Tag Archives: Bike Ride

365 Day Photo Challenge 237/365 “I Did as Promised”

23 Sunday Aug 2015

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I stated yesterday that come Hell or high water I was going to ride today. When I woke up it was storming here.  At first I believed that the ride wouldn’t happen.  But, as fate would have it, the skies cleared after lunch and I was able to get a little over 22 miles in.  This coming week the weather looks good for riding each day.  I know Friday evening is out due to a football game and Saturday morning is out due to having to take one of my daughters to a music class.

It really felt good to get out on the bicycle today.  It was a bit windy and I had a headwind for most of my ride.  I had several dogs that tried to attack me today and I have yet to understand why people allow their dogs to run loose in a community where there is a leash law.  I’m just wondering if one of these dogs cause me to have a wreck and it causes me bodily injury who is going to be responsible for my medical bills?  I would think it would be the dog owner but with today’s laws who knows?

“Life Goes On!”

!365 Day Photo Challenge 231/365 “The Sounds of Summer Bicycle Ride”

17 Monday Aug 2015

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After several days without a bike ride I just had to get out tonight.  It seems that every time I have a ride planned something else comes up and I’m not able to ride.  Tonight, come hell or high water I was going to ride.  All day today the rain was relentless and I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to ride in the rain.

While on my ride tonight I couldn’t help but hear the songs of the cicada.  I know you’re familiar with their songs as well.  They look alien to me and the songs they sing confirms that they are not from this earth.  At times throughout my ride tonight their songs even drowned out the sound of the dogs that were barking at me as I rode past.

As the darkness fell so did the songs of the cicada.  I was soon overcome with bugs that were attracted by my headlight.  I had to make sure that I only breathed through my nose and not my mouth.  Every once in a while I would forget and I would soon be spitting bugs out of my mouth.  People tell me that they prefer riding at night.  I must agree that it is much cooler but to be bombarded with the amount of insects I would have to wear a face mask or goggles in order not to have to be digging bugs out from between my teeth.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 221/365 “The Weekend is Here!”

07 Friday Aug 2015

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I have a lot of plans whether or not I’ll get to them all remains to be seen.  I’d like to get a bike ride in, there’s a waterfall about an hours drive from here that I’d like to go photograph and I’m planning on doing some Dutch Oven cooking one day this weekend.  So I have a lot I’d like to do but it really depends on how active I want to get in this heat.

I sincerely hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.  Enjoy yourself and do something fun.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 217/365 “Oncologist Appointment Today”

03 Monday Aug 2015

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I spent the afternoon at my oncologist today.  I never really like going there because it breaks my heart seeing all those people sitting on those recliners getting their chemo treatments.  Not knowing their situation I always fear the worse for them.  My blood work for the most part turned out ok.  However, they won’t get the results from the main test for at least a week or more.  The toughest part is the waiting.

Going to the eye doctor tomorrow to get a new prescription for new glasses.  Since my eye surgery my eyesight has diminished quite a bit so I’m actually looking forward to being able to see again.

I was not able to ride tonight due to a scout meeting I had to attend.  With tomorrow’s eye appointment I’m not sure if I’ll be able to ride or not.  Wednesday looks good but Thursday is out because of another meeting after work.  The weekend looks good but there is a waterfall I want to find and photograph so getting a ride in on Saturday may not happen.  We shall see.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 216/365 “Big Dog, Big Headache”

02 Sunday Aug 2015

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My GoPro was dead or else I would have a video of this huge dog coming out from nowhere and chase me up a hill today.  He came at me so fast that he couldn’t stop in time and hit his head on my back tire nearly knocking me off my bike.  I always look for this dog when I go down this road but today he had two friends about the same size as he is.  The one that hit me was taken back a few seconds giving his friends a chance to get at me.  Normally I don’t get too excited about the big dogs but today I was a bit concerned when I could see that for some reason they meant business and showed me their teeth.  As I reached the top of the hill two of the dogs lost interest but the one that got beaned still thought that he could get a piece of me and started nipping at my new shoes.  Of course by this time I’m standing up trying to pedal faster and get away from the situation.  As I make the top of the hill and start rounding the corner the dog finally gave up and went home.  The bad part of this was is that I have to go down this road twice on my route which means I had another round of this to look forward to when I come back toward home.  Thankfully, the second time around was noneventful.  The dogs stayed on their porch and didn’t give chase.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 207/365 “Hot Hundred”

25 Saturday Jul 2015

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They picked the perfect name for this ride because it was truly a very hot day today.  The ride started at 7am sharp.  I arrived a little later than I had wanted too so I was toward the back of the pack when the ride started.  It didn’t take me long before I was riding with the lead riders.  Not for long though.  It was a fairly flat ride but my feet started giving me some problems because I don’t have the clets set up just right.  I will soon enough thogh.

All the ones that preregistered got a goody bag which included your bib ID plus all you see in this photo plus a tee shirt.  Not bad.

The ride started off pretty slow.  I guess 700 riders leaving out all at once can’t be too quick.  Once I made it toward the head of the pack I was able to reach speeds of around 19 and 20 mph.  It was constant peddling though.  No hills to go down only a few to go up toward the end of the ride.  The ride was rough as the roads are were in poor condition in places.  I ended up having a lose spoke just before the first rest stop.  I didn’t have my spoke wrench so I had to listen to it all the way back to the start/finish line.  I’ll fix that problem tomorrow after I get home from moving my son.

“Life Goes On”

Sleepless Night

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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I hate it when I go to bed, go to sleep then wake up and can’t get back to sleep.  Oh well, being that I’m up and waiting on the sleep aid to kick in I thought I’d share one of the videos that I made while on my bike ride yesterday.  This is the start of my 47 mile trip starting at Judson College in Marion Alabama.  The hills are not as bad at the beginning of the ride but gets much steeper as the ride goes along.

Hope you enjoy.

365 Day Photo Challenge 105/365 “Tomorrow’s a Big Day”

17 Friday Apr 2015

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Intake

I will be getting up at 5:15 in the morning to get ready to drive to Marion, Alabama for the Old Howard 100 Bike Ride.  I have signed up for the 46 mile loop.  One of these days I’ll do the 103 mile loop but not tomorrow.  I’m not sure I’m fully prepared for this ride but I know that I’m more prepared than I was last year at this time.  The weather does look better than it did last night at this time.  They’re still predicting rain but it may hold off until after the ride.  My rain jacket is in my backpack ready to go just in case.

The above picture was taken while I was inside a large water pit.  The picture is of the inlet valve of a water pump.  I thought the water droplets made for an interesting picture.

I did not do any type of workout this evening.  I went to a club meeting after I ate supper and didn’t get back until nearly 9 pm.  I still had a few things to get together for tomorrow’s ride so I decided to take a rest day today.

Wish me luck tomorrow.  I’m just going to take my time and enjoy myself.

365 Day Photo Challenge 102/365 “More Treadmill Time”

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

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With the threat of rain I chose not to ride this evening.  It’s supposed to rain all week here in the deep south.  I’m trying to do some sort of exercise six days a week with one rest day.  So far it seems to be working out for me.  With the weather like it is I’m spending a lot of time on the treadmill.  If it’s pretty out I’ll hop on my bicycle and ride for a couple of hours.

This Saturday is the Old Howard, (http://howard.samford.edu/oldhoward/),  When I first started checking the weather a few weeks ago it show thunderstorms.  Then a few days ago it started showing up as partly cloudy.  Today when I checked it was 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms.  If the forecast still shows rain on Friday I will not be going.  I’ve ridden in the rain two times and both times I ended up in a ditch with a busted rim and bruised bones. Simply not taking the risk.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 101/365 “Down 15 pounds”

13 Monday Apr 2015

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I’m really excited to report that I’ve lost 15 pounds as of this morning. I’ve been losing inches but not weight.  I guess it’s all the exercising that causing muscle weight.  Since March 1st I’ve either been on the treadmill or my road bike.  I can tell that I’ve lost inches because I’ve had to put two new holes in my belt.  I went from a size 48 pants down to a size 40 in a little over a month.

I’ve got a 46 mile bike ride down in Marion, Alabama this Saturday.  This will be my first charitable bike ride of the year.  I usually do about four a year.  Last year I was not prepared for the first ride.  I had only ridden about 50 or so miles before the event.  This year I’ve ridden close to 200 miles so maybe I’m better prepared than last year.  We shall see.

“Life Goes On!”