It's another fortunate fine day!

But....
Slightly stiff and dull fatigue on my upper arms, knuckles on both hands, and stiff back.  From yesterday's hike with poles??

And tired.....

My brain wants to hike another park today.  But my body said, "take it easy.."

At least we need to get green vegetables.

Rain, over rain, and rain...

Yesterday morning we had a nice break, so I walked with my friend.  She told me how high the creek water came up a day before in the late afternoon when she saw it.  And next morning we saw lowered water together.

But an hour later when I and Mr. WhP  rode bikes and stopped to see the creek water, it had increased quite a bit. 

Then, it started raining through the night.  And next day today, it has been raining all day without break.

We did stretch and other TV exercise, but our body, especially legs, knees, and feet are still sore from yesterday's walking and biking.
But we were happy that we could ride a little bit yesterday.
And so far our neighborhood is OK from water damage.

I pray for the windy rain passing through without causing too much damage and drew and colored a new year Animal, Rooster.

 
 

Familiar pain

Yesterday I rode to check how my Novara J. was fixed by Mr. WhP.  That was excellent, especially after pumping up the tires, the ride was so smooth and comfortable.

So I attempted to ride with as fast a cadence as possible after warming up, and almost made the new record to finish 5 miles within a half an hour (instead of 40 minutes as usual)!   

Afterwards I was very comfortable and energetic, but later I got butt and knees heaviness and pain.  So just before going to bed, I did an exercise with TV's "Sit and be Fit".  Felt much better.

And this morning I woke up with a cramp in my left calf, then back pain.

Ate Breakfast, worked in the garden, now feel much better.  Still my shoulders are stiff though.
For my diet I should ride at least a little bit, but not so fast today.  But I'm not sure if I will do, because my spirit wants to have a rest today.  

 
 

Finally we found some time to ride.

Gardening, and our kitchen cleaning and painting...  which is endless, so we stopped.
Let's ride a bicycle!  My goodness, we haven't biked for 3 days!!

We did the long up-slop sprint as long as my legs could continue, and went back down.

My legs were OK enough, my breathing was not great but good enough. But my butt was hurting!  I couldn't believe it.  Only three days no ride made my butt muscle smashed and hurt???  Did I gain? Not much I thought.  Working made me stressed some...

OK.  I will watch out what I'm eating.

I haven't had butt pain for a long time before, so this is  a little shocking.

Wasn't the best condition, anyway rode.

Somehow I got this weird symptom,  right side of my head skin is very sensitive and untouchable literally, and also right side of my head hurts when I swing or shake sometimes.  Last night the back of my right eye felt weird and hurt.  I guessed that I just got tired.

Last night I had a hard time to get sleep.  My shoulders, back, and legs were hurting.  And my neck got really stiff with tonsil pain.

This morning the most of symptoms had gone, except head and tonsil, but a little bit calmer than yesterday.
So we rode.  We both know that 10 miles is just right distance for us, so no more than that we thought.

When bike computer show the distance 9.45 miles, we started cool down riding.  It seemed good for us.
 


 

Fatigue is everywhere on our back

It was not severe, but every time when we sit on the chairs, our backs were silently tired.  I was afraid  that our bodies might get stiff if we don't move.

So we just rode for a half hour this morning.  This was very easy ride and not much slope included.  Accidentally I rode with fast pedaling a little, then my left thigh started stringy pain, so I immediately loosened.
Just before reached our house, both my forearms got numb-ish pain.  And now I felt pain in both heels when I walk.  It shows my body's fatigue.  OK.  I wonder if this short ride was the right thing to do or not??  I can't feel my back fatigue, but pains on my arms and heels.  I guess I'd better quit this training like go-on ride soon.  Because the result haven't shown any progress even shown regression a little bit I guess.  
Well, what's next?  How can I put good cycling in my life?

Time, distance, average Spd, and Max Spd.

Shoulder pain??!

I woke up with stiff shoulder and pain in right shoulder.  Then Mr. WhP started whining and wondering why his shoulder got such a weird pain.  "Right here!"  he pushed my shoulder.  "Yeah, me too, right there!" I said.   We both must have gotten really tense yesterday for riding next to windy, fast motorists.  In addition he had to watch me and worried who was riding ahead of him.  (He said, pumping two tires all in row gave him that pain.  Yes, dear. You'd better buy a much more efficient and easier pump to replace!)

I have a point to say that I'm always uncomfortable to ride even in a wide bike lane if the speed limit is 45 or over next to me, because people drive 50 or even faster than 45 usually.
Maybe I should quit riding on main roads, we thought so.


Residential Rd bike:  We took a long warm-up at slow speed.

Distance, Average Speed, Max Speed, and Time

But I rode on Watmaugh Rd for a while today, even though speed limit is 40 mph they drove way faster!

China Camp State Park, San Rafael

Maybe we might ride either on road or on some of trails, we thought.  Took exit San Pedro Rd of 101 Fwy, drove all the way to Bullhead Flat parking lot.

Grabbed a envelope to write down information about our car and purpose, with $5 into the metal bin near the sign.  Put the tab which was cut from the envelope in our car to show.
OK, let's cross the street to try Shoreline Trail.  Umm, left side one looked too steep, maybe right side.

I was excited and went over there.  Oh, no!  The trail has fence both sides and it is narrow for me.  When I get psychological fear, that's the end.
Gave up and I started climbing up the paved road. 

Cars might scare me, but at least I can ride.  But quite a number of cars were coming down on the other side of road.  How much should I climb up, I wonder?  I couldn't go so much.  Stopped and took a picture.

Even while we were stopping at there, speedy cars came by and passed us.  Well, we'd better to go down to the parking lot.  Oh, the coming back way is the San Francisco Bay side!

I was fine, I was scared about cars passing by more than the cliff.  When we came back to the parking lot, I wanted to try the trail on which I couldn't go 10 mins. ago.  And I could get in and rode some!  Until the trail got steep, I gave up.  But anyway jump hurdles one at a time.

From the road to a little more ahead of here.  But I told Mr. WhP if he wants to try more Shoreline Trail, go ahead.  He went for a while, and came back with huff 'n puff.  Just for my memory/record I asked him to take a picture.
He tried other side of the trail too.  But both trail are getting steeper and steeper, he said.  Energetic young guys passing us, and we were amazed.
 
Then I decided to ride more on the road down, maybe next parking lot down up there.

Reached! From down there the whitish building spot to here. 

Weber Point also has a restroom and a nice view.  But I was anxious to return to our parking lot.
Be careful to watch the car passing by!

we safely crossed the street to come back.  The late afternoon wind was very nice.  Somebody was eating her early supper while looking at the bay.

Ready to load our bikes to go home. 

My speedometer shows:  Time 20'59, Average Speed 5.6mph , Max Speed 15.5mph, Distance 2.013miles.

That was the most tense 2 miles ride I've ever ridden lately.

I'm not a mountain biker type at all, I realized now very well.  And we really need to find a relaxing beautiful paved road next.  It is the time to travel, maybe.

Surely we both got really tired.  

Cooler weather, let's ride!

Our spirits were ready to go, but our energy levels were not perfect.  Anyway we tried.

Now I can ride with a higher saddle height, but it brought my left knee pain.  So I put it down a little bit.  Yes, much more comfortable.  Because my left leg is shorter than my right one.  And my left leg is weaker than my right one too.  So far 2.5'' is the best for me.

The last 15 min of today's 1 hour 45 min ride, my left toes got cramped again, but I kept pedaling lightly and slowly, so it went away finally.  Whew!

My butt pain came back.  Definitely  I need to rest tomorrow.

Today's record: Time, Average Speed, Max Speed, and Distance.

Not pushing, but continuing, is the key?

Hot weather really made my body weird. From morning?!  I was tired, but I felt I wanted to ride even a little.
It turned out 10 min. warm up was not enough. Next 10 min. work out was hard and brought pain.  I gave up to keep speed around 8 mph.  Changing gear, and not push any more.  About 50 min. after I started riding, and just after stop and start action, my left toes got cramped.  Hurts!

I was going to ride very lightly and finish within 10 min.   But after that, I felt much better and pain was forgotten.  So I continued until over 1 hour 45 min.
Average speed: 8.5 mph, Max speed: 18.9 mph, and Distance: 15.3 miles!

Light riding day

No way to take a trip yet, because of our energy level.  
It's hot again today.  We pushed ourselves a little to go out for biking late afternoon.  It was close to 90 F, but as soon as we started riding we felt comfortable enough.  Then gusty wind started blowing against us.  We had a quite nice workout today.

When we got back home, we felt much better.  But our bodies, especially our legs, thighs, and feet were stiff and in pain strong enough to notice.  It has been always like that on our bodies afterwards.  How come we didn't feel too tired or any severe pain while we were riding, I wonder???

Anyway today's record is:
Distance: 8.6 miles, Time:  1hour 07, Max 14.5 mph, Average:  7.6 mph 

I used the folding bike.  Somehow, maybe the weight point is lower than a regular bike, I felt it easy to handle.  Even though I had a little hard time to start pedaling after stop when I started tired, I got a much better feeling to ride the folding bike.  I just need to get used to it more, especially for starting on up slopes.

 

Just rode

We both were tired today, because we accidentally push ourselves too much yesterday.  Especially I had a sore spot on my butt.  Fortunately we saw our neighbor, so we stopped and had a chat for a while and rode back, but it couldn't last so long.  My back of thigh muscle got small pain, so we returned home.

Today we decided to compare each one's odometer:

Mr. WhP's shows:

Mine shows:

I rode slightly shorter distance than him.

Tired...  We really need to go to bed early tonight.

6-05-15 Morning bike +

The weather man said it's going to be over 80 F today.  So we rode in the morning today.  Mr. WhP is always not awake completely in the morning.  In addition he is draggy.
So I took our folding bike today which is very heavy handle and pedals.  At the beginning I had a little hard time to start.  The handle is too easy to move around, but finally I got used to it.

We did an hour bike.  At the end my butt started getting sore, groaning with small voice I came back home.  I have to reduce my weight! Poor my butty.

It's so beautiful today.  I want to go somewhere for biking.  But I have a lot of chore to do.  agrrrr...

It was sooo hot in the afternoon that I couldn't finish all the chores.  And I felt very strange because of the heat even inside of our house.  As if "I'm going to get sick..." 

So I decided to go out for a ride again. He was ready, too!
Oh, my goodness!!  We got really crazy ... The temperature of our back yard still showed over 80 F!

But it was breezy as usual, and we were getting better.  In addition I asked him to raise my seat a little bit when he adjusted his seat, so I got a new feeling for my bike riding.
Some part of community roads are private, so we try not to go too fast.  But main road are free to speed up.  Even speed limit is 25 mph, no way older people like us can break it.  

So, the second ride result is:

Average speed of the afternoon ride is better than the morning.
And,  total distance we rode today is 6.34+6.49=12.83 miles.  We couldn't break our record today.  But we rode in different condition and we felt much better from sweating!

By the way, quite a few very older people were walking with their dogs in such a condition in the late afternoon.  That made me surprised.

Severe troubles are in front of myself.

I was sitting on around my tail bone yesterday, because my back muscle got tired?  It must be my bad habit...  It hurts....  Unlike my knees and ankles, these guys are fine.  Even my weak right shoulder pain last night has gone today.  Ouch butt, OB< OB<OB..... ....  Maybe I can train my back muscle stronger and stick my butt out to sit all the time. ???

Next problem is fatally worse one.  I always sit on the seat and start.  So my seat is low for me still, I guess.  
But I can't other leg swing over when the first leg on the pedal.  I'm scared.  When you stop, you have to do reverse which I can't do either.

Gosh, I'm not sure if I can do it right in the future....

I found the good video!  I might be able to do it after many practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyatgZ6mQPk

5-21-2015 Slope ride

Last weekend's too much excitement made me exhausted, and him too, we had to have a rest for a while.
Today we finally lifted ourselves up and biked on the road in our neighborhood again.

At beginning my body was awful.  10 min. later finally I was fine, besides my buttocks hurt!??

But we finished a bike ride of 3.5 miles today!  I feel better.

Then, we did it again after we checked all the grades.  

Surprisingly the even steep looking slope is not!  That is a little bit disappointment, but in a way this is a good place to practice all kinds of things.  Because I didn't know many things about bicycle.

Today I learned how to use both sides gear shifts on Internet, and also from him.

Tomorrow I'm going to practice gear changing properly.

Low Gear is great for climbing:  Front - small, Back- the largest (1-3)
High Gear is great for descending:  Front- big chainring, Back- the smallest (4-7)
Middle Gear is great for everyday  terrain:  Front- middle chainring on triple, Back- the middle (3-6)

So I'm going to use back gear 3 , maybe 4  for flat and practice changing for up-slope and down-slope next.