Wow! All I can say about the work week is that it was combination of a very interesting week at work and a week of not enough sleep. But when it was finished, I'd managed to fit in two nice biking days. The biking is still not the mileage that I'd like, but I have to admit I felt much better at the end of the rides than I have in past weeks.
On the work front... (For those that don't know me, I work for a small (and young) software company.) Well, this week a new version of our product with major new functionality was released internally for testing. I have to admit that there were several times that I wondered if after effects of that knock on my head really existed and were getting in my way. I realized quickly that it wasn't me - my colleagues who didn't fall off of their bikes (hey - many of them don't even ride bikes!) had the same reaction as I did as we first encountered the new and very cool procduct features. I have to say that we all laughed a lot as we embarked on learning and testing the new functionality.
Not enough sleep? Well, my sleep problem started Monday night, when I couldn't fall asleep until 2AM. That meant I started out with only five hours of sleep, when at this point I think I need a solid nine hours. That five hour night was followed by two seven hour nights, at which point I reached out for the crutch of a sleeping pill. When the weekend finally rolled around I'd managed two nights of that magic number of nine hours of sleep, so my body was ready to hit the road on my bike. That's a really good thing because the weekend brought glorious weather for biking. Saturday dawned partly cloudy and relatively cool for August with temperatures in the high 60's and low 70's. Sunday? Well, it was sunny and started out with temperatures in the low 50's, warming into the 70's. By my way of thinking, that's perfect biking weather.
I have to admit that my slow pace and lack of capacity for long rides have both been frustrating me. I'm continuing to ride from home rather than drive somewhere to start my ride, which would allow me to see something different for a change. Riding from home means that if I'm tired at the end of the ride I don't have to deal with driving. Soon I'm going to need to use my car to give me a boost to a different place to ride. For this weekend, I decided to take my camera with me to give myself a different focus. I still rode near home, but with the camera I was more on the lookout for interesting sights.
Biking! 27 miles on Saturday, August 7th
I headed out on my road bike - the bike that I was riding on May 20th - for the first time since my crash. I've been riding my touring bikes, and I have to admit I was wondering if my slow speed had anything to do with the slightly fatter tires on the touring bikes. I really knew the answer before I headed out today - of course the two things are unrelated. My speed today remained where it has been since I resumed riding - at about 12 and a half miles per hour. That speed feels good when I'm touring and hauling gear with me, but somehow when I'm just wandering around with an unloaded bike it feels slow. No matter, at least I'm riding! Of course I've never been a fast rider, but my previous normal pace was usually between 14 and 15 miles per hour. I was right about taking the camera with me and stopping to take pictures because for some reason I didn't mind the slower pace. Then again, maybe I'm just getting used to it!
It was a good riding day, and I saw a lot of other people out on the road on bicycles. I wanted to scream at the folks I saw who weren't wearing helmets but I stayed in my own world and just kept pedaling. Most of the cyclists I saw were wearing helmets, but the ones who bothered me the most were the folks riding with children where none of the group had a helmet on their heads. And the other people that really make me wonder are the family groups where the children are wearing helmets but the adults are bare-headed. That just makes no sense at all.
Hmmm... due to the wonder of digital photography (and sunglasses!), the red areas that still remain on my face are hidden. A wonderful day to be wandering on a bike - relatively cool (in the low 70s), more sun than clouds but enough clouds to make the sky look interesting.
A quiet road not too far from home
These flowers are everywhere - love the color!
One of the ponds in Harold Parker State Forest.
Biking again! 24 miles on Sunday, August 8th
It was yet another beautiful day for biking. My body said 24 miles was enough today even though my head kept telling me to keep on going. But I behaved - it was time to stop for the day. Having the camera with me helped though since it gave me an excuse to stop more often.
Yesterday I saw a lot of other cyclists on the road, both singles, and groups. It's funny, but today I only saw one other person on a bike. Where do you suppose everyone is hiding? I suppose one reason is that I headed through the center of Lawrence on part of my ride, and I don't think that's a prime biking location. But I was on neighborhood and back roads of Andover for most of my ride, so I don't have a clue where my fellow cyclists were.
It was a funny dog day... I must have headed out this morning at a prime dog-walking time because as I was riding through the neighborhood behind my condo I saw a lot of four-legged friends wandering with their owners. And yes, the dogs were all on leashes, so it wasn't a bad dog-bicycle day. One dog really made me smile. It was a small Scottish Terrier, enjoying his walk by riding in his owner's arms! It really made me smile because Brandy - the miniature dachshund who owns my parents (oh, it's the other way around?) does that to my mother. He starts out walking, but there are those times that he gets a ride back home!
I had fun watching the chipmunks on my ride today. This year seems to be the year of the chipmunks and squirrels. I have to say I prefer the chipmunks because they don't seem to pull the nonsense that the squirrels do. A couple of rides ago, a squirrel paused on its journey across the road when it saw me on my bike. It then ran in front of the bike - then turned around and did it again. My overactive imagination tells me that hitting a squirrel with my bike would not be a good thing, and that I'd be likely to wind up on the ground. Hey you crazy squirrels, let's not do that. Why don't you take a sanity lesson from the chipmunks?
The temperature was absolutely perfect today - it was in the high 60s when my bike and I ventured out, and although I think it increased while I was out it was probably only by a couple of degrees. But it was very windy. At first when I was slowly riding into the wind I thought my slowness was self-imposed but as soon as I turned I was riding at more of my (current) normal speed. I'd happily take more days like this one!
Overall, it was a good riding weekend. My rides are still shorter than I'd like, but they were good rides.
Oh, and that dizziness? Well, it's still there, but at least I didn't have any totally bad days this week. I still can't find a trigger for it. In fact, after my ride on Sunday I realized that I hadn't felt it at all that day. Unfortunately about a half hour later I was dizzy again, and that feeling pretty much stayed with me for the rest of the day. At least it didn't start earlier so I was able to get my ride in!
Great clock tower on an old mill building in Lawrence
The emergency room at Lawrence General Hospital - the start of my hospital tour back on May 20th. (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)
Along the canal --- still in Lawrence
