Category Archives: raining

Rainy ride and some carbs

I am glad you all enjoy the Friday blooming posts 😀  I would love to work in a nursery, but they are seasonal jobs around here, but maybe I could work it in. (Like I need another job….)

Breakfast began with coffee brewing and some protein waffle making.

Topped with banana/maple syrup mash.

The weather forecast called for scattered thunderstorms today and it was sunny out in the morning, so we decided to go ahead and bike.  We had a 43-mile route planned out that included new roads for us.  We had some of that yummy bread as a pre-ride snack.

We ended up getting a later start than we usually do.  The first part of the ride was great.  We went along a towpath road.  It was a dirt road and pretty bumpy (which my back was not thrilled with).  But it was just gorgeous.

Here is a little video of the towpath. (link)

We soon had to exit the towpath road and ride on regular roads.  This is where the ride became kind of scary.  There was about 10 miles of too much traffic and not enough shoulder due to either little to begin with or construction.  It was awful.  We hit this stuff around 15 miles in or so?  One of those grit-your-teeth kind of rides and just hope you make it okay.  This road is definitely crossed off the list to ride again.   That’s why there are no pics of this part.  We did take a break and I ate a pear.  Then it started to sprinkle.

Great….  There wasn’t much we could do because we were 20 miles from home, so we had to press on.  The rain became kind of steady and we aborted the plan to go all the way to the lake.  So, we ended up turning towards home and decided to stop at Panera Bread for lunch after 27 miles.

Soggy rider – yuck!  Panera Bread was cold, too.  I was saying to John that they could save a ton of money if they just turned their AC down about 5 degrees.  I had goosebumps, plus I was wet.  Funny how this morning it was warm and sunny and the last thing I would have thought I would be having for lunch was soup and a hot sandwich!  But here it is:

This is potato soup and the tomato and mozzarella panini.

Really, really good.

Check out the name on the receipt.  My name apparently is Ori….

We sat for a while hoping the rain would pass, but it wasn’t looking good, so we decided to head over to Starbucks to see if the rain passed.   That was about 1/4 mile away.

I had some coffee and a piece of raspberry swirl pound cake.  Pretty tasty.

We read the paper for a while and it was starting to look like it was going to be one of those all afternoon drizzles, so we just sucked it up and biked home.  Thank you Weather Channel…. I then began having chain problems, where it would catch after each full revolution of the chain.  Sigh….  I couldn’t get any cadence or any speed for that matter.  I am surprised the chain didn’t come off.

Finally reached home:

Hope this computer is waterproof 😯

Ride stats:

37.8 miles

Avg speed:  12 mph

Top speed:  29.2 mph

Calories burned:  1152

Check out my legs – complete mud and dirt fest.  Those socks are supposed to be white (like my legs 😉  ).

What a mess!  My shower poof turned black getting this off, too.

Here we were getting soggy and risking our lives and Pixie was just chillin’

She has absolutely no shame……

I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  No protein source thawed out and no eggs (we need to shop).  I also was craving pumpkin cream of wheat – but not enough that for a serving (again, we need to shop).  So, decided to honor my hunger and have pumpkin oats instead.

I think my body was just telling me to eat more carbs after that ride.  Nothing wrong with a little breakfast for dinner.

Tonight is going to be working on my bike chain.  No more rides until that gets fixed!

Hope you all had a drier day than we did 😀

Lifting and drizzly!

Slept quite well last night.  I started taking 5-HTP before bed, which is like serotonin.  If I remember to take it every night, I should be able to see if this helps me sleep!

Monday morning at the gym.  It was not too busy for whatever reason.  Monday’s are usually pretty crowded.  Lifting workout:

  • Dumbbell pliet squats:  3 sets of 10 with 35# dumbbell
  • Wide grip lat pulldown:  3 sets of 10 at 60 pounds
  • Alternating lunges with bar:  3 sets of 10 with 35# bar
  • Horizontal cable wood chop:  3 sets of 10 at 30#
  • YTWL:  3 sets of 10 with 10# dumbbells
  • Chin ups:  3 sets of 2

Note I did the chinups last because someone parked themselves on the squat cage for quite a while.  It was hard doing these last!  I also banged my knees on the bar on the first chin up, because I forgot to move it back onto the pegs as the person using it did not do that.   Ouchie!

Then I treadmilled for a while.  I walked a mile and jogged for 2 miles.

I was thinking pumpkin during the last part of the workout 😀  Decided to do quick cook steel cut oats with 1/2 cup of pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and egg whites stirred in:

Topped with jam and toasted pecans.  It was so good on a day like today:

Rainy and dreary!  Blech.  It’s pretty warm, though – at least the upper 40s.  The ground is frozen though, so there is no where for the rain to go!

I had cooked chicken ready to go for lunch and decided on a curry chicken pita:

  • 2 oz of chicken chopped
  • 1/2 of a small granny smith apple chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of sliced almonds
  • 1 tablespoon of light mayo
  • curry powder.

Mixed all up and placed in a Josef’s pita with some lettuce.  Tasty!

Work has been very busy!  It makes me even more ready for vacation.  I will talk tomorrow about what my strategy is for eating and the cruise tomorrow.  Was going to do that today, but got swamped and I still have to go run errands tonight!

Break time was more wonderful things for a chilly rainy day:

Dark chocolate mint Attune bar:

90 calories of dark chocolate goodness.

John got called for jury duty today, and he ended up sitting on the the jury!  Last one picked, too.  He decided to go ahead and do it because the case is only supposed to be 3 days long and won’t interfere with our vacay!  It’s been weird to be alone all day with him gone.

I made a quick stirfry of broccoli, a small potato, 1 egg, feta cheese and some coconut oil with seasoning.  It was pretty good!

One of those messy dinners 😀

Off to run errands!

Question:  What is your dreary day comfort?

Feeling blah today.

One of those days where I just feel kind of tired and blah. You know the type. Days like this I tend to struggle with food as well, and today is no exception. I made some zuchinni bread on Friday, and I forgot what trouble I have with sweet bread. Even though I added protein powder and oat fiber to the recipe, that doesn’t make this bread a free-for-all to eat. I really have had too much of it this weekend.

Today has been rainy, so the planned bike ride is off, which I am pretty bummed about. I do love my biking. Even if it stops raining enough to bike, the trails will be too sloppy to ride. So that means I either need to do a dvd tonight, or I might sneak out if the rain breaks this evening for a jog. No matter what else I do today, I must get in some cardio.

My parents should be closing on their house at the end of the week. They currently live about 3.5 hours away from us, and will now be moving about 5 *miles* away. So that will be nice to be able to see them more often. And I can bike to their house LOL!