58th ride

After riding to work this morning and then working a good, full day, I rode to church after work to prepare Sunday's projections, and then, on the way home, stopped by Great Clips at Meijer to get my hair trimmed (for the first time in over a month, I was surprised to realize, as I last got it cut before Christy and her family visited in late April). For a long time today I was concerned that I'd have to leave my bike in the garage at Firestone and bus home, since much of the day was rainy, and they said that thundershowers were a distinct possibility. But then, we got a window of no rain, and it looked as if this was going to permit to ride after all, so I did, for a day's total of 8.3 miles in 54 minutes.

57th ride

I rode to work again this morning (once more very comfortably) and then following work sweltered home (88°) via Saline. Despite the heat and my long black pants, I didn't really find the riding overly uncomfortable—except that it was most unpleasant to be riding into a headwind (moderate) again on the way down to Saline, whistling through the holes in my helmet and buffeting my ears. At any rate, this gave me a day's total of 14.7 miles, in 1 hour 24 minutes.

56th ride

I rode to work this morning, very comfortably in short sleeves, reveling in the 72° temperature at 7:30. Then afterwards, I had planned to ride a longer ride to Weight Watchers, but since I was kept at work considerably longer than usual, I chose a shorter route, and ended up with a daily total of 8.6 miles in 54 minutes. Though this ride was relatively small, it did enable me to cross two plateaus—over 600 miles for the year, and over 60 hours of riding time.

55th ride

Today I rode to work (in a light rain), and directly home from work. I felt a little lazy, if not "guilty," to do such a short ride home—but I was really beat this afternoon (residual effect from yesterday's long ride, no doubt), and prayed about it all afternoon, seeking wisdom and good judgment. In the end, I felt that this was what I should do, so I settled for a very light daily total of 5.5 miles in a poky 35 minutes. Another factor in my decision was that possible thunderstorms, though not yet in evidence, were forecast.

Observation

Made some of my work colleagues chuckle this morning when I told them that my ride to Chelsea yesterday tired me out, and then added, "I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm no longer a young man." Nevertheless, I plan to try a Chelsea round trip again this coming Saturday—it's vitally important that I continue to build if I want to carry out my plan of riding to Mom's (53 miles) on June 29.

54th ride

I got Memorial Day off to a good start this morning by doing my longest ride to date—and yet, it still wasn't quite what I had wanted to do. I had set out early (at 6:00 a.m.), intending to ride a 37.1-mile round trip to Chelsea. But, though the early part of the ride went fine (I got to Dexter without incident, and found Dexter-Chelsea Rd., about which I had been mildly concerned), upon coming into Chelsea I somehow missed my turn on Freer Rd. (I'll blame inadequate signage) and ended up coming, behind the clock tower, into the north end of town. Then, riding south on Main St., I thought Jackson Rd. met it south of town, so I just kept going. But what I should have done was to turn left on Old US 12. Instead, I ended up on US 52, headed south out of town.

Once I realized the predicament I was in, I was pretty sure that Scio Church ran all the way out to 52, and I could take that back to Ann Arbor. If I was wrong, my only options at that point would have been either to ride 52 all the way down to 12, and then take that back east, or to call/text Michelle for an emergency pickup, which I was loathe to do (both from the standpoint of building independence and finishing what I had started out to do, and also in not wanting to worry her). So I was ever so happy to see the sign for "Scio Church Rd" come looming up after a few miles.

However, after what seemed like an endless stretch on Scio Church (though it was in reality only about 10 miles), I pulled in to Emerson School and texted Michelle anyway: "Hate to ask you this, but could you pick me up at Emerson? I'm fine - please call." She called, and faithfully came to pick me up in a few minutes. So, this 33.8-mile ride was, as I say, my longest ride to date (easily beating the 26-mile round trip to Dexter that I rode on May 4), accomplished in 3 hours 19 minutes—even though it wasn't what I had set out to do. I suspect part of the reason I caved in early was because I failed to take any rest or water stops—an error I'll have to correct on future long rides.

And we were happy to see Michelle's colleague, Ruth Wilson (who lives in Chelsea, ironically) pull in and greet us as we were loading the bike onto our recently acquired trunk rack.

One other note—enticed by yesterday afternoon's lovely warm sunshine, I almost made the mistake of setting out in a t-shirt this morning. But that would have been quite disastrous—it was 45° at 6:00 a.m., and remained cloudy throughout the ride. So, instead, I threw on a long-sleeved maize and blue fleece, and was tremendously glad for it.

53rd ride

When I rode to church this afternoon to do my weekly data entry work, I deliberately lengthened my ride considerably, going out to the far northwest part of Ann Arbor (Jackson and Zeeb), and then in to loop around the hospital, before coming back out to church. This made for a trip of 20.8 miles, which I rode slowly, in 2 hours 8 minutes.

The computer at church didn't work, so that I'll have to go back later in the week, but it was far from a wasted trip, as I needed to ride anyway, and was able to get in a good one. The low point, though (or 'high' in terms of heart rate) came as I was riding near the hospital, going down Glen Ave. in order to make a clockwise circuit of the hospital. I was riding slowly, but carefully and well, near the curb, when a car with two young African-American men cruised slowly by. One rolled down his window and yelled coarsely, "Hey - get yo ass out da street!" But then they continued on, and I was happy that the altercation remained at the verbal level, since I have never been in a physical fight in my life, and don't feel that age 56 would be a good time to start.