I had a GREAT bike ride...

Okay, first, weigh in yesterday.

Gained 4/10ths of a pound.

Hmph!

Last week, I ate my points. Between 17 & 24 on any given day (except for Saturday where I ate almost all of my flex points in one bag of Cheetos). I did exercise, but only one night when I ran 3.5 miles (well, actually, I ran/speed walked).

So this week, I'm going to do the same exact thing I did last week with one exception...

I'm going to exercise every day.

I'm going to try and mix it up some, too. Like one day I'll bike. The next I'll run. The next I'll walk, etc.

I started my week off great. I bikes this morning. And it wasn't just any biking route. I biked for 2 HOURS.

I had a BLAST!

I started out at around 7:30 and it was still a little misty. Was beautiful the way the morning sun was shining through the mist through the trees. I went trail the whole way. There's a 13-mile trail that picks up about a mile from my house. So I got on the trail and headed out. I figured I ride for an hour and then just stop, turn around and head back.

I ended up going 18.5 miles altogether (9.25 out and 9.25 back).

I've never gone that far on the trail before. The farthest I've ever been on the trail is about 5 miles (10 miles round trip).

So after I passed the 5 mile mark, I was in new territory. And what beautiful territory it was. The new part of the trail started behind a quaint little deli. And behind that was a cow farm. So there was this beautiful old wooden fence that lined the trail between the trail and the cow farm, where the cows were grazing. The mist gave way but the trees took over the skies. The trail was lined with tall thick green trees on either side.

And there were a TON of people on the trail. The trail I usually go on might only have 1 or 2 people on it. I must have passed 50-75 people on this part of the trail. Walkers, runners, bicyclers, tricyclers, speed walkers, roller bladers and dog walkers.

I even saw a dog in a baby sling across the front of this one woman's chest. It was a healthy sized black cocker spaniel. The sling was black too. I thought at first, how funny. But I'm sure there was a good reason. If the dog was bigger, I'm sure it had something wrong with it. I imagined as I went on down the path how it might have been a sad thing that happened to cause it to where the dog can't go on walks any more but you know how much dogs LOVE going on walks so this was probably the owner's way of getting the dog out on walks again. (My mind sure keeps me amused.)

The trail was just beautiful. I know I've said that before. But it really was. After an hour, I stopped to turn around and I was at a major milemarker, well, for me anyways. It was a road that I used to walk down with a friend of mine when I first started walking. It's actually in the next town over. I used to drive to her house and then we'd walk down this road. So it was really cool that my halfway point was this road.

After I got back onto the old part of the trail, I ran up against some "group" of bikers. About 10 or 12 bicyclers came out of a parking lot in front of me onto the trail. They were going kinda slow so I eventually got up behind them and went over to the left to pass them and as soon as I get right next to them, this little 10-year-old swirves right out in front of me and I have to come to almost a complete stop. It wouldnt' have been so bad except that I was on an up hill. Oh my goodness! I said excuse me. Nothing. I said, coming up on your left. Nothing. Finally one of the adults said "Alex, move over". But he had to say it 3 more times before Alext finally moved over. By then I was almost completely stopped. I had to dig in deep to get moving again and to get past them. Ugh!!

My heart rate went up to 182 while trying to pass the bunch of bicyclers. After that I was wiped. I still had another 4 1/2 miles to get home. It was rough, but I did it.

All in all, it was a GREAT bike ride.

My legs were sore for a couple hours afterwards and now I feel fine.

I burned almost 1900 calories.

Score!

Tomorrow I think I'll go for a walk in the evening. Something every night.

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