2024 MILEAGE - 2145.0
On yet another magnificent spring day, I rode at 3:15, setting off in bright 78° sunshine, and rode the Packard/Platt Square.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50.
Friday, May 31, 2024
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Thursday, 5/30/2024 - 19th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2131.4
My ride today was in about as nice conditions as could be imagined—unbroken blue skies, just the merest hint of a gentle breeze, and temperatures in the mid-sixties. (63° when I began, at 10:15, and up to 69° when I finished).
Interestingly, when I made my traditional midpoint stop at Lillie Park for a selfie to text out to family and friends, a friendly fellow cyclist came over to me to exchange greetings. I pulled from my wallet my explanatory card to let him know why I couldn't speak, whereupon HE pulled out a card to give me, identifying himself as Vern White, Bike Rehabilitation Specialist (Milan Bike Guy in Milan, MI on Facebook) and told me that if I ever have problems with my cycle, I should get in touch with him. He's 12 miles from us, so it's not likely I'd go there frequently, but it's nice to know of this option.
The only downside to my ride was the fact that my battery died with almost 3 miles left in the ride. I had my auxiliary battery pugged in, but the port where it plugs in has been having issues in recent days, so my video is not quite complete. But it's nearly so.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Wednesday, 5/29/2024 - 18th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2117.8
Today I was happy to be able to ride outside again, as such rides have been all too few and far between recently. I left about 9 a.m., in moderate conditions—58° when I began, and 64° when I finished.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50.
Tuesday.5/28/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2104.2
During late February and early March, I watched the highly regarded show The Chosen during my indoor rides—or at least such episodes as were available online (Seasons one through three). Season four is to be released online sometime within the next few days, but is not there quite yet, so today I went back and rewatched the very first episode.
This gave me a ride of 10.6 virtual miles in 52 minutes.
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Sunday, 5/26/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2093.4
I have not been able to ride since Wednesday. On Thursday, a good chunk of my day was taken up by a road trip (highly worth it) to meet my son for lunch. Friday, I was absolutely exhausted and gave myself the day off. And yesterday I got my exercise by a good hike with my friends Tom Brown and Tom Clark.
Today, then, I was hoping to resume with a ride outside. But the day kind of got away from me. After church this morning, I watched a remarkably compelling baseball game this afternoon, as my Detroit Tigers, hosting the Toronto Blue Jays, jumped out to a good lead and led comfortably for most of the game, until Toronto scored 5 runs in the top of the eighth inning to grab an 11-9 lead. However, the Tigers came back, eventually winning on a dramatic three-run walk off homer by Matt Vierling in the bottom of the ninth, to take the game 14-11.
After the game I crawled in bed for a nap, and after the nap I had a couple of errands to run. Following those, the extended daylight at this time of year would have permitted a ride outside, even though it was 6:30 by then. But it was cooling down, the skies were darkening, and we were getting considerable wind, so I opted to ride inside instead. Perhaps this was a good choice anyway, as I heard thunder rumbling through the area while I was riding.
This gave me a ride of 25.4 virtual miles in 2:11.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Wednesday, 5/22/2024 - 17th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2068.0
My riding has been pathetically weak in recent days, first because I was engaged in a big composition project, and then more recently because of the need to devote lots of time to piano practice for a choir oncert I accompanied last night for the Dexter school system.
Today it felt good to be able to get back to it, riding a round trip to Marsh Park. It was a relatively short ride, and quite slow, though. Two mitigating factors contributed to this: (1) I was experiencing pain (inexplicably) in my right knee, as well as in both feet, wearing the special shoes I need to use that clip into the bindings on the pedals. (2) Though it was sunny and warm (in the low seventies), I was battling a substantial wind (nearly 20 mph) that was not coming from a single (predictable) direction, but was swirling and circling.
It was a special day for me, too. The accident that nearly ended, and totally upended, my life occurred on May 22, 1993. The doctors told Michelle (who was not yet then my wife) that there was a good chance that I wouldn't survive the night. Because of this, she and I have always observed May 22 as Life Day—and this year was #31.
This gave me a ride of 10.1 miles in 1:27.
Friday, May 17, 2024
Friday, 5/17/2024 - 16th outdoor ride of 2024
34
2024 MILEAGE - 2057.9
This evening, on yet another splendid spring day (74° and sunny), I left just before 6:00 and rode a round trip to Marsh Park.
This gave me a ride of 10.0 miles in 1:27.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Thursday, 5/16/2024 - 15th outdoor ride of 2024
34
2024 MILEAGE - 2047.9Today's weather conditions were, again, absolutely superb—bright sunshine, almost no wind, and a temperature of 74° when I began (about 12:30) which rose to 78° by the time I finished. I rode the same route I had tried to ride on Monday, going by my customary practice that if I fail or struggle at something, it's best to get right back to it as soon as possible. For some reason unknown to me, I struggled to keep up and to make much speed at all, but nevertheless I enjoyed the ride immensely, and had not a trace of the problems that beset me with this same route on Monday.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Wednesday, 5/15/2024 - 14th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2034.3
Yesterday I could not ride, as a good chunk of the day was occupied by a trip to the dealer (Jack's) in Dearborn to repair the damage from Monday's incident.
Today, though I was happy to be able to get back to it, and rode a round trip to Marsh Park (late afternoon, following a dispiriting Tigers loss) in magnificent spring conditions—74° sunshine, with little wind at all.
This gave me a ride of 9.9 miles in 1:20.
Monday, May 13, 2024
Monday, 5/13/2024 - 13th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2024.4
Today I set off at 11:30 in magnificent spring weather (75° and unbroken sunshine ... though I did have a touch of wind to negotiate), and I got most of the way around the Packard/Platt Square when drama occurred.
I was coming down the trail along Textile Rd., about a half mile west of State. At the bottom of a hill the trail crosses a road (Bicentennial Pkwy.), and I had allowed myself to pick up some speed as I descended the hill (although on the trike, one can never actually go FAST). As I neared that intersection, a car pulled out from behind a hedge, right into into my path.
I clutched the brakes tightly, and fortunately, today they worked perfectly. But almost TOO well, as they caused the trike to overturn. I was uninjured, but the same could not be said for my wheels. Though I did not notice this immediately, the chain came off the front gear wheel, and the back wheel broke (in a way that could not be repaired).
Fortunately, I was able to reach my daughter Christy by text, and her schedule permitted her to come assist me, so she was soon pulling up in her SUV, into which we were able to load the trike and drive it up to go into our garage. Tomorrow I'll take it to the dealer for repair.
As I told Christy, I call these kind of days (which I hadn't experienced in a good long while) "adventure days."
This gave me a ride of 10.0 miles in 1:15.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Sunday, 5/12/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 2214.4
Since only becoming aware of it last year, the 1999 movie For Love of the Game has quickly rocketed up my list of favorite baseball movies, and now stands right behind Field of Dreams, which I watched Friday. I watched For Love of the Game during my ride this morning, after taking yesterday off. (Interestingly, both of these two great baseball movies star Kevin Costner.)
This gave me a ride of 22,8 virtual miles in 2;12.
Friday, May 10, 2024
Friday, 6/10/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1991.6
This week I haven't ridden since Monday, and have instead been devoting my time to composition, having made excellent progress on a little cycle, or set, or choral pieces using the poems of Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)
This afternoon, though, I finally got back to it, and rode while watching my favorite baseball movie, Field of Dreams.
This gave me a ride of 19.7 miles in 1:42.
Monday, May 6, 2024
Monday, 5/6/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1974.7
This morning I settled for a very modest ride, after spending quite a bit of time on my piano practicing. I allowed myself to merely ride a round trip to Marsh Park, rather than doing the slightly longer ride I had initially planned. My piano work consisted of: (1) Working on the music for my granddaughter's school choir concert in a couple of weeks (I've accompanied them before, and the teacher asked me if I would play for them again this time); (2) I am playing again at our church's contemporary service on June 2, so I spent some time with my collections of arrangements by Marianne Kim, and selected her arrangement of the hymn He Leadeth Me; (3) I also worked on the next classical solo I hope to play (an Adagio movement from one of the Mozart piano sonatas).
My phone is having issues with its battery, and it cut out for a few minutes in the latter part of today's ride, so neither my stats nor the video are 100% accurate. However, I was able to get a fairly accurate read on the stats from my observations and from my experience of having done the ride so many time.
On the "home stretch," with about two miles to go, I saw my friend Doug Franklin again (as I do regularly) up on his daily walk from his home in Saline.
This gave me a ride of 10.3 miles in 1:25
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Saturday, 5/4/2024 - 12th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1964.4
This afternoon, after watching my Tigers drop their second consecutive game to the hated Yankees in New York City, I went out about 4:00 (with my spirits expectedly low) and pushed myself through the Platt/Packard Square on a thickly cloudy but tolerably warm (70°) day.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:46
Friday, May 3, 2024
Friday, 5/3/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1950.8
As was predicted yesterday, it has been rainy today (though 9t eased up this afternoon, so I probably could have worked in an outdoor ride of some sort). Thinking the rain was going to be a daylong thing, I decided to do an indoor ride, and riding over the mid part of the day, I decided to make it worth my while, and rode while watching the epic movie Titanic.
This gave me a ride of 32.8 virtual miles in 3:14
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Thursday, 5/2/2024 - 11th outdoor ride of 2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1918.1
Today, I was able to do only my 11th outdoor ride of the year -- and the first since April 22 -- but hopefully we have turned the corner now, and outdoor rides will be the norm from now on (except that, of course, tomorrow its supposed to be rainy).
I rode the Packard/Platt Square on an absolutely MAGNIFICENT spring day ... brightly sunny, calm, and 65° when I began at 11:15, up to 71° at the end.
This gave me a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:57.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Wednesday, 5/1/2024
2024 MILEAGE - 1904.5
Yesterday, I had to do a large number of errands first thing in the morning after dropping Michelle off at her school, and when I got home after this, I found that I was inexplicably but completely
whipped. Huh ... it's almost like I'm aging or something!
At any rate, I took the day off from riding, though I hated to waste the nice weather. Today, though it remains warm, yesterday's bright sunshine is obscured by a thick blanket of clouds, so I chose to take the easy way out and ride inside, while watching the remainder of 2001: A Space Odyssey which I began on Monday.
This gave me a ride of 12.7 virtual miles in 1:04.
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