74th ride of 2018 - Friday, 8/31/2018

2018 mileage: 2123.1

After not riding yesterday so that I could spend more time on composition, it was good to get back to the trike today, and I left at 7:00 a.m. (sunrise was 6:59 today) and rode a round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter), completing the 18.7 miles in 2:03 minutes -- kind of. However, today's Adventure Quotient was higher than I would have liked.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

A week ago today I took the trike to Wheels in Motion for repair of the brakes, and they put new cables on for me. However, the trike exhibits a poor engineering design, in that with the upstroke of the pedal, the left leg strikes the brake cable. Though I had enjoyed the greatly improved braking over the last week, today on my way home, by Zeeb Rd. (with about 7 miles left to go), the cable broke. To my great good fortune, the good right brake enabled me to finish the ride with no problems. So that means a return trip to Wheels in Motion today, with a note asking them if they can reroute the cable somehow.

On the way home, just before the brake cable broke, I was struck by the sunlight coming through the trees (about 8:30 a.m.) along Jackson Rd., just was of Zeeb, so I stopped for the following picture:

The very start of my ride was a bit of a challenge, too. When I leave our condo complex and cross Lohr Rd., I turn right to ascend a moderately challenging hill (shown below). 

Today before making that right turn, I opted not to slow to a crawl in order to preserve some momentum for the hill climb. However, this approach caused me to roll the trike, and I lost 2-3 minutes (with the timer on MapMyRide continuing to run) while I righted myself, and got the chain back on the front gear wheel, from which it had come off. This caused my stats to reflect a speed that was too slow. However, I more than made up for it later in the ride. When I turn at Baker Rd. to come back home, I pause the app and text my wife and daughter to let them know how I'm doing. Then before starting off again, I thought I restarted the app, but when I got to Zeeb Rd. (some 10+ minutes later), I found that it was not running. So I started it again, and this resulted in a humorous split speed (my most recent mile) of over 2000 miles per hour. 😎

73rd ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 8/29/2018

2018 mileage: 2104.4

I was particularly gratified to reach a new mileage milestone today, since my ride was the first time I've been able to ride outside since Friday, due to weather, schedule issues, and mechanical problems. (On my ride last Friday, I discovered that the brakes weren't working properly. Feeling this was an important issue to address -- !!! -- put the rack on the car after the ride and took it to the shop, where they determined quickly that the cables were bad and asked me to leave it over until Saturday. BIG difference in the ride today!

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

So, at any rate, this morning I took my time about getting going (mostly because I needed to run Michelle, who has been feeling lightheaded and dizzy for a month now, out to her school for a Professional Development day for the faculty). I got started a few minutes past 9:00, and rode a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.), covering the 20.3 miles in 2:15. Oddly, rather than warming up, it was 74° when I began, and 72° when I finished, as clouds and rain are moving towards us (another reason for my wanting to ride early). For a while, last night, I thought I'd have to return to LA Fitness and ride indoors today, as they were calling for thundershowers to begin this morning and continue much of the day, but by this morning the forecast had changed, and they were now predicted to begin about noon.

72nd ride of 2018 - Friday, 8/24/2018

2018 mileage: 2041.2

God out for my ride today about as early as is possible at this time of year. I left at 6:40, and sunrise today was at 6:53. Clipping right along, and with no problems that I was aware of, I rode another round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.)_20.2 miles in 2:33. However, once I got home, I noticed that some tree I passed under somewhere along the way snatched the top part of my flag (the spinner part, or 'tornado,' as my grandson Danny calls it 😎) out, and I finished the ride with only an empty pole. So I will rotate in the backup that I had.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

Also, I noticed during the ride that my brakes are not working well. As I certainly cannot ride with this condition, I have prepared a note and am going to take the trike now to our cycle shop in town (Wheels in Motion), hoping (and thinking) they should be able to take care of it.

                                                                             FRIDAY AFTERNOON

I had to leave the trike at Wheels in Motion for them to address the brakes issue—it seems that the cables need replacing. But they assured me they can have it ready by tomorrow afternoon.

71st ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 8/22/2018

2018 mileage: 2021.0

Even though yesterday I reached a big mileage milestone for the year, going over 2000, I was dismayed that it had to be indoors, because of weather. So this morning it was nice to be able to get out again (especially after taking Sunday as a rest day, and then lazily taking Monday off, too). I left at 7:00 a.m. in pale early-morning gray conditions (61°), and rode a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.), completing the 18.7 miles (a shorter route in the early stages than I have sometimes ridden it) in 2:20, and by the end it was a toasty 63°.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

I'm tremendously excited to be going to tonight's baseball game in Detroit between the Chicago Cubs and my Detroit Tigers with Don Walker, a fellow former faculty member of Olivet College, and a huge Cubs fan. Therefore, it was imperative that I get out early and get my ride done today.
e Below is a picture Michelle took of me on my trike last summer on August 7—nearly 3000 miles ago!

70th ride of 2018 - Saturday, 8/18/2018

2018 mileage: 1980.3

Thursday the weather forced me to go to LA Fitness and ride the stationary cycle, and yesterday I took the day off, so it was good to be able to get back out and ride today. It was lovely summer weather—sunny but not beastly hot (74° when I began, about 11:00 a.m., and 81° when I finished. I allowed myself to settle for a single round trip to Marsh Park, riding the 10.2 miles in a moderately good clip of 1:09.

Below are two video clips. The first shows me cresting the hill on Lohr Rd. and then turning into our condominium complex; then, fumbling with the phone during the turn, I accidentally turned it off and had to restart it, so the second clip shows the next bit of the ride, into the complex.

69th ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 8/15/2018

2018 mileage: 1948.9

Got myself up and going for a good ride early today, since the day is supposed to heat up to above 90° this afternoon. Leaving at 7:00 a.m., when it was 66°, I rode today (like yesterday) a round tip to Dexter (Baker Rd.), clocking 20.4 miles in 2:35.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

My phone was acting up. The voice feedback for Mp-My-Ride cut out in the second half of the ride, and Spotify was acting kind of wonky as well, for a while skipping unexpectedly between playlists, so that I'd get a Big Band chart, and then a country song back-to-back. And, in fact, I thought for a while that Map-My-Ride was not working at all, and I'd have to do a 'best guess' when I got home in order to record stats. But the final reading it gave me was, in fact, consistent with what I expected.

This graphic that I saw yesterday amused me, and I bore it in mind as I rode:

68th ride of 2018 - Tuesday, 8/14/2018

2018 mileage: 1928.5

Yesterday, though I perhaps shouldn't have, I allowed myself to be lazy and just spent the time composing instead. So today I was glad to get back to it. This morning I took my time about getting going, but then left at 7:50 and rode a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.)—20.5 miles in 2:40. It was a glorious summer morning, brightly sunny, and warm but not hot: 66° when I began and 79* when I finished.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

67th ride of 2018 - Saturday, 8/11/2018

2018 mileage: 1908.0

I took yesterday off in order to rest and augment my chances of enjoying last night's baseball game between the Tigers and Twins in Detroit, which I attended with my close friend Tom Brown (with whom a game each summer is an annual tradition for us dating back to 2010). The picture below is one that a fellow attendee took for us shortly after we arrived in our seats.

At any rate, I was eager to get back to my riding routine today. I composed early on, and waited a little longer than I like to on Saturday mornings, in order to let it warm up, and when I began at 9:30 I was rewarded with sunny skies and a 67° temperature (that climbed to 82° by the time I was done, about 11:30). I rode consecutive round trips to Marsh Park, and tacked on a loop on Interfirst Drive during the second, for a ride of 20.1 miles in 2:28, to put me over a new mileage milestone for the year.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

66th ride of 2018 - Thursday, 8/9/2018

2018 mileage: 1887.9

Since my planned meeting at Panera with Christy and the kids yesterday didn't work out due to her illness, we tried again today -- and with better results! I left home at 7:00 a.m. (63·—up to 75° when I finished) and rode to Panera, where I was greeted upon their arrival with excited sprints toward me and hugs from the kids. We had a nice, unhurried breakfast together, following which Christy took the kids to their individual pursuits (Izzy doing a camp called "Kids on Canvas" at Emerson, and Danny to Sunshine Special at his preschool. Then she was planning to enjoy a quiet, solitary day.

After they left, I continued on west to Dexter (Baker Rd.) as I did yesterday, before returning home. This gave me a ride of 19.4 miles in 2:24.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

For the benefit of newer readers of this blog, I will explain something I have mentioned before (last year, I believe). Michelle, my wife, asks (very understandably, given my medical history) that I stay off the road with my riding, and on sidewalks and trails. To my great good fortune, it is possible for me to get clear to Dexter by riding on a sidewalk that runs alongside Jackson Rd. west clear to Baker Rd. (Sadly, though, I cannot get into town by staying on sidewalks, and am thus prohibited from visiting my daughter and grandchildren at their house. 😦)
This round trip is nearly 20 miles.

65th ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 8/8/2018

2018 mileage: 1868.5

I anticipated a sweet treat on my ride this morning. Having arranged to meet Christy, Izzy, and Danny at Panera (on Jackson Rd., just east of Zeeb) for a light breakfast, I dug out at 6:30 (just minutes past the time of sunrise) and left in 69° very weak sunlight. (I finished at 74°.) The ride went fine, and my heart soared, as I had my Devotional Music playlist going on Spotify on my phone. But when I got to Panera, I got a message from Christy that she had a migraine and was feeling extremely ill. She said something about coming for a few minutes anyway, but I told her to stay home and rest.

Upon leaving Panera, I continued west to Baker Rd., figuring as long as I was out that way anyway, I might as well complete this good ride, returning home having done 19.3 miles in what my phone said was just a few seconds under 2 hours. But this was wrong, and credited me with too fast a ride. 

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride.

The app I used to track my rides, MapMyRide, calls out vocal feedback (overall speed, current speed, split speed -- that is, the speed for your most recent mile), and I have it set to call these out every tenth of a mile. I have grown to be quite dependent on this vocal feedback as a motivational factor. But for some reason, inexplicably, in the second half of my ride, that app slipped back into pause mode a couple of times this morning, and I didn't discover this for a couple of minutes when I realized I was no longer getting the vocal feedback. So my overall time was less than it should have been. A big clue to this was after I discovered the problem and got it started again, and it told me a split time of over 1100 miles per hour! 😎

64th ride of 2018 - Tuesday, 8/7/2018

2018 mileage: 1849.2

After being unable to ride each of the last two days, today was another day where I was awfully glad to be able to get back on the stick. After a morning devoted to composing, I left at noon in 77° sunshine and rode a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.) -- 19.4 miles in 2:28. It was up to 84° when I finished, and was tolerable, but I wished for my water bottle. However, it fell out of the (horizontal) cage again, sometime during the first half of my ride, so I'm headed to Wheels in Motion now to pick up another replacement ... the 8th or 9th I've had to buy in the last two years.

63rd ride of 2018 - Saturday, 8/4/2018

2018 mileage: 1829.8

I'm having a problem with my rear tire losing air too quickly. Both yesterday and today when I went out to ride, it was virtually flat. I was able to pump it up enough to ride, but this made me wary of pushing myself too far, so I scaled back my hopes for riding two round trips to Marsh Park today, doing one instead. This 10.2 miles took me 1:17  on a gorgeous morning for a ride -- sunny skies, with relatively low humidity, and 62* when I began at 8:15, 74° when I finished.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

I don't know for sure yet, but I suspect the valve is failing. I don't know if I can get the work done here in town; if not, though, it will mean a trip back to the dealer (Jack's_ in Dearborn. My schedule for the rest of today rules it out, and they are closed tomorrow, so if I have to go, it'll be Monday morning.

62nd ride of 2018 - Friday, 8/3/2018

2018 mileage: 1819.6

The last two days, I've been unablee to ride, as Michelle and I were on grandparent duty—very happily so—that occupied substantial chunks of our days. So I was happy to get back to it today, and left at 10:30 a.m. in gorgeous summer conditions (mostly sunny, and 74°, up to 83° when I finished) to ride a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.). This 19.4-mile jaunt took me 2:12.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride