Not Too Tired But Currently 2 Tired

I've been feeling too out of shape lately, so over the past few weeks I've been dieting and lost a few pounds. Of course I also need exercise and muni always comes to mind for that. At the same time my youngest daughter has been wanting to ride her bike farther so we've done a few rides from our house to some easier trails. Specifically down the street to the Chiyoda Trail, Bird Sanctuary Trail, and Hojack Trail.
So no muni, but I hope to build up my endurance and get back into it as the weather gets cooler.

I don't see how to embed maps from MapMyRide anymore, but here are the links to our bike rides:

11 miles
https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/6839789188

12 miles
https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/6854685220

It was interesting to see some changes on the Hojack. About midway through there has "always" been a set of stairs that lead down to the John Ungar Trail. It's a small loop, less than 0.5 miles, with some boardwalks, if I recall. I've only been there a few times, long ago. I never felt the trail was worth the effort of dismounting and walking down stairs. But on our recent rides I saw there's now a path leading down there, a few hundred feet before the stairs. I just dug into the spring Friends of Webster Trails newsletter and it does mention:

The Town received a donation to acquire land adjacent to the John Ungar trail. We will build a trail on this land in memory of Michael Johnson.

So that's something I can explore on my muni soon.

Also at the end of the Hojack the old railroad bridge that crosses Lake Rd has been removed. The land had been reshaped to instead slope down from the Hojack to the road. Googling reminds me there has been construction on Lake Rd over the past few years, to do things like widen it, and removing the bridge was part of that. Too bad there wasn't a destination right there. Like a park or ice cream shop. It's still a dead end.

We counted animals we saw on the trail today. 😀
1 ground hog
3 squirrels
7 bunnies
8 chipmunks

Beat the Heat

 I guess I'm supposed to ride more often. It is supposed to get up to 86F today and it was in the 70's this morning so I decided to ride. Again, I went to Webster Park and Whiting, and modified my route a bit. I incorporated more trails that were tougher to push myself more. I did well and again felt like I had a little more endurance than last time.

It is still a little discouraging to not be able to climb some of the hills I used to. I truly believe some have gotten steeper from erosion. I'm also remembering my performance on my 24", not this 26" with a fat tire. But also, there's no doubt I am not doing the workouts I used to do. I might get back into those.

I rode 7.8 miles.

Cool Ride

What a great temperature for riding today! It was something like 57F and a slight breeze. I was chilly at first and wore a long sleeve over my short sleeve shirt, but removed it, as anticipated, near the end of my first mile.

I should have checked my tire pressure before leaving the house. I guess I have a small leak because my tire was way softer than at the end of my last ride. Maybe the temperature change was enough to lower the pressure though. It was my fat tire and thankfully I always bring a mini pump in my CamelBak. And thankfully the pump worked very well. The presta valve stem on my tube unscrews way too easily and when I removed the plastic cap on it, the whole stem came out and I lost most of the air. It's no big deal to put it back, but with the small pump and a fat tire I was worried it was going to take forever to fill but it was only a minute.

I took a similar path as last time, through Webster Park and into Whiting, but added green trail down and back. On that trail I felt my leg muscles bordering on cramping and had to easy up on hill climbing, but overall I felt a little more in shape than the last ride. I haven't been working out though, so it might just be the cooler temperature helping me.

6.5 miles

Another Ride

I rode again, this time in Webster Park and Whiting. It was a bit hot and humid. I did fine, but avoided the more difficult trails. I will need to work hard to get back to where I was in my prime muni days.

MapMyRide - 4 miles

Getting Back Into It Again?

I've been trying to eat better and lose a few unwanted pounds. So I'm pushing myself to exercise and decided to muni today. I went for a ride, figuring it would be a short one on the Chiyoda Trail, Bird Sanctuary Trail, and back, but I felt like I had energy and rode the Hojack too. It ended up being 10 miles, which impressed myself. Aside from being a bit saddle sore by mile 8, it was all good.

Meh Ride

I went for a ride after work today. I'm overdue and the heat wasn't insane like it's been lately. It was still close to 80F though.
I started at Whiting, thinking I might be in shape enough to make it up the big Orange hill. Nope. Unfortunately I just didn't feel strong today and really didn't accomplish anything particularly impressive. It felt humid and I just wasn't feeling great.
 
I thought my tire was a bit low before I left but figured it was ok. Unfortunately I felt a bit out of control for about half my ride until I stopped and pumped it up more. For sure that helped a lot.

I rode the Red trail for the first time in years. Well, "rode". There are a lot of hills I walked after failing to climb. I'm continuously impressed by my past self and the hills I used to climb.
One thing that's different is the crazy workouts I used to do between riding. Can I push myself to do those again?

It's weird how certain parts of the trails have changed over the years. Some are obvious rerouting done by the trail crew and others are just erosion.

I did climb the final hill at the end of Green which used to trip up past me, so I guess that's something.

I met up with my wife at the end of the ride and she took a few pics.

I rode 4 miles.

Fourth of July Weekend Ride

This long Fourth of July weekend was a hot one and I hesitated to ride, but decided it would be best to get out before starting another work week.  It was in the lower to mid 80s, so not horrible.

I rode at Webster Park and felt I'd had enough to not continue into Whiting. I wore a Fitbit for the first time to keep track of my heart rate. It is my daughter's and she hadn't been using it for a while. I don't think the MapMyRide app integrates well with it and my phone had a hard time connecting to it anyway (not sure which device is the issue), I don't have a strong need to have that data all the time anyway. I'd take it if it was all just there and easy, but apparently it's not. For now I'm just curious what kind of heart rate I hit and calories burned in general on my rides. I'm not sure the calories can really be accurate, but whatever.

It looks most of my ride was in my peak heart rate range, which makes sense to me as that's how it feels.  I rode for just over an hour and my average heart rate was 154 bpm. The max I see in the graph was 175 bpm.

I'm not sure the Fitbit link works for anyone but me, but here it is.

As I rode I looked at the Fitbit on my wrist from time to time, though especially after climbing hills. My bpm tends to hit its peak maybe 10 to 20 seconds after finishing a hill.

I fell to the ground again a few times this ride. One time was definitely when I was trying to look at the Fitbit. I don't recall if the others were from that. No serious injuries, just a scuff on one knee.

I rode 4.4 miles.

I went deeper into the east side of Webster Park. There are some tough hills in there and I felt it.