Bad Detour, But Still a Nice Ride

Rob and I headed back to the Interurban Road to get in a 16 mile ride, or so we thought. We took a side road just to see where it went. Needless to say, it was a mistake! Okay, okay, it was my idea. Just wanted to add a little adventure to our ride. It started off innocent enough, but soon, very soon, we found ourselves riding down a very steep and gravely hill with lots of ruts we had to dodge. The gravel road finally leveled off and it was a fairly nice ride until we had to go back UP! We had to get off of our bikes, well, at least I did, in order to get up the hill. It was so steep I was spinning my wheels in the gravel.

Well, we finally made it up the hill onto a blacktop road. We had no idea where we were, but we had the good sense to pull a Horace Greeley. We kept riding and riding until we came to highway 92. No way could ride on 92 highway even if we knew which way to go. We kept heading straight ahead until we could head in a southwesterly direction. We finally hooked up with Interurban Road, but I think we may have gone through St. Joe to find it.

Everything worked out and we only traveled a couple miles over our planned route. Sure was a workout!............Mike

Only Three Miles But Enjoyable!

Okay, so it was only three miles, but it's three more miles than I ran yesterday, or the day before, or the day before, etc. I haven't ran or biked since a week ago yesterday when I rode 35 miles with Rob.

Gotta keep working at this! .......Mike

Little Blue Trace Trail

I was able to complete a 10 mile run on Saturday (7-24) along the Little Blue Trace Trail. This is my longest run since the fateful Hospital Hill disaster on June 5.

It was warm but I slowed down and averaged 10:40 per mile. I began drinking water and Gatorade on Friday and kept that up through the run and the rest of the day Saturday. I was wiped out and took a 3 hour nap Saturday afternoon.

It felt great to complete a long run. I will continue to be conservative while it is hot outside. The elliptical training inside an air conditioned gym has been a good and responsible alternative to running in the heat. - Ken

Oppressive

Whoo, boy, it was steamy out there this morning. 90 and very humid. Glad I wasn't running (and that's not a problem these days anyway). At least on the bike you are making your own breeze. All the runners I saw looked to be suffering.
I opted to ride the old trail at Smithville Lake this morning. It's hillier, winds more and, as it turns out, much more populated. I had to make my way through an entire running club between about the 5th and 8th miles, and that slowed me down quite a bit. Good thing, though, because if I'd kept up the pace I probably would have worn out early. I'd had enough by the time I hit the finish line anyway.
25.11 miles in 1:47 for a 14 mph average. -- Rob

Tempo ride

I wasn't too motivated for this ride on a hot and humid day, but it was a better option than doing nothing, so off I went. Once I got going I was glad to be getting some exercise, particularly after a frustrating day at work. The route is all residential streets, and there are a lot of hills and turns, so maintaining an average of over 14 mph is pushing it some. I felt like I'd had a good workout by the time I got back. 14.61 miles in 1:00:51. -- Rob

Yeah, What Rob Stated Below!......Mike

Riding long

This is the second longest ride we've taken, but it went real well. We were prepared for a real hot ride, but since we started early with the sun low, we rode out in the shade for the first hour, then some thin clouds blocked the direct rays the rest of the way out and back. It never got particularly hot.

Since we we expected a long hot ride, we didn't push it all that hard. We stopped at the turnaround point in Dearborn and had a home made sweet roll (effectively negating any positive calorie burn) at the cafe there. Total mileage: 35.03 in 2:43:59. Back home by 11. -- Rob

Near Tragedy!

Well, it began as a nice bike ride, for Rob and I, at our favorite trail in Smithville. It was a warm evening, but very nice while riding, due to generating our own breeze. Had a terrific ride to our turnaround point, hydrated and headed back. Things were going along just fine until Rob rounded a corner and just about wiped out a runner who was minding his own business while running on the wrong side of the road. Rob took immediate evasive action and avoided a 911 call by a certain kind of human hair! Nice job, Rob!

We finished our ride and enjoyed a nice ride home by taking a short cut through the country that ended up only a mile and a half longer. Still, it was a nice ride on the bikes and a the ride home.....Mike

Another Bittersweet Run

I've had this feeling fore the last two or three days that I was ready to run again after taking off for three weeks due to the bike accident and the very sore rib cage area. I felt strong, for some reason, and decided to run an easy four miles around Houston Lake (small lake). I walked the first .50 mile, started my watch, and began a slow easy 13:00 pace. I had ran about a half mile when I looked at my watch and saw I was running a 10:30 pace. I felt great but thought it best to back off. I walked a minute to a minute and a half after each mile and started day dreaming about a fall marathon or possibly Dallas White Rock. Man, it was hot and humid, but I was able to maintain a steady 11:00 pace. At the end of mile four I started to get dizzy and stopped. I was still sweating so I wasn't dehydrated. I just bonked really bad, right at mile four, and just walked home. Very, very sore this morning but I'll give it a go again today.....Mike

4 miler

Woke up this morning with sore groin muscle on my left side. I don't know what causes that, as I haven't done anything to stress it. I was sore all morning, and then like a miracle all the pain went away about noon and it felt fine. Strange.

Consequently, when I got home I was ready to go for an easy run. I walked a half mile, then started out at an easy pace determined to keep going without walking if I could. My groin was a little stiff and sore, which gave me all the reason I needed to keep the pace slow and easy. Ultimately, I walked a minute or two in between each mile and was just getting to the point where I thought I'd gone far enough when I hit mile 4. Nice round number, so I stopped. -- Rob

Hard 25

Went to Smithville Lake to ride the south part of the trail. This being Saturday, rather than a weekday, there were a lot more walkers, runners and cyclists on the trail, so I had to keep to the right and hope they were doing the same.

I set out to push hard and come out with a real good workout. Because of the traffic and the many turns, you can't really expect to average 17 or 18 mph, but when all was said and done, my average was 15.1 mph, the fastest I've ever done this particular route. It was one hour and 39 min. for the whole ride.

I was sweating big time by the time I dismounted, and my legs were a bit rubbery, but it was a super workout and a lot of fun. -- Rob

Ken's Daughter Engaged

Pam and I are so excited to share that Emily and Neil are now engaged to be married. They met in February in Arizona and now Neil has started a new job with the Orlando Magic (NBA team). They will be getting married late this year and moving together to Orlando. Here they are toasting the night they got engaged.

As for running, I did get 8 miles in this morning with Runner's Edge - average pace about 10:10. Glad I started at 6 AM.

Walk / jog

It's been a long time coming, but I made a little bit of a running comeback this week.

On Wednesday I put on my running shoes and went down to English Landing to walk. After I got there and had walked a half mile, I decided to try a slow jog, just to see how it felt. My last attempt, a month ago, lasted all of a tenth of a mile and hurt like hell. So, because of that, I was very apprehensive, and my jog was very slow. Out of 3.7 miles I ran 1.25, never running more than .25 at a time, stopping to stretch frequently, and just generally being very careful. Overall I averaged 14.38 min. per mile, a pace that could not be classified as running, since on a good day I can actually walk that pace.

Still, I didn't stiffen up in the car on the way home, and I felt better than usual the next morning.

After a day off, I went back to the park tonight. This time my plan was to walk a quarter of a mile and then run a quarter, and keep that up for four miles. I did 4.23 miles in 56:23, for an average pace of 13:19. Because I can't walk that fast, and because I can define running anyway I want for myself, I'm going to classify this session as a "run."

I felt good enough during some of my quarter mile runs to dip slightly under 10 min. per mile, but most of the time I was around 11. I had a little discomfort in my hips and back, but actually, most of my discomfort was in the groin. I've noticed this for the last few weeks, ever since I've been able to walk at a brisk pace, and I don't quite understand it. I'll keep stretching, and take it easy on runs, until it goes away.

With any luck, I might be able to run with everyone at our next MRC meeting. --Rob

Ridin' in the rain

Returned from a weekend trip to Iowa and immediately accepted an invitation to ride 20-odd miles on Interurban Rd. with Mike and and a mutual friend, Sean.

As soon as we started the ride it started to rain lightly. There was never any thunder or lightening, so we never considered turning back even though the rain got pretty heavy at times. The rain continued throughout all of the first half of the ride and then increased in intensity for the first couple miles on the way back. The downpour let up after that, though, and then quit completely with about 7 miles to go.

We went 23.13 miles in 1:46:00 for an average of 13.09 mph and a top speed of 24 mph.

Little Blue Trace

Mike and I rode the Little Blue Trace trail, a trail we have both run several times in the past but not recently, and were pleasantly surprised to find they'd done quite a bit of work on it. It is now a full 11 miles long, running from the 39th St. area in Independence, north to E. Blue Mills Road, north of Highway 24.

The trail is 100 percent chat and fine gravel, and today it was very dusty. We had a full-sun day, but the route is through a lot of wooded areas, so we enjoyed shade much of the way. Today the temperature was cool and the humidity low. There was a bit of a wind out of the south, which worked against us all the way back. I'm not complaining, though, because while our speed was slow (11.2 mph average) we still worked pretty hard and ended up with a nice workout.

Final stats were 24 miles in 2:10:20. -- Rob

Another Nice Ride!

Rode with Rob for 24 miles on the Little Blue Trace trail in Blue Springs. Nice weather, nice ride with the exception of some thick, fine, loose gravel that felt like quicksand when trying to pedal through it. All in all, a nice day, and a nice ride. Might try to tackle a forty miler tomorrow on the Interurban Highway north of us....Mike

Not Yet!

The plan for this week was to ride with Rob at least four days out of five. Well, Monday was out due to helping my sister-in-law move, Tuesday is documented below, and Wednesday was supposed to be a nice 40 miler on the interurban road. Called Rob, Tuesday night and told him I was out for Wednesday's ride. My ribs were not any better than the day of the accident, I was having trouble breathing and I'm sure the condition was not helped by the moving of furniture, heavy boxes, etc. on Monday. Rested yesterday and will do so again today. Hope to ride a nice 22 miler at Little Blue Trace early Friday morning with Rob......Mike