Catchin' Up

Yup, I'm still alive and kickin'. And I'll getcha caught up on some of my doings ...

Workouts: Yesterday morning I swam freestyle for an hour (the time is passing much more quickly in the pool for some reason) and then ran in the pool for an hour (ran on the bottom of the pool with water for resistance ... a good workout actually. Much harder than running on land but it doesn't seem to bother my buttache since my stride seems to be shortened in the pool).

I met Jean for lunch at Goonie's.

Jason Sinwell was also there and I saw Mario Minelli outside on the sidewalk. Runners are EVERYWHERE. :-0 Jean and I both had the spinach strawberry walnut salad which was delicious.

I brought half of it home, which I ate for supper tonight along with a hunk o' bread with raspberry jam.

I stopped by Mike Ewen's house and finally picked up my TriRochester shirt. He's also not running and he said Barb says he's crabby when he's not running. I think lots of us can relate.

I finished quilting the quilt I've been working on yesterday too. Now I just need to put on the binding and make a label and it'll be good to go.

Now for today's workouts. I swam freestyle for just over an hour and did a little pool running and a little running on land as well. Not much, but every little bit counts. Then I made Matt a cherry pie for his birthday, which is Monday.

He got home from Winona this afternoon. He's joined the bike club over there and wanted to do the group ride this morning before coming home. It's a WSU club and they ride together several times per week. They're going to do a race (or two) somewhere in Wisconsin next weekend. He's really enjoying it. I'm going to go over on Tuesday afternoon and ride with them, take Matt out for dinner and then to go that Marshall Ullrich film at 7:00. That will all be fun.

Then about 1:00 I finally got my act together and went for a bike ride. It was pretty windy out there today from the NW so I decided on a NWerly direction. I had a goal for mileage but didn't know if I'd make it or not. Read on and you'll find out what it was and whether I made it. I headed out to Salem Corners and all the way to the west on Salem road (I took this with the panorama feature on my phone. I'm getting a little better at it ... you can click on any of these photos for a larger version)

There were some beautiful chickens on this farm

north to Byron and west to Mantorville and then Wasioja.

 I stayed on county 16 until it ended at highway 56 which heads north into West Concord. I turned around there and headed back into Wasioja. On the way through the first time I'd noticed this ...

so going back through I decided to stop and find out what was going on. Back in my "youth" I would never have been so brazen to search out a stranger and talk. But these days, no problem. And I'll try just about anything once. And I just love road trips/exploring/etc. Anyway ... I met a very nice guy, Gary, who was very happy to chat for quite a while actually.

I asked him what was going on and he said it was a Rendevous (like the Big Island Rendevous in Albert Lea that's advertised pretty heavily). He said their goal was a pre-1840's period for the weekend, but they were looser than some others in what's acceptable. You can have a cell phone, but put it on vibrate and put it in your pocket. You can have coolers, but hide them. He said some stricter groups even insist clothing be hand-stitched and they dictate the thread count of the fabric! I asked about food. He said that they're pretty lenient and you can pretty much make what you want (lots of cast iron was visible and there were cooking fires going all over the place). He said that someone was cooking bear, yes BEAR, for the potluck later in the day. And Gary had just finished baking bread. Yum. He told me about several other Rendevous coming up (Mantorville late September, Winona late October and Albert Lea). I finally said I had to get going ... but it was a very interesting talk and I think we're both glad for the chat!!

I went back to County 5 and then north to Pine Island to Kwik Trip. I'd been fighting that NW wind for so long. I was looking forward to a generally southerly ride at this point. I'll philosophize here for a moment: Sometimes life gives us headwinds ... in-your-face, gusty, blustery. And you just have to work through them ... put your head down, grind it out, endure. The upside is that usally, eventually, life gives you tailwinds as well. :-)

 I hadn't eaten lunch before I left (not a good plan really, but I had a late oatmeal breakfast about 10:00 and had eaten some animal crackers and a piece of banana bread before I left) and I was in need of some fuel. I'd brought 3 90-calorie granola bars and I knew that wasn't going to be enough fuel. I was pretty hungry by the time I got to P.I. (I'd eaten 2 bars) and had 53+ miles in. Everything looked good ... cookies, muffins, the creme-filled chocolate frosted long johns, straight up, no nuts, no sprinkles--my absolute favorite junk good, ... but I was good and got a plain multigrain bagel (59 cents) and a banana (17 cents).

I ate the bagel in P.I. and stashed the banana in my jersey for later and headed for Douglas. I got a text from Trevor ... he saw me near County 5/County 3 and they waved, but I didn't see them. Darn!! I was still kind of winging it here ... both for course and mileage, kind of doing whatever I felt like at the time. I decided to ride through Genoa for kicks and giggles, and because I hadn't done it in a long time.

Anyone who's done some cycling in the area probably knows what Genoa is known for. "The Hill". Yes, it's a challenging .31 mile climb, but not nearly as bad as I remember. Not really much worse than the hills up to my house, actually. So NO PROBLEM. I stayed on County 14 until I got back to County 5 and then headed south into Byron again. Then south to Salem Corners. Then ... I knew I had a chance to make my mileage goal, so I headed north on County 3 all the way up to County 4, by Oxbow Park. I don't know how many hills I'd ridden up and down by this time, but it was A LOT. I might try to plot this out and look at the elevation chart. It'd be anything but flat. I turned around at County 4 and headed back to Salem Corners and then 1 mile to the west and then home. I made my mileage goal. And there was still daylight!! Here's my ride in numbers:
 
1: bug that flew in my mouth
2: barking dogs
3: counties I rode through (Olmsted, Dodge, Goodhue)
3: granola bars consumed
3.5: water bottles drank (much cooler today)
100.34: miles ridden :-)
 
I arrived home feeling good! Pleasantly tired, but I could have ridden more. Not trashed at all. A great feeling. This was taken after cleaning up and having a little supper. None the worse for wear.
 

Well, Mike Ewen said 3 miles on the bike was about equivalent to a mile of running. I'd kind of considered  it closer to a 4:1 ratio. But in either case, 100 miles on the bike and an hour swim and a little running ... I think  I got my "20-miler" in, one way or another. :-)
 
Then I took Matt to Cold Stone Creamery for his free birthday Creation. He had coffee flavored ice cream with Oreos mixed in.
 

I had the Founder's Favorite and didn't feel the slightest bit guilty. For the calories (high, but I earned it!) or the price (I got a Love It sized Creation for $2 ... certificate from RochesterDealsForLess.com or Half Off Fridays or something or other). I savored every bite.
 

 
Tomorrow I'm ready to hit it again. :-)
 
Monday Matt and his friend Jackie and I are going to the Twins game. Eric had to pull out ... he can't get off work. :-( It'll be a fun day. Matt sent me a fun text yesterday ... "jackie says she would enjoy eating some of your delicious cookies on monday" (Matt never uses capital letters. :-). Done deal, Jackie! She's a fun gal.
 
Toodles. Good night.