Category Archives: biking

Long ride musings

It’s Monday. Also known as rest day 😀  Just walking for me, thank you.  I was up somewhat early and made up some pumpkin oats for breakfast.  Yeah, it’s June, but it was cool out this morning!

My legs feel fine today.  72 miles is a lot of miles, even for us.  The funny thing is, I feel the most tired and sore the evening of the ride, but on Sunday, my legs felt quite good.  I actually recover almost scarily fast.

I had some saddle soreness, but that was expected.  I got new bike shorts a couple weeks ago and they are great!  There was a 12 mile recovery ride to breakfast on Sunday morning, but just a slower pace and as flat as possible ride (for around here any way).  It felt good just to ride  a bit, but not too much.

Yeah, I have to say I have no interest in another 100 mile ride.  After we had gone 40+ miles on Saturday I said to John, “What was the point of a ride this long?”  His answer – “Because it’s a nice day”.  Touche.  Indeed it was.

I did have a calorie deficit for the entire day.  I burned 3800 for the whole day and managed to eat about 3100.  Funny how on a day like Thanksgiving or Christmas, I can pack away the calories and get that in easily (and more).  On a long ride day, it is a struggle.  Part of it is just being too busy actually riding to eat.  The other is just not being hungry at all and having to sort of force myself to keep eating food.  I usually end up being very hungry the next day, although Sunday was not too bad since I actually did get in a good amount of food for the day.

Shelley brought up a point about the stopping and keeping going is hard, but when biking, it is not so bad.  Part of the reason is just the length of the ride and needing to get off and stretch the legs, but the other part is just that biking is much different than running as far as the pounding on the joints.  It’s easier to get going again and keep going.

Of course, having to get home is the other thing.  We could always make a ‘sag wagon’ call, but then it is a matter of A) finding someone with a large enough car for the bikes and B) someone that is home with said vehicle on a weekend LOL.

Are you tired of me talking about biking yet?  I can keep going… Okay, I’ll stop.  😀

How about a snack and lunch instead?

Between breakfast and lunch, I had one of the new Zone Perfectly Simple bars.  I had gotten some as samples, which I quite liked – even though they have soy protein – and so we bought a couple boxes (guess that worked for them, eh?).  I think this peanut flavor is my favorite.

Then I worked up to lunch:

Note the bread!  How’s that for a change?  Again, I have been trying to increase my carbs with all the riding.  Not that I want to bring back a lot of bread, but it goes well with a turkey burger.  Pluot on the side.

There has been a little visitor that has been hanging around the garden lately.  She has a collar, but I haven’t gotten too close to check it out.  I don’t want to start petting her or getting her used  to me since she isn’t our cat.  I can almost feel that panicked feeling John gets when I start befriending cats. Pixie is not happy with the visitor:

She stares and chuffs at the window.  The other kitty could care less.  Poor Pixie’s liver.

Afternoon snack time.

I had this before going for a 15 minute walk. I have really been trying to get in that bit of walking most days to at least help my brain during work days.

Monday seems to be fish day around here.  We got some nice salmon at the store yesterday.  Marinated it in this:

John cooked that on the grill.

It was quite good.  I really like that marinade.

I still prefer other proteins, but the salmon is a nice change and I know how good it is for me.  Oh, and this picture?  No direct sun ever comes in this window because it faces north, but it reflected in off the house next door with sunshine into our kitchen.  Made for a nice shot.

I have catch up on work tonight, plus more walking and making a lesson plan for meeting with my new literacy learner tomorrow.  Yep, it’s Monday!

44 miles for 44 years

I had a great day yesterday!  I tell you, though, my email and Facebook exploded, which was cool – but overwhelming!

I had taken the day off, so I knew I wanted to bike ride, but not for how long.  Then Shelley mentioned that she ran 4.9 miles on her birthday and that I should do 44 miles on the bike.  I figured “why not?”  That is a normal good riding distance for me and I had the time.  I was just concerned about the weather cooperating.   It was 49 degrees when I got up.  (It’s June, right?)

Bundled up! I decided to let John sleep in a little bit before breakfast – earning Best Wife points – and headed out for a 7 mile ride.  I came back home to see if he was up (he was) and then we headed out for a breakfast bagel!  We biked to Coffee Planet:

Oat bran with cranberry walnut cream cheese!  It was weird being there on a weekday morning as this is our Sunday place.

We biked home and I left John behind.  I had 19 miles done already at that point before 10 a.m.!  I thought it might rain in the afternoon, so I knew if I wanted the rest of the miles, I better get them in.  I  packed up a few snacks and then headed out for some loop riding.  I went on some quieter roads:

With a snack:

Some downtown roads – which had too much traffic.  Midday weekday riding is something I am just not used to. (no pictures of that).  I tried to stay on quieter roads, though, and just have a nice “thinking” ride.

Then some path riding. I stopped for a long break at mile 35 to eat this Luna bar and enjoy the quietness of this place.

This is that 1 mile byway we recently discovered.

Then the last 9 miles home.  Not sure how I got it this exact without a planned route, but I guess I must have been a cartographer in a previous life or something.

Yay!

I am a cool 44 year old! 😀

John and I had to run out and get an extra cake for the evening.   Then I got a private piano concert:

I had requested 3 pieces that he play for me on my birthday.  Thanks John!

Then dinner time! My dinner of choice –

Local seafood place.  We don’t go here too often because it is a little expensive, but good food.  Check out this picture staring at John.

You will eat your fish, sir, and you will like it!

I had some crab bisque to start with.

And then my plate.  I couldn’t decide between the scallops and the shrimp and our server said she could just have them make me a half and half plate!  Yay!  I chose the broiled version.

With a baker and sour cream.  This was very, very good.  I love scallops and wish they weren’t so pricey to purchase for home.

Then it was cake time!  These are the 2 cakes.

This one is a chocolate pecan torte.  Layers of mousse and chocolate cake.

We did the emergency run for the red velvet cake because we thought there was going to be 2 people for cake, which turned into a few more.

Yum!!!

A couple present highlights:

Puzzles (this one is a 4 dimensional puzzle)

I have wanted one of these:

Totally unexpected:

It’s the regular Kindle (not the Fire).  I guess it is a Kimble Kindle? Say that 10 times fast!

 

Overall a great day was had and thanks to everyone for the well wishes (and presents!!).

Cramming it in!

Not a lot of riding this weekend, but we sure got a lot done!  Saturday was rainy from the get-go, so I worked out at the gym and then John and I did a little shopping and went out for lunch.  We tried a place called Hatties, which is a local landmark.  They opened a satellite restaurant by the mall.  It definitely has southern influences as Hattie was from New Orleans.

This sign cracked me up:

I need to use the term thigh-fecta when I do 3 sets of barbell squats or something.

Fried chicken is the specialty, but we will have to save that for another day.  I had a marinated chicken breast sandwich with hush puppies.

I actually ended up just taking off the top bun and not eating it.  When you don’t eat a lot of bread, you really notice it and it would have overwhelmed the meat (for me).

John and I both found what we wanted at the mall – double score!  John got a new pair of shoes, I got a new pair of bike shorts and the elastic is falling out in bits and pieces on my old ones.  No need to have a wardrobe malfunction while on the roads.  😳

What else to do on a rainy day?  Make jam!  I made an apricot ginger jam.

I will post a jam making tutorial sometime this week.  It’s actually really easy to do.  This was tasty stuff, too.

Sunday morning was really the only time to get a ride in.  We went out for the usual bagel.

Hmmm… not the best lighting there.  We decided to head out for a longer ride after breakfast (since I was stuffed with carbs!) just in case the afternoon ended up being rainy.  We took a short path that we went on for the first time last week.  It is only about a mile, but it is the prettiest mile you will see.

It’s paved, too, which is really nice.

Lucky enough to spot this heron at the water’s edge.

This guy was getting a lot of attention and couldn’t care less!

The ride today felt really great.  Not sure what it was about it, but I’ll take it!

We ended up at about 18.5 miles. The only ride of the weekend, but it was a nice one.

Lots of chores in the early afternoon.  I did weeding and outdoor cleaning.

John did some painting.

100+ year old house = lots of maintenance.

Then there was more of this:

So, no more riding.  We did get a lot of things done, though.  I can’t believe the weekend is over already!

Sundae on Saturday!

The weekend had the most glorious weather!  It was supposed to be pretty warm Saturday (upper 70s), so we decided on an afternoon ride for ice cream!  Last weekend, we did a 50+ mile ride and were pretty tired on Sunday, so we backed down a bit and John mapped out a 40 mile ride with hills.  We had a destination in mind, so John planned around that to get us to 40 miles.  After fueling up with a big lunch, I lathered up with sunscreen and we hit the roads.

We probably should have let lunch sit a little longer because my tummy was not happy with riding for the first 5 or 6 miles.   We cruised along for about 12 miles before stopping just as we got to the top of a hill coming into downtown Glens Falls.

This is a 5 point intersection and if you can believe it, they use to have a traffic light here before they put in the circle.  It sucked if you just missed the light because you had to sit *forever* to for the light to go around 4 times.  The circle is much, much better.

This is my team Espresso jersey.

From here, we took a long way around to hook back onto the Lake George path.  Now it was time for the hills!  We normally get to the top of this section of hills at mile 11, so it was a nice challenge doing it after riding for a while.

As we were climbing the b*tch hill, a couple people passed us going up and I felt slightly annoyed at why I couldn’t go faster.  Then I caught up to  them again as we were approaching the peak of that hill where it gets steep to the top and they got off to walk their bikes up.  Petty me decided I was going to ride on past them LOL!  I was tired, but I thought “no way am I going to walk up this part”.  I should have thanked them for the impetus.

Made it!  This was about mile 18. Look at that line of cars for the outlet mall.

I asked John to pose, but after hitting the top of the hill, he wasn’t all into that.

Then it was 2 miles of nice downhill riding to the lake!  Wheeeeee!  A little energy reward once we got there.

Did I say how gorgeous it was on Saturday?

See that sky?  That is known as sunburn sky to Lori.   I put on more sunscreen while we stopped here.

I was nice to sit a spell and get some rest.  I was saying to John how much I loved days where it was this nice at the lake before all the tourists come and make it all crowded.

We didn’t stop too long, because I had ice cream on my mind!  That was the reason for the ride  :mrgreen:

We headed back up the way we came.  This is the 2 mile climb back up to that overpass, but it doesn’t seem as bad going this way because the last tick up is not so steep.  Then at mile 26, we arrived at our destination:

Great Escape isn’t open for the season yet, but Martha’s is!  It was really crowded, too.  All the locals love Martha’s and with good reason.  We set up camp under the metal umbrellas:

My treat for the day?  This is the Scholarship Sundae (proceeds fund a scholarship).  Apple pie soft serve with raspberry sauce and chocolate fudge. Topped with cookie crumbs.

John got the cherry (har har).  The one fruit I do not eat would be cherries. Ick.   This is a regular size sundae.  I can’t imagine how big the large size is!

This was soooo good.  We like to say we have biking tastebuds because everything tastes just that much better when you have worked hard before eating.

We altered our route on the way home to avoid some traffic and decided to go around on the path with a couple extra loops and then finish up.  We saw this family on the canal:

Aren’t they the cutest!  Eeeeeeee!!!  Normally we only see ducks on the canal. First time ever to see geese with babies.

A little less than a mile to go (around mile 39), John’s bike started making a funny noise.  Oh no!  The back tire was flat!  Look at what was sticking out of his tire.

That is a 2 inch nail!  We have super duper puncture proof tires on our bikes now after the Flat Tire Saga of 2011, which I am sure you all remember.   However, no tire can withstand a 2 inch nail.  John was going to walk the rest of the way home, but then just decided to change the tube so as not to harm the wheel.  He can change a tube quite fast now.

Then the last 3 minutes to home.

Ride stats:

Total miles:  40.2

Average speed:  12.6 mph

Top speed: 27.2 mph

Calories burned:  1200

Hopefully that flat tire is not gong to bring about another round of flats like last year.  Other than that, it was a great day and a great ride!

No bike races for me

Monday and rest day!  Yay! That meant being able to sleep in a little later.  I guess I have things backwards cause that kind of sounds like a weekend.  Too bad I actually have to work  :mrgreen:

I made up some oats with peanut flour and egg whites whisked in and topped with peach jam.  The last of my peach jam I made last year.  Going to have to get jammin’ again!

Had a fairly steady work day, but I got hungry fast, so I had a snack of some cucumbers and half of a carrot cake Larabar.

A new to me flavor.  I had a coupon, so I bought 4 different Larbars this weekend.

Anyway, some people have asked (and probably others wonder as well) whether or not I plan on doing bike races – or why I don’t do bike races.

There are a couple reasons for that.  Back when I was able to run, I did a fair number of 5Ks, a triathlon, and a duathlon.  Those were always fun and I like the organized races to a degree, but sometimes I felt a lot of pressure (self-imposed) to perform.  I can tend to be competitive with things – just ask John!  I do miss the 5K races sometimes.

With biking, first off – I am not really fast enough to do anything like a race.  I have a hybrid bike, so that puts me at a disadvantage right off the bat.  That was the case when I did the 65 mile charity ride in 2010.  I was in the back of the group and one of 2  hybrid bikes in that race.

John and I participated together in a  35 mile Tour de Farm ride, which was fun and had a fantastic meal afterwards, but again, we were really not part of any of the groups riding.  Most people finished very fast and we figured it would be more leisurely.

The other thing is the biking is just plain fun for me.  I love riding distances (major duh), but I like doing them my own way and at my own pace.  I will ride 50 miles and stop when I want to take a picture or when I need a rest or snack.  We like to make riding to a destination part of the process, like riding for cupcakes or ice cream.  Then we can stroll around or enjoy the weather before going home.  No pressure to get done in a certain time.  I guess that is why I don’t consider myself a hardcore rider.  I just like to ride and don’t want to pressure myself to do things by someone else’s rules.   Or does that just make me a rebel??

That said, I have thought about doing a group ride here and there later this year, but it’s hard to shell out the money and not know how the weather will be or what the course is and all that stuff.

All that riding talk made me hungry!  This was lunch:

Blueberry sauce topped with ricotta cheese (I use part skim) and a coconut flour biscuit.  Pretty good!

Work ran out in the afternoon for a bit.  We finally got everything caught up.  So, I made the lattes today.

It was quite good if I do say so myself!  And I will.  😀

I told John that I wanted to make a better effort at cooking meals instead of meal assembly, and we implemented that tonight.  I made up the chicken with balsamic tomatoes.  John made rice (which I did not have).

Does this not look like the best dinner?  It was really, really good.  That recipe is so easy and pretty fast.  Try it if you haven’t.  Nomf, nomf!  We only did 2 chicken breasts and there was some tomato topping left, so I need to figure out what to put that on this week.  Maybe an omelet?

Relaxing, a snack, and stretching are on the docket for the rest of the night.  Lots of stretching.  Someone who shall remain nameless has been remiss in the monthly goal of stretching.

 

What’s Blooming and more riding!

Friday, thank you!  Although, I will be working this weekend as explained below.

I slept in until about 7, which is pretty good for me.  On Fridays no gym, so I like to let myself sleep later if I can.  So more of a relaxing morning.  I made up some protein waffles topped with apple topping for breakfast.

I only had 2 of the 4 waffle triangles as I hadn’t done any workout and didn’t need such a big breakfast.  I would eat the other 2 squares later.

Today was such a wonderful sunny day.  Some of the tulips are blooming now.

This is the Ballade tulip.  It is a lily flowering tulip.  Tres elegant!

Golden Parade:

And the Apricot Impression.

You know how the other day I said you needed to get rides in when you can during spring?  Well, the weather looks really rainy for the weekend, but today was 70s and sunny.  Which day sounds better for riding? Yep. Today!  I decided to use the flexibility of my job to ride today and do work on a rainy weekend day.  So, I worked hard for the morning, then I packed a lunch to ride to the lake.  I was quite hungry, so I drank a protein shake before leaving the house for some pre-ride fuel.  Then it was off to the lake!

Gorgeous ride there.  There was not much wind on the way there, which was a nice change (although that didn’t last).  I saw a fair number of bikers on the path, too.  They were the serious ones with uber bikes and snazzy outfits.  Everyone is very friendly.  I think when you see someone decked out on a bike, you tend to feel a kinship with them when you are also dressed that way.

Part of a swamp area:

This will be full of cattails and lily pads in the summer.

At mile 15.5, I arrived at the lake.

So gorgeous today.  It’s starting to get a little more active now preparing for the tourists.  I keep hearing a hollow thumping sound of the installation of new pier studs.  I found a quiet corner in what normally is full of flowers and had my lunch:

I was a happy lady.

After eating, I walked a bit and then got up by the lake and laid down on a bench for a while looking up at the sky.

It was so relaxing!  I texted John when I was ready to go so that he could meet me for froyo on the way home.  The froyo place is about 6 miles from home (or 9 miles from where I was), so I let him know when I was leaving so he could time it and meet me there.  He did great – he got there 1.5 minutes before I did!  Look at all the flavor choices for yogurt or soft serve:

We saw some new flavors on the board like sweet potato (????) My yogurt today?  Carrot cake topped with wet walnuts.

OMG!  This was awesome!  Made even tastier by having biked 24 miles on the day at this point.  I said to John that I was really, really glad to take the afternoon for this ride.  I knew if I didn’t get it in that I would be sitting there with a rainy day tomorrow regretting it.

By this time, the wind had really started to pick up, probably due to the weather change on the way.  It was a tough 6 miles home.

Nice ride for today!

I did get back to work for a little while when I got back, just to get in a full half day. That way I only have to do a half day tomorrow.

I was ready for dinner, too.  This is more of the pork from yesterday on top of a baker with BBQ sauce.

It is such a gorgeous evening, too.  I have my snack planned for later as well.   The remaining 2 waffle triangles from breakfast with blueberry sauce and ricotta cheese.

That sort of is a breakfast, so I guess I am bookending my day with brekkie 😀

Couple of riding questions

Another nice day on tap here. Yesterday was Hot!!  Mid 80s.  We are going from 0 to 60 around here with the weather.  And back again.  The tulips are popping, though.  Good color for Friday’s post  😀

I had a good lifting workout at the gym this morning.  Yesterday I was pretty tired from the weekend riding.  From Friday to Sunday, we put over 70 miles on the bikes.  Plus I did a lifting workout on Sunday.  All I did yesterday was light walking and stretching.  Felt good.

After I got back from the gym, it was breakfast time!  1-minute muffle with apple cranberry topping.

Very good.  This was the sugar free version, but I used pumpkin instead of applesauce as I had the can open for my protein shake this morning.

Anhyoo, here are a couple FAQ answers on biking that have been asked lately.

1. Are you sore after long rides?  Normally, no.  Right now, yes.  It’s early in the season and Saturday’s ride was pretty long.  When we biked to breakfast on Sunday, my sit bones were complaining a bit.  Not too bad, though.

2. What do you do about potty stops?  I stop drinking liquid about 1 hour before we leave for long rides.  When I first get up, I drink extra glasses of water to make sure that I am fully hydrated and get rid of the excess (so to speak).  Once you start long rides, though, you really don’t need too many potty stops.  I can go the 23 miles to Saratoga without needing to stop, but we always have in mind where a Stewart’s is or fast food place we can go to if need be.

Once at our destination, we use the restroom wherever we eat or use public ones.  Again, my body pretty much uses up all liquid I consume during the ride.  It is very rare that I ever need to stop on the way home.

3. Do you lose weight on the long rides?  I don’t like to weigh myself for a couple days after a long ride.  I actually always gain a few pounds from rides, which is mostly due to water retention from a lot of hard work of my muscles and eating foods that I normally don’t during the week.  The only time I really concern myself with weighing the day after a ride is if it was really hot.  If I don’t gain or even lose weight, that means I am dehydrated and need to fill up.

On to lunch!  This should be filed under the “don’t get too close” category.  Not too attractive, but tasty.  I cooked up ground turkey and added in some rice and BBQ sauce.

Work was quite busy today (and yesterday as well).  Good for the wallet!  Yay!  I also got finished in a timely fashion as well.

John made up lattes today – cheers!

And on another note, I noticed this afternoon that those stupid comments are back in the google feed again!  Grrrr!!!  They just stopped for whatever reason and now are back.

So, more fish eating for us.  Last night we had some  salmon, which we grilled.  I am getting more used to it.  Tonight was flounder.  We got a bacon fill coated flounder and baked it in the toaster oven.

It was pretty good.  I think I like the fattier fish, though.  I didn’t taste any bacon with this. False advertising!!

While I was up practicing guitar this evening after dinner, John was getting up to all kinds of trouble in the kitchen.  He made up these cookies for his poker night tomorrow.

Chocolate chip made with some peanut flour.  There was a broken cookie (you can see it in the back), so we had to taste test!  Very good.

I am out of here for the night to escape the cookies and be social.   :mrgreen:

Hello sun!

Woke up this morning and sunrise was bright.  How welcome that is! This week has been very windy and cold and cloudy.  Not good biking weather, I tell you.  But, that is spring.  The garden is soaking up all that sun.

I baked up breakfast and tried to relax a bit.  Sometimes I just want to get started working right away and need to just take time to eat my breakfast *without* working.  That’s what working on production can do to you.

It sure was hard to stay buckled down at work this morning, speaking of. The nice weather, plus having to work late last night gave me Fridayitis!

Carbed up a little at lunch. This is a baked potato with ground turkey and BBQ sauce with laughing cow cheese.

Pretty tasty!

I was getting antsy to get outside in the afternoon, watching the temps creep upwards into the low 60s as I worked.  We decided to play a little on Friday and bike for coffee!  We went to downtown Glens Falls to Coffee Planet.

My latte – with unpictured dried pineapple.

It was such a nice day for a ride.  A bit breezy, though.  We took the path home as there was a lot of traffic today and it was annoying me for whatever reason.

12 miles round trip!

Back to work  until dinner time… sigh…

Cajun seasoned chicken, which was really good.

I also got in some new coffee beans today.  From Bali.

This is a new one for me and I am excited to try this out.  I roasted those after dinner.

Tonight we are relaxing in. Guitar practice, watching Grimm and maybe some puzzle stuff.  Tomorrow is a long ride – finally to Saratoga and that means cuppicakes!  Yay!  I am going to be smart and *not* do lifting in the morning prior to a 40+ mile ride this week  :mrgreen:

I will leave you with this woodpecker, who  is also enjoying the sun and the suet feeder on my front porch.

Bikes and bird nests

A long ride on tap for Saturday!  I had gone and did a strength workout in the morning as per usual.  The last B workout of stage 1 (which I will recap tomorrow).

It was quite windy, but 50 degrees, and we couldn’t wait to get out.  We started off with sun and several layers to stay warm.  Here is part of the path:

John shed a layer after about 5 miles, but I kept mine on and thought I would shed a layer at mile 10.

After we got to mile 10, just as we were getting ready to pass an older couple walking on the path, John yells to me “Do you want to take your clothes off now?”  😳 😳

It was windy and a hard ride on the way there.  Who was it that decided to do a lifting workout before riding?  Oh yes, that was me.  I thought for sure I was  going to have to walk up the hill we call The B*tch, but I actually made it with some grunting and yelling “come ON!!”

Down the other side for about 2 miles.

Hills never look as steep in photos. Of course, I took off my jacket here before going down and then I was freezing since I was so sweaty.  Going downhill at 20 miles per hour in a headwind and sweaty = very cold!

We reached the lake and it was gorgeous!

It was even windier here, which is always is at the lake.

A few buds on the trees, but still pretty drab around here.  John and I stopped at 2 places for our snack. First up was the Lake George Baking Company

We picked up a couple pastries for each of us and then hit up Cafe Vero for lattes.

First pastry – an almond horn.

I also got a sfogliatelle, which is a shell shaped pastry filled with an orange ricotta cheese mixture – which was fantastic with the latte!

So good.  Burned about 500 calories on the way there and ate 500 for my snack.  See how life balances out?  😀

I felt great on the way home.  Part of that was not riding into a head wind, but  my legs got rested and had a carb boost.  Powered by pastry!  We didn’t even stop on the way home.  I just felt stronger and stronger as we kept going.  Or maybe it was just a biker’s high? Yay!

I am almost ready for our Saratoga rides.

31.5 miles!  Guess I should do strength training before every long ride.  Okay, maybe not… Definitely not.  I will have to adjust my lifting schedule soon.

On Sunday, my family got together for dinner.  Just a few quick pictures.  I made up some macaroon bird’s nests with little malted milk eggs to bring.

Aren’t they cute?

Here is my dinner plate:

Delicious ham, with twice baked mashed potatoes (awesome!) done by my mom.  My sister brought along the asparagus with homemade Hollandaise sauce.   I had seconds of ham and potatoes.

I was a bottomless pit today.  I also ate too much candy.  There were M&Ms a plenty, which I ate more than my share of.  I haven’t had this many sweets in about 6 weeks.

More sweets?  Yes please:

John made a blueberry cobbler.  I wasn’t full even after eating this, but I really just needed to stop eating beacuse I don’t think I will ever feel full. Then it was game time.  Mostly made up games with the nieces.  Don’t you love games like that where the rules are made up as the game goes along??

Now settling in to watch Paris Roubaix.  Can the weekend be over already?

Bageling around

Yes, I think I can make a new verb called ‘bageling.’ That is the act of going to and having a bagel!  As per usual on Wednesday mornings.  Yesterday’s rain made it a very foggy morning for riding. I don’t love riding in the fog becuase I don’t trust drivers very much (which is a good thing because it keeps me alert). It’s definitely feeling like fall around here now – at least in the mornings.  We headed out to North Country Cafe where I had a wheat bagel:

With some caramel apple coffee! New flavor.  I don’t sweeten my coffee, so sometimes it is odd to have a flavored coffee and not taste anything sweet.

Had a nice view from the window.

The building across the street was torn down and now a new bank building is going up in its place. It is going to be a long process because the whole street itself will be redone as well.

We then headed on home.  12 miles round trip for breakfast! I was just thinking how much more I enjoyed the biking than the riding. Even when there are poopy drivers and flat tires.  I really am this:

(Shelley, I found one! :D) I may have to get myself one of these shirts. Thanks for all the pep talk on my running feelings. I think a lot of it confirmed that I will likely end running all together and just do what I really love to do.  What is that saying about insanity being when you do the same thing over and over again with the same result? I may be a little on the crazy side, but it is a good kind of crazy. I’d like to keep it that way.

Lots and lots of work to do today. It’s been busy lately, which is always good in our industry. I stopped for a quick lunch:

This is ricotta cheese mixed with a little honey and some whey protein isolate on top of blueberry sauce and some toasted pecans. It was a warm lunch, even though it looks cool.  Next time I would have more ricotta.

Today was wonderful payday, too, so I hopped on the bike for another 3 miles to go to the bank and back.  It’s nice that it is so close. Plus it was a nice activity break, although I was already a bit behind where I like to be at this time of day (that seems to be the Wednesday norm at any rate). Lattes upon return.  This is in front of my last plumeria – which didn’t bloom this year.

In my effort to work on September goals, I made another new to me recipe tonight for dinner. It’s called Best Captain’s Chicken from a WW cookbook and I will post the recipe tomorrow (hope that is kosher).  It didn’t take too long and turned out good!

It has chicken, apples, onions, peppers, ginger, cinnamon, curry powder and raisins in it.  While that sounds strange, it was very good. We both really liked it a lot.  Kind of a cross between a soup and stew (stoup).

There also has been some snacking on this:

Several handfuls of cashews.  These are starting to get in danger zone for me.

Well, I must run. John is off for poker and I am off for some socializing of my own!