2016-10-25

Couldn't feel when it was time to rest

Since we're not working to improve speed or distance, we could ride just short distances at comfortable speed to get just right exercise.

We did ride 7 days in a row, and we both got strange fatigue all of a sudden on the night of the 7th day.  I got worse than him, with headache, dizziness, and a little fever which continued all day yesterday.

Is that from aging?  Or just a simply stupid riding plan without resting between no matter slow we rode?

I searched on the Internet.  Unfortunately there were not many articles for ordinary, old cyclists.

But some article said, older age cyclists have reduced capacity but only a little (about 1.8% per decade).  Older cyclists still do well at endurance riding, but they take longer to recover after riding.

 And I read somebody said we older people can't depend on bicycling only for healthy exercise, because we need to shake our bones by touching the ground with running or walking to avoid losing bone density.

So I'm going to make our weekly schedule which is a combination of bicycling, walking, and resting.  I  thought 2 days a week for complete resting should be right.  I need to check the weather information too.

I hope it will help us in the future.
  

2016-10-23

New tire trial ride

Accidents always make me wonder/think even just a puncture of my bicycle tire might cause one.  Since I can't fix it by myself, I felt sorry and felt frustrated on the last trip.  There must be more advanced tires or convenient stuff to fix punctures.  Unfortunately I can't understand any mechanical ideas, so my job is just pounding to ask Mr.Wh to find out.

And he did it for me!  Thank you, honey!!  The other day these new tires and tubes came.



Yesterday he worked to replace our old tires with new tires.  So I was excited trying out my bicycle today!

New tires made the whole bicycle look new.
After riding, I said:
New tire is grippy, rolled very well.  Changing tires made this difference, now I know.  I'm spoiled completely.  

What he said:  These tires have a puncture resistant belt built in, and the new tubes have special sticky stuff with fine fibers to quickly seal punctures by oozing out and congealing.  Time will tell how well this works...


2016-10-19

Bicycling on Mill Valley - Sausalito Path

After I heard that another rain would come next weekend, I planned this ride last night.  Luckily it was a perfect fine day today.

The freeway was a little crowded in the morning so it took almost an hour to get Hauke park.  There is a restroom near the parking lot for which we were thankful. 

As I studied on the map, I easily found the way to the Bay trail, then to the Mill Valley - Sausalito Path.

There are 3 bridges on the route, so I was scared before to try out  bicycling here.  But we rode it together today, and that was fun.  On the way back, we noticed the tide came in and almost touched the bottom of the bridge.


I planned to try a fish restaurant, "Fish," on Harbor Drive in Sausalito, we enjoyed the view of the harbor from the window, 
and enjoyed eating the huge sized fried oysters and yummy halibut.  I couldn't eat up the fried potato and left most of them.
We took the same route back simply, so I sped up a little bit to burn the calories. 
The trail was shorter than we expected, but the first ride always makes us tired.  Our bodies were really heavy and stiff when we got back home.
 

2016-10-15

Rainy weekend came.

Yesterday we saw a lot of rain falling in the morning which we all expected.  We pulled out Morning glory's and Scarlet runner's vine from the lattice and pergola a day before.  All the trees and plants were happy in our garden.  But is there any chance we can ride? I checked the hourly weather information.

The weather forecast predicted the rain would stop at 3pm.  It stopped before, so the road got dry enough around 3 pm.  We started enjoying our ride with quite cool temperature.

In spite of good slow warm up speed at beginning of our ride, we got exhausted after 45 minutes.  I wonder why.  Guess that our old bodies need to take a couple of days to adjust to the chilly temperature.

Today according to the weather information we will have rain again from 2 pm to night.  We'd better ride a little bit soon, I thought this morning and we did.

I waited until the outside temperature got over 60F.  When blue sky started showing up a little bit from the clouds which were covering up the sky, we started riding.

While we were riding, the temperature was going down, and we got exhausted soon again.

Now it's almost noon.  The temperature is 68F, there are gray clouds in the lower part of the sky.  But the sky is changing second by second.  We should be happy that we still could ride.

My weight is going up, so I need more severe control.  But if I feel tired, I can't ride happily.  Too heavy weight made it hard for me to pedal smoothly.  I got into this dilemma again.


2016-10-11

This is mine, but I have nooo idea.

The last trip brought up many subjects of concern to me.  
The hardest thing was to guess my own physical strength and condition in certain conditions.  Usually I got too excited or determined to do things.  In addition the big change of temperature affected my old scar pain too.

Anyway I went through a flu like fatigue and cramping muscle pain from neck/shoulder to back for a week after my return to our house.

But during the fighting with nasty pain, I was anxious to think about next bicycle trip in the future. That's positive. 

Now I realized that core muscle exercise and other muscle training is very necessary for me.  I rode a lot, but forgot and skipped exercises a lot before the trip.

When I was in pain, my bad eating habit came back.  I had to go back to my dieting plan too.

The weather here is chillier than before, but still we have sunshine and warm air.  I have to be smart and continue our cycling life. 
 

2016-10-09

Bicycling on park trails and bike lanes

The climax of this trip was riding on trails in Corvallis.  Because my sister-in law and her husband are experienced cyclists and living there.  

She led us kindly and carefully so that I enjoyed riding very much without worrying about anything!  Big thanks to my Sis!!


We rode through on a trail in Willamette park, Crystal Lake Sports  Area, on bike lanes, and sidewalks to Avery Park.  When my Sis asked if we want to ride more or return, we had already ridden 5 miles, so we U-turned.

The air was clean and moist, which was very comfortable for me.  Along the freeway bike path was great.  Even bike lane riding was comfortable. 




During the short visit to Corvallis we had quite a bit of rain, but luckily we could ride some.  We hope to go back in the future and ride more in Corvallis.

2016-10-08

Bicycling on Deschutes River Trail

Because without researching enough I made a plan for this trip, we needed to ask somebody about any trail for beginners to ride.  So we came to the visitor center first in Bend. The guys in the office were friendly and kind.  After I told him where we will stay, and my interest was Old Mill District, he recommend the trail along the Deschutes river.  He gave us a very nice map "your adventure planner, Bend parks & urban trails Map".  That was very helpful.

The first day in Bend, we just drove over to the Old Mill District, and walked a little on the trail along the river.  Checked the restroom, ate lunch and dinner.
At Cascade lodge,  we made a plan to park at Miller's landing the next day.

There are many parking lots around the river.  We thought we chose the best. 


The Deschutes river is very long.  The view along the river was very interesting.















 

We enjoyed riding very relaxed.
After we came back home and I started knowing the trails in Bend, I really want to go back to ride.  There are many interesting trails.
The city roads seemed very busy for us though.  

I can't remember where I saw this, maybe near the parking lot??
Anyway nice looking share bikes were lined up.  It seemed just for the students of Oregon State University.  But still pretty neat.




Bicycling on Oc & E Woods line state Trail

It was a beautiful morning, temperature was perfect. 

We were heading East on the trail.  Because it was a weekday, only a high school student on foot and a woman who looked like she was biking to work were passing by at the beginning.

The trail is running through residential areas, across main roads and bridges, and agricultural areas to the small town, Olene.


Even through residential areas, houses are not too close to the trail, it made me so comfortable riding in the open space.

Agricultural area was so beautiful with fall colors, we could see the mountain range farther out.


When I started to worry about where I can find a restroom , we reached the trail head which has only a parking lot but also an outhouse.  


We took a picture and enjoyed the view, and rode back on the trail. 
Then.. !?  My bicycle got strange noise, oh my God!  Unbelievable, flat tire!! on my back.

Mr. WhP  started finding the spot, but this time he couldn't find just by checking on the tire.  Then, a nice looking mature male cyclist came by to offer us any help.  He told us this is the season for flat tires, because these very nasty seed pods are on the ground everywhere.  It is called "goat's head".


After the guy left, Mr. WhP took out the tube and found the spot to patch.  The agricultural area continued quite a bit, so I stopped to let him check ahead.

We rode more and finally reached the end of the paved trail at Olene.

If I had a confident about my strength and endurance, we might have tried riding a little bit on the dirt trail continues from Olene.

On the way returning on the trail, I saw Mt.Shasta peeking out from the clouds. 
We enjoyed riding very much with clear air and comfortable sunshine.

When we came back to the bridge, I had to check the map to make sure it was a right turn to take another trail, the A Canal. 
Because when I was passing the bridge, I was fully occupied by telling myself "I can do it, I'm not scared".  I still have some fear of crossing bridges.


 
The canal trail is running along the canal's right side, the residential area is on the left side.

Because I researched to find a good sounding sandwich shop in town which we can reach by taking city roads out from the canal trail.  I took an adventurous ride for me.

Luckily the city road was still calm, we had no problem getting into the left turn lane at the signal from bike lane, and also getting into  Shopping center from the road.

I waited outside of the shop, Triple J Deli,
he got our sandwiches.  I was so surprised, she or he made the sandwiches so quickly.  And the sandwich was so good as I read before.


We rode back on the trail smoothly and tried finding a nice bench to sit and eat.  But we couldn't around the Inn where we stayed.  
Luckily people who were just walking on the trail told us about the park along the trail.  Yes, I saw it, but I couldn't remember it by myself.  So we happily rode back to Wiard Park, and found a picnic table and bench to have our lunch.




We haven't ridden over 15 miles recently, but we rode over 20 miles on that day!!  We were exhausted when we back to the Inn.



This is a very nice beginning for our riding tour in Oregon, we thought!!

Along the trail grass was neatly trimmed, and maintained very clean so that I saw short snakes coiled two times while I was riding.





Along the trail, I even saw my favorite animals, happy me.
 


In addition I'd like to say that all the drivers on the city roads which cross the trail were so cautious/courteous and expected to stop and wait to let cyclists to cross.   That was very impressive for us.  What a great town  Klamath Falls is!

2016-10-07

Wanted to ride on bike trails in Oregon

So I made a quick decision and Mr. WhP loaded our bikes in our little car nicely.  We drove up to Oregon State the last week of September.

We Stopped by Mt.Shasta Super Market, Mt. Shasta, California to get sandwiches for our lunch.  from the parking lot


2 hours later we reached Cimarron Inn, Klamath Falls, Oregon where we would stay two nights.
OC&E Woods Line state trail is running back of the Inn; we checked to see the trail in late afternoon on that day so we would be ready to start riding the next morning.


Very impressive!
Trail head sign:  

The history of the old rails remade to trails is told by the caboose:
The caboose window has some information about the trail.
Twilight showed the Inn, the trail and the caboose.
I've never seen such detailed information about rails to trails along the trails in California before, so I felt very good and excited to ride and see the historical trail.