and have trouble getting on and off my mountain bike; and the trails have been very busy of late.  I made the climb in 24 minutes and 45 seconds.  I didn't stop though.  3 minutes, 2 seconds slower than the last time I did this route (April 2017). I was thrilled that it was shady for the most part because frankly it was hot in the sun! Getting back down the mountain was a tad unnerving...  I chose the old road because of the vehicular traffic.  There's a lot of tree debris and moss on the old road, so I ba...

Riding in the warmer months is hard enough when you're 100%.  Riding in the warmer months when you're hitting about 75% on a good day is hard too.  But when it's 75-80 degrees and the humidity is between 80-95%, it truly sucks. I'm trying not to complain since last year I never turned a wheel in the summer heat.  I've made an effort to get out of bed early two weekends in a row and get my rides in.  Each time I eclipsed 20 miles.  Today I just couldn't do it.  I think I wound up with 18.3.  I just didn't want to sit on the trainer in the stagnant, warm basement air; so up and at it! I slept 30 minutes longer last night; my dog woke up before I left, so I took him to potty.  As soon as he and I walked out on the deck I questioned my sanity.  It was stifling.  The air thick, hot and humid.  I am bound and determined to get back to where I was on the morning of 5/19/18 before Rocky Branch Road broke me; but I'm also realistic and l...

Time is flying...  the heat and humidity have arrived.  I certainly didn't miss riding in these conditions last year, but I wouldn't want to break a hip again. Let's see - June 23rd, I went for a ride from home and included Old Mountain Rd.  It's a short, "shallow" climb in the direction I rode it this time.  I enjoyed it, made it just fine, but was a bit alarmed at the condition of the road in the right hand sweeping turn at the bottom of the hill.  Having had a good ride that day, two days later, on Tuesday evening, I decided a short ride going as hard as I could was in order.  This was in retrospect a stupid thing to do.  The road I chose, I've ridden dozens of times; but this time trying that hard on the steady climb of it caused me to have some bad hip pain.  It was as if my leg did not want to hold me up when I got up to go to work Wednesday.  A muscle relaxer and some Aleve plus 3 days off the bike helped resolve the issue.  I f...