76th ride - 7/31/2015

I was planning a very long ride this morning ... perhaps four round trips to Marsh Park ... and it was going fine except for one thing. My chain was rattling, and I remembered that when I rode with Kristian on Wednesday, he noted that, too, and said that it was due to being dry and I needed to add some lube to it. I was concerned today with possibly damaging it if I continued to ride without addressing this, so I stopped after a single round trip, and plan now to make a journey to Wheels in Motion as soon as they're open, to pick up some lube (they open at 10:00, and I rode today at 7:45, so finished well before 9:00). I hope then to add some more riding later this morning—for now, I have 9.5 miles for today, in 1 hour and 4 minutes.

75th ride - 7/30/2015

This morning I rode consecutive round trips to Marsh Park, for a total of 17.5 miles in 1 hour and 55 minutes. This pushed me over 1000 miles for the year, and also took me over 400 miles for the month of July—a better month than any I achieved in 2013, when I was riding my regular bike so heavily.

Also, when a big Caterpillar front-end loader passed me early in the ride, I couldn't but smile and think of my grandson Danny grinning wildly, hopping up and down, and yelping with joy, "DIGGER!"

74th ride - 7/29/2015

For my first ride back in Michigan after a week away, I did a round trip to Marsh Park this morning with Kristian (9.5 miles) in a hour and 3 minutes. And I was glad to pass Doris Granum at one point, and hear her call out something about being glad to see I was back, knowing from this that she must have been following our trip on Facebook. Today's ride really did me in, and I can only shake my head in wonder over how, at one point, I had hoped to make three consecutive such trips my 'norm' for July. But I guess all I can do is keep working at it.

73rd ride - 7/28/2015

Well, I rode the trike down to the Bike Library this morning and turned it in, thus bringing to a close this chapter of my riding activities. I covered the 4.8 miles in 35 minutes, which is hardly great, but is nevertheless a significant improvement over the course of the week we've been here. And this gave me 78.3 miles for the week we were here, as opposed to 92.5 in 2013. It's a whole new ball game now, though, so I'm OK with the drop off.

Now we have a busy day ahead—cleaning up and packing, meeting Christy for lunch, then driving to Denver, turning in our rental car, and shuttling to the terminal for our 4:00 flight back to our beautiful state of Michigan!

72nd ride - 7/27/2015

This morning was the last big ride for me here in Colorado on this trip, so I wanted to do a good one. (Tomorrow I have to return the trike to the Bike Library by 9 a.m., so I'll just ride it the 4+ miles down there.) I rode the Spring Creek Trail east to the point on the far northeast part of the city where it joins the Poudre Trail, and then rode the Poudre up to LeMay, before turning around and returning to Christy's. This allowed me to ride part (though not much) of the Poudre, which I had ridden quite a bit when we were here back in 2013, so it was nice to reacquaint myself with this old friend.

In 2013, my longest ride here was one day when I did 21 miles, and on another day I rode 19.8—but that was a whole different experience, being on a regular bike, than this year's gearless trike. Today I left at 6:15 a.m. and rode 16.3 miles in 2 hours and 1 minute, for my longest ride here this year.

Today's ride featured two challenges. Heading out, I was riding east into an intensely bright sun, which nearly blinded me on several occasions—but fortunately, I was able to keep from ever running into anyone or running off the trail. And coming back, the trail's underpass under Centre Ave. was blocked, due to high water. The marked detour took you up a hill, and around a little circuit—back the underpass, headed the other way! After making this circuit a couple of times, and finding no way out of what computer programmers call an infinite loop, I took Centre south to Rolland Moore, and that west to Shields, south to Swallow, and in to Christy's house (all on walks and bike lanes), encountering nothing but smooth sailing.

71st ride - 7/26/2015

I had a good Sunday morning ride today. Still shuddering over my memories of toiling gearlessly up the hills on the trail yesterday. I decided to do a route in town today, near Christy's house—so I mapped out a big 6.2-mile rectangle, which I did twice, and rode on walks for much of it, though I had to ride in the bike lanes on occasion. This, however, I judged to be an acceptable risk, riding early on a Sunday (I left about 6:15), and had no trouble whatsoever. In fact, I was able to enjoy the reverse of yesterday's conditions on a portion of the ride—the northbound stretch on Taft Hill Rd. between Harmony and Drake was almost entirely downhill! So, anyway, my totals for the day are 12.4 miles in 1 hour and 18 minutes.

It was also heartening when, early in the first loop, a runner spied my t-shirt, grinned broadly, pumped his fist, and yelled a familiar, "GO BLUE!"

I figure I have one more day to ride on the trail here—tomorrow—and will force myself to do that. Then Tuesday morning I have to have the trike back at the Bike Library by 9 a.m., so I'll leave here around 8 to do the leisurely 4+ miles down there.

70th ride - 7/25/2015

This morning I felt especially challenged on the hills, and having no gears. It felt on uphill stretches as though I were pedaling through concrete. So I eased off a bit, and only did an 8-mile ride (in 54 minutes), turning around at Harmony Rd. on the trail and coming back, which was considerably shorter than I had set out to do, at 6 a.m. It would be nice to make the excuse that I was tired from our long day yesterday and a short night, but I don't think that would be fair or accurate, as I am always such a morning person anyway. It was also a challenge because the seat keeps shifting cockeyed, as well as sliding down to an ergonomically disadvantaged low position, and I haven't tools with me to adjust it. Oh, I am grateful for the opportunity to ride here—but I will be heartily glad to get back to my trike!

69th ride - 7/24/2015

This morning I left early in order to keep our day fairly free to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and tonight's baseball game between the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds in Denver. Leaving at 6:30, I rode the trails in the opposite direction today, going east. I rode as far as Timberline, getting to an area I had ridden to from the other direction (on the Poudre Trail) when we were here back in 2013, and it gave me a total ride today of 12.4 miles in 1 hour and 39 minutes.

I was challenged by two minor issues: no big deal (as Christy likes to say to the kids, in the interest of minimizing some inconvenience). (1) The trails pass under several major roads, but these were closed at numerous points due to high water, and, though there were detours, they were not consistently well marked. However, as I told Christy when she asked about the ride, "me and my map" worked it out just fine. (2) At the end of the ride, I missed the turnout from the trail to Drake, and so went on by to the point where the trail, heading west, goes under Drake. Realizing what had happened, I took the first fork I could off the trail, and this led me up to a little street called Hanover, which took me to Drake. I turned the correct way today, but still somehow overlooked Dunbar, so I ended up at Shields. But as Shields has a bike lane at this point, I found it to be no problem, and was soon pulling in to the condo.

And today's noteworthy achievement was that it put me over 100 hours of elapsed time in riding this year.

68th ride - 7/23/2015

This morning I had a very good ride—my longest yet here in Colorado this year—but it was not wholly without its challenges. I set out to ride the trail that Christy had told me about, as I had wanted to do yesterday, but couldn't due to taking a wrong fork in it at one point. I had measured out a route that had me turning around 5 miles into the ride (where the trail crosses under Taft Hill Rd., for the second time). Well, the good news is that today, by paying more careful attention to both the trail signage and to the map, I was able to do this first half of the ride successfully.

However, when I got to the turnaround spot, my first challenge occurred. I went to consult the map, just to confirm what I thought, and I had been keeping it in the open basket of the trike in order to be able to get to it more easily. However, when I looked for it, it was all gone. Fortunately, this first challenge was rectified fairly easily and quickly, when, a couple of miles after the turnaround, I found it lying in the middle of a little-used road the trail crosses. (This was Wessex Rd.—I never saw any traffic on it from either direction, either on my outbound leg or my inbound.)

The second challenge occurred to me as I toiled up one of the hills ... and I remembered having asked, online, whether the trike was geared, and they said, "Yes—three gears." Now, I readily confess to being not a very mechanically adept man, but I have been unable to find them or any sort of shifting mechanism, and this makes climbing hills quite a workout in the Colorado altitude!

The final challenge occurred at the end of the ride. As the trail neared its end, and I had to cut back out to Drake Rd. so I could cross it and take Dunbar and Swallow back to Christy's, I took a premature fork—and then, confound it, if I didn't inadvertently turn west on Drake rather than east, as I thought I was and had intended to. So, when I came to Taft Hill Rd., rather than consulting the map as I should have done prudently, I confidently turned right on it, thinking this was taking me south, when it was actually taking me north, away from Christy's. I got all the way up to Prospect Rd. before discovering my foolish error, and then retracing my way back to Drake and then taking Dunbar and Swallow back to my final destination gave me a ride of 12.7 miles in 1 hour and 38 minutes. Still much slower than I would ride at home on my own trike, but getting better and more comfortable and confident out here. And the extra workout was certainly a good thing for me, anyway.

67th ride - 7/22/2015

This morning I rode a short ride —much shorter than intended. I had mapped out a 9.9-mile out and back ride along a trail that Christy had suggested. And during the opening minutes, I was exulting in the gorgeous Colorado summer weather—warm but not hot, with lots of sunshine and just a few puffy shite cumulous clouds in the sky, and I was headed west, so the Rockies were clearly visible on the horizon. I consider myself to be a pretty good map-reader and navigator, but this was one instance of "pride goeth before a fall." (At least I didn't literally fall!) At one of the several forks on the trail, I chose the wrong one (Yogi Berra: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"), and it ended up taking me west out to Overland Trail, where I knew I shouldn't be. After careful consultation of the Bike Library's map they had provided, I figured out where I was, and how to get back to Christy's. But this involved some riding on streets.

I hated to do this, as it flew in the face of Michelle's request that I stay off them. But on the whole, given Ft. Collins's reputation as a bike-friendly city, with its ubiquitous bike lanes, and considering the risk of getting lost should I try to find my way back to the trail, I judged it an acceptable risk, and made it with no problems whatsoever, to complete a ride of 5 miles even in a slow 49 minutes (still holding back on speed due to the handling issues). So, tomorrow I'll study the map more carefully, and make myself stop to check it at forks, and hope to do the ride I had intended for today.

66th ride - 7/21/2015

Today's ride was a real challenge. This morning, Michelle and I flew to Colorado to visit my daughter Christy for a week. I was very excited to have reserved a trike from the Ft. Collins Bike Library (the city in which she lives). Michelle, ever at the ready with her camera, got this picture of me when I first picked it up.

But when we got it, I did a little practice riding in the parking lot before setting off the 4+ miles for Christy's home, and promptly rode it down a hill and into a large stone-lined depression. This was caused by the fact that it pulled very badly to the left. For a few minutes I despaired of riding out here at all, thinking I'd have to go cold-turkey for the week.

But Michelle walked back over to the Bike Library (about a block away) while I stayed with the trike, and Kelly, the woman who had helped us, came out to make some minor adjustments which improved it markedly. Finally, after a bit more practice riding, I set off for Christy's home, with the map they had emailed me. I needed to use it fairly quickly, in fact, because instead of riding south on Mason, I inadvertently got headed west on Laporte (the Bike Library is at Mason and Laporte), and only realized this a few blocks later after I crossed Shields and realized that I shouldn't have, so I stopped, consulted the map, and righted myself, retracing my route back to the Bike Library and then setting off in the correct direction.

Kelly had noted that the extremely short stem on the trike made it steer very sensitively, so that if I veered off to the left (as it continued to do), I was liable to over-correct and shoot off to the right. This was true, but as I continued to ride I got increasingly accustomed to how to deal with it. It helped that I kept it conservative and slow, avoiding "Borton speed," as Michelle asked me to do.
So, this gave me a glacially slow 6.7-mile ride in 58 minutes, but it was accomplished safely, and I guess that's what counts. And, it pushed me over the 900-mile plateau for the year.

65th ride - 7/20/2015

I rode consecutive round trips to Marsh Park this morning in 1 hour and 58 minutes—a relatively slow time, but I'm sure that I was hindered by the heavy cold I'm developing. I had wanted to do three, but didn't think this was advisable, given my health. Had I done so, it would have pushed me over 900 miles for the year; as it is, though, I now stand at 896.5. And also, today was my last ride in Michigan for over a week—tomorrow morning Michelle and I fly to Colorado to visit my daughter for a week.

64th ride - 7/19/2015

This afternoon, I did a short ride—only one round trip to Marsh Park, for 9.5 miles in 1 hour and 1 minute. However, I spent quite a fair chunk of time today finishing up a choral piece I was composing for a friend, heartened by the comment of a friend (and former teacher) a few days ago. "You need to exercise your talent," he said. "And riding your trike is not your talent!"

It was easier to reach this decision, too, because I decided to wait today and ride late afternoon, after the Tigers' game. But they performed dismally, so my heart wasn't really in it. Also, I had downloaded the GPS-based app Map My Ride to my iPod in order to be able to track my activity more easily. Before going outside, I checked it out, and thought everything was fine. But when I got out to the garage, took the trike out, and went to click on Begin Workout, it told me "No Internet Connection." So now I need to do a little problem solving, and see if I can figure out what to do.

63rd ride - 7/18/2015

I abandoned my plan to ride 3 consecutive round trips to Marsh Park for the second day in a row today, and instead decided to see how far west of Saline I could ride before the sidewalk stopped. I was able to get to Marion Rd., when the walk just stopped cold. This round trip gave me a ride of 17.0 miles i 1 hour and 57 minutes ... not what I had hoped to do, but not inconsiderably, anyway.

62nd ride - 7/17/2015

Rode 3 consecutive round trips to Marsh Park this morning (I had hoped to make that my norm for July, but as chopped up as the month has been, and will continue to be, with travel, that hasn't happened) for a total of 25.5 miles in 2 hours and 39 minutes. I was glad I could push myself to do thi, and hope tomorrow to make it two days in a row (for the first time).

61st ride - 7/16/2015

After having been gone the last few days to the baseball All Star Game as a guest of my friend Jack Stamp, I was delighted to return home last evening and be able to resume riding today. This picture shows Jack and me in our seats at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

Today I rode consecutive round trips to Marsh Park, for 17.5 miles, in 1 hour and 50 minutes. After I got back, I enlisted Michelle's help in shooting a short video demonstrating me riding. In my severe auto accident on May 22, 1993, I incurred a brain injury that caused balance issues which make it unsafe for me to ride a regular bicycle any more. So I was delighted to be able to get my recumbent TerraTrike this spring, and since obtaining it on May 2, have already ridden 827 miles.

60th ride - 7/11/201515

After the baseball road trip my buddy Tom Brown and I took, I was glad to be able to ride again today. We drove 1300+ miles the past two days to see the Tigers play in Minneapolis, along with my best friend and our former pastor, David Lenz, who now pastors a church in suburban Minneapolis. We got a man in the row ahead of us to take this picture of the three of us in our seats at Target Field just before the Thursday night game.

I was eager to get "back in the saddle again"—so, even though I got home last night around 10:30, I was up early (as uaual) today, rising a little past 5:00 a.m., and beginning my ride at 6:15. I rode out to Baker Rd. (Dexter), as I have done once previously (on June 23), and this 19.2-mile ride (in 2 hours and 11 minutes) pushed me over 800 miles for the year.

59th ride - 7/8/2015

So glad I was able to push myself to get in a good ride this morning. I did three consecutive round trips to Marsh Park—25.5 miles, in 2 hours and 31 minutes. I was especially glad for this, because it's the last time I can ride until Saturday. I'm leaving tomorrow on a road trip with my friend Tom Brown, as we're going to Minneapolis for tomorrow night's Tigers/Twins game. The last few summers I've treated him to a game for his birthday, and last year we went to Cleveland for a Tigers/Indians game. It was so much fun, he said, "Let's do another road trip in 2015—maybe to Minneapolis?" It's about an 11-hour drive one way, and we're coming back to Michigan on Friday, so Tom said, "This is a lot of driving for 2 days but it'll be worth it!

Below is a selfie I took of us in our lower-deck seats behind home at Progressive Field in Cleveland last June 20.

58th ride - 7/7/2015

This morning's ride was interesting, if not quite rising to the level of "adventurous." I set off considerably later than usual, approaching 9:00. When I left, it was gray, but not raining, so I hoped I'd be OK. However, within a mile or so a light rain began to fall, and while it did not really hinder me, though it was unpleasant riding with the raindrops pelting my face and obscuring my vision through my glasses.

However, it remained light as I got to Marsh Park, and headed back toward home. When I got to Ellsworth Rd., where I turn around to do consecutive round trips, I wheeled about determinedly and set off for a second round trip. However, little more than a mile into it the heavens opened up big time, so I put discretion to work and turned and headed for home. I made it safely, but when I straggled into our condo, Michelle looked at me, laughed, and said, "Oh, you poor baby!" So, anyway, I'm hopeful I can tack on some more later today, but I haven't yet checked the forecast to know whether such a hope is realistic. At any rate, so far I've done 12.7 miles, in an hour and 22 minutes.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Well, I was indeed able to get out late this afternoon and do another round trip to Marsh Park. I had wanted to do two, but for no good reason I backed off and settled for half that, adding 9.5 miles in 1 hour and 3 minutes, for a daily total of 22.2 miles in 2 hours and 25 minutes.

57th ride - 7/6/2015

When I ride out to Marsh Park on the Lohr-Textile Greenway, I pass a road heading off to the right (south) from Textile (toward Saline), called Bicentennial Pkwy., that looks like it goes into a quiet subdivision. I was curious about more precisely where it goes, so I checked it out on mapquest, and found that it connects to Community Dr., which then runs south to connect to Campus Pkwy, running by Saline High School—a route I have taken often before. (I used to ride home that way from work nearly daily back in 2013.) So, riding slowly, exploring, since I wasn't yet sure if it would enable me to keep to my goal of staying off the road (but it did!), I did this route today, and circled back up to Textile via Industrial and Woodland, and then did the loop again, for a total of 14.8 miles in 1 hour and 37 minutes.

I also wore a special shirt. In 2009, the little village of Addison, Michigan, where I was born (in the now gone Addison Community Hospital) and where I went to school through the 10th grade, celebrated their 175th anniversary. I was still running at that time, but I had a conflicting commitment the day that they held the commemorative 5K run/walk. However, on her own doing, Mom thoughtfully went out of her way to get me this shirt. I like its reminder of my roots ... and also its bright color!

56th ride - 7/5/2015

This afternoon's ride was unusual. I went at 4:30 p.m., following the Tigers' dismal performance, and because I was going so much later than usual, Michelle asked me to please "listen to my body" and consider a shorter ride than I had originally planned on doing (3 round trips to Marsh Park). So, although the weather was beautiful, and I was not overly tired, I ended up deciding to wimp out and do only one round trip—9.5 miles, in almost exactly 1 hour.

It was interesting, too, in that at the park, I encountered a man (who I would guess to be in his early thirties) riding with his son, who he told me was two weeks short of 5 years old, and riding the first day on his new bike. The man asked me what brand of trike I had, and I tried to tell him "TerraTrike," but then I stopped to pull my explanatory card out of my wallet and show it to him. He also told me that he had six bikes, and one was a recumbent—that was the fastest of them all..

I also took from the zippered pouch on my trike's seat a document I had placed there for just such a purpose—a photocopy of the 2001 Ann Arbor News article about my circumstances—and gave it to the man. I had written my email address on it, so it will be interesting to see if I hear from him.

55th ride - 7/4/2015

I slept in this morning, not riding until the tardy hour of 8:00, and then eased up for the holiday and only did 2 round trips to Marsh Park, finishing the 17.5 miles in 1 hour and 56 minutes. All the time I rode, my thoughts were with the wonderful day we had together with family yesterday at JB's house, and also with Christy and the kids, making their way westward after a 6:00 a.m. departure. They should be about getting to or past Chicago by now (as I write, at 10:40 a.m.), and are going as far as the western edge of Iowa today, so they "only" have another 11 hours to get home tomorrow.

54th ride - 7/3/2015

I pushed myself to my longest ride so far this morning. It would have been a tie for my previous long, but on the way back from my third consecutive round trip to Marsh Park, I tucked into Stonebridge and did one loop there, in order to let me just creep over the 700-mile plateau for the year. Beautiful summer morning, too—mostly clear skies, and a temperature that was comfortable, but not overly hot, at 68° when I finished. The day's total was a ride of 28.2 miles, in 3 hours and 11 minutes. Still pretty slow, but I don't know that it can get a whole lot better on the trike.

53rd ride - 7/2/2015

After subjecting myself to watching a dispiriting Tigers' loss this afternoon, I went out and rode late afternoon today. (They were behind all afternoon, but on the strength of a 3-run 8th-inning home run, they pulled up to 4-3, to make it competitive, but this was only a temporary reprieve, as the leaky bullpen blew it in the 9th inning and we lost 8-4.)

I was glad to ride consecutive round trips to Marsh Park again today, like yesterday, thus getting 17.5 miles in 1 hour and 49 minutes. Beginning tomorrow, though, I hope to ramp up so that my 'standard' daily ride is three round trips to Marsh, for 25.5 miles. I've done this a couple of times so far, but I want to make it my new norm for July so that I can more easily step up to four (33.5 miles) in August.

52nd ride - 7/1/2015

This morning, I was a lazybones, not riding until later than I like, and then went out a little past 7:00 and rode consecutive round trips to Marsh Park, for 17.5 miles in 1 hour and 47 minutes. I had considered at one point doing three, but am glad that I changed my plans, as a light rain began to fall in the last half mile.

Also, as I rode today, I was encouraged by an early-morning development. All the riding is beginning to pay off in a tangible way—at my morning weigh-in today, I was below 240, a level I haven't seen since early October. Now to keep the "pedal to the metal" and set my sights on 230, where I haven't been since February 2014. Still have lots of work to do in order to get below my goal weight of 175—but I believe it is feasible, and I'm willing to do the work.