Motivation, trailer trial #2 fully loaded, and Share the Road

Last Tuesday at the WW meeting we talked about motivation. We talked about positive and Negative motivation and what works and when it works. Yesterday I really felt what Both positive and negative motivation are all about.

A year or so ago riding to the church 4.4 miles away ( both where we go and where WW meetings are) took 45 minutes and left me read faced sweating and nonfunctional for a good 30 min or so Every hill was a punctuated by under the breath cursing. (negative motivation I needed to lose weight)

Tuesday (30 lbs lighter) I rode and even though it was warm it took less than 30 minutes, I wasn't sweaty and didn't swear at the hills at all. (Positive Motivation, I feel better) T

Then there was last night. I loaded up the trailer with about 60 lbs of stuff (It was our turn to feeding homeless teens, and DH needed to work so we took his killer 15 lb laptop) and Off I went back to church. I thought I might be in trouble by the time we got about 1/2 mile down the street but people were counting on me to be there with food at a certain time so no time to turn back. I can tell you I was right back to that 45 minutes read faced sweat drenched swearing crazy person I was a year ago. The good news is I made it. I hauled 2 times the excess weight I used to carry around on my body. It felt good that I could. I didn't give up and ask to be rescued. Now I remember exactly what it felt like when I started. And more importantly how much better I feel now with 30 lbs less to haul around and better fit too.(Positive motivation for sure)

Speaking of fully loaded trailer test....
I can honestly say that pulling a fully loaded trailer makes you not notice headwinds or tailwinds. Yep it was tough and I have a long way to go before I'm ready to haul that load on a bike tour also a lot of hill work to do before trying to pull it in the hills. I was using all my gears and the lowest are hard to balance going that slow! I also need to figure out how to get water bottles on my bike. not being able to stop for a drink is brutal in 90 degree weather.

The trailer it self did good. My biggest problem is learning where the wheels are behind em as the trailer has 2 wheels side by side and the bike doesn't and I can't see where the trailers tires are. I also get hung up going around corners sometimes by catching the wheels on something I go around. (never when riding just when parking etc) This leads to having to swing wider around road hazards such as glass and metal chunks and way wider around dead skunks! The only moment of concern was on the way home, about 25 lbs lighter, going down hill. I was going pretty fast and hit a rough patch no problem for the bike but the trailer did a little bounce. No problems with control on the bike, just a little disconcerting. I hope I never hit a pot hole with a trailer tire! I also wonder a bit about my breaks, on the down hills fully loaded I get going pretty fast. I'm sure it's just me being nervous and I'll get used to it.

What really made me nervous was the car driving idiots that were not playing nice and sharing the road. A bit over a mile from home a pizza delivery guy turned right in front of DH and DD and could have easily creamed them had DH not been watching. Why he thought his time was more important than DH and DD's lives I'll never know. The second idiot waited for DH to cross the intersection then turned left in front of me as I was heading into the intersection. Again he needed to turn and could risk my life to save himself the 15 sec he would have had to wait for the intersection to clear. Again MY LIFE was worth less to him than the few seconds he saved making an illegal and unsafe turn. (BTW all this while we were properly using the bike lanes and following all the traffic rules.) Oh well we did survive. I am thinking about calling around to the local pizza delivery companies and asking the managers to have a discussion about watching for bikes in the bike lanes and sharing the road. Probably won't help but I would be able to blow off some steam.

10 day challenge, Bike trainer,

I finished day 2 of the 10 day challenge I had to split the bike ride into 2 sections to get it done though. Currently I can only survive 18 minutes on the darn thing. So this morning I did 18 minutes and after dinner I did another 11 minutes. I might have been able to do 18 this evening... but I didn't. Tomorrow I'll see if I can go a bit longer both morning and evening. I have to be able to do 28 minutes to get 5 points for my daily challenge.

I'm going to need to rethink /set up somethings for the bike trainer to work well for me. One I need a place I can reach to set my water bottle as I can't get the darn bottle out to drink without stopping. Yeah this wouldn't be a good bike for a tour. I also need to do something about my seat post. It is supposed to absorb shocks but it's started squeaking/clanking every time I shift my rear. Very annoying. I have trouble getting on and off as I'm short, I got hung up in the darn things this morning when I was trying to get off and fell. Thank goodness the carpeted floor isn't as bad as asphalt. I merely bounced a bit, but it wasn't fun. My shoulder is a bit sore tonight and I'm not sure if it's from riding, falling, just getting old or some combination of all three.

Any way you look at it the challenge has to be good. Either I get fitter,build muscle mass,get a little closer to my goal fo a bike tour, lose weight, win a prize or all the above. And I know I can do it, even if I don't enjoy it, I can do it. All it really will take is working at it.

Interestingly enough...

In spite of the Carl's Jr diet disaster yesterday, the 2 hours of exercise made the scales shift down .4 lbs today. I guess I'll have to do that more often... The exercise part not the high points food part. I was also craving salt last night and ate pickle chips. That is usually good for adding a couple of lbs of extra water weight. Since I didn't see that I'm guessing I needed the electrolytes.

Over all I expected to be pretty sore today after 2 hours of constant motion both in and out of the water. Instead I had a few minor aches that went away when I got up and moved around a bit. maybe I've found a good exercise plan for me. An hour in the pool followed by an hour on exercise machines in the gym. We will try it again on Thursday when DD has swim lessons again.

Dinner tonight...

As a school lesson this morning DD is planning Dinner for tonight. She has been give parameters. The first is that she must make it nutritious and balanced. She doesn't have to use any recipe exactly but she must make a list of ingredients she needs and a shopping list. She will be cooking with supervision but she MUST do all the planning and shopping etc herself. (mom pays of course!) I'll still have to figure out points and such and how much I can eat.

DH is back and we are all very happy. We all ate brunch together. Asparagus frittata and salad it was very filling and low point too. I slept much better with him home last night.

The sky is clear and it is supposed to be mid 50's today so I think we may be able to talk Dad into going for a bike ride. I think we would still need go somewhere that is totally off road. DD just isn't that practiced of a rider yet. We do need to start getting our leg muscles in order. While it's early, we still need exercise and may as well make it riding. I guess we could take the tandem for DD and dad and get more exercise with less stops but then she wouldn't get the practice riding on her own. We will have to balance that issue until she gets good enough at riding for us all to get some exercise. Of course then we all have to get fast enough for DH to get a good workout too...

DD wants to ride her own bike so we will probably go to the lake near the library unless we can find a better place. It can be crowded at mid day with walkers and DD freaks out thinking she will hit someone. I think I will get her to ride to the store with me to buy her groceries, quiet street,not too crazy parking lot. It should be OK and I have bags on my bike for groceries.

I also need to get out back and get some garden clean up an prep done today. Green waste goes out tomorrow and I'm sure I can fill the bin. I also need to get a bed ready for Asparagus and that will require some serious digging. I also need to clear an area to start some plants indoors as planting season is around the corner. I'll have to check I think peas are suposed to go in the ground soon. All in all a busy day.