75th ride of 2018 - Monday, 9/3/2018 (LABOR DAY)

2018 mileage: 2143.4

I was glad to begin this holiday as I always try to start holidays, with a brisk ride, and left at 7:00 to ride a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.), completing the 20.3 miles in 2:16. I was especially glad to get in a good ride after having had two days off -- Saturday I couldn't ride, because Michelle and I went to visit her parents, over an hour away, and that took a big chunk of the day (but was also a great blessing); and then yesterday morning I played a piano solo at church and then took the remainder of the day as a rest day.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

I was caught off guard by riding through some showers in the first half of my ride, but at least there was no thunder or lightning. And this morning I took the following picture as I approached Baker Rd. My safety is enhanced by the fact that there is a sidewalk crossing there (although I don't think they put it in just for my benefit. 😎)

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: