13.5 mile bike ride in 1 hour, 30 minutes

I headed south for my bike ride this morning, mostly along Main Street and Lake Road in Horseheads. But I did take a side detour up Franklin Street to the Mill Street Pond and the Horseheads Post Office before I got back on the Main Road.

I ended up at Eldridge Park in Elmira and finally found the dog park there. I'd been trying to find it for a long time. It was over by the ballfields on the other side of the lake from the main pavillion. It was smaller than our backyard. But then again, we have a pretty big backyard.

Other sights from the ride: A deer popped out of the bushes near the Holding Point ... a "Free" sign on a fire hydrant ... Some young guys playing cricket ... bunnies, gophers and assorted wildlife ... a cocker spaniel at the park.

Coming back I realized I was going uphill for most of the way back. How is that possible? Coming back from a northbound ride also seems to be more uphill as well. Maybe it just feels uphill because I'm on the second half of the ride and I'm tired.

Back to running on Monday.

Happy Father's Day!

Day off

Today's my day off from running or biking. I will be trying to bike a couple of hours Sunday morning before church.

See you later.

46:04 minutes, 3.8 miles

Today's run.

On a complete whim, I decided I didn't like the Ridge Road to Old Ithaca Road route and opted instead to go my old route to Wygant via Greenridge Drive. This brought me onto Old Ithaca Road at a higher point and it eliminated the long incline coming back on Ridge Road.

The tradeoff was that by the time I hit my turnaround mark at 23 minutes, I was going up a pretty intense hill on Overlook Drive, but when I turned around, I immediately got a payoff by going back downhill.

I got back to Wygant Road about 14 seconds late and was able to regain another 10 seconds by the finish mostly because this route is relatively level, with a small downhill on Greenridge Drive.

Had I mentioned that running is a good way to build your math skills? I do a lot of addition/subtraction in my head as I run.

Anyway, I'm very happy with today's run. But with every run, I am doing more than I had in at least eight years. Each run is a test to see if knees and ankles will work with these supports, but so far no sign of trouble. BMI is still 35.2.

OH! This also concludes my third week of running five days in a row. Wahoo!

3.6 miles in 45:19

Thanks to some upgrades on Google maps, I'm able to get a more precise measurement on my runs. Today, I ran out for 22 minutes and nearly made it Wygant Road where it meets Old Ithaca Road. I was just a few feet shy when I had to turn around. But now I can grab the markers on Google maps and put them right where I turned around, so I feel confident that I made it 1.8 miles before the turn.

I got back to the corner of Ridge Road and Old Ithaca just about on time, but lost time on the uphill on Ridge Road again.

Oh well, I'm happy enough just extending the amount of time that I run. It should take another eight runs or so until I am able to run for a full hour.

The run felt good on the way out, and then I lost steam on the way back. I was 1:19 over my target time. But again, every time I finish a run is a victory for me.

My weight is exactly what it was on Wednesday. No change in BMI.

Getting back on track: 44:24, 3.4 miles

I ran better today than the past two days. It seems that to run every day, I need to keep everything else in my life in balance: how much I sleep, what I eat, how I spend my day. It helps also when the weather cooperates. For now, it seems that these runs count for about all my exercise for the day. I put everything I have into running for 40 minutes, and then I'm finished.

Today I ran for 21 minutes out, made it to Woodview Avenue and came back at 44:24. Last week, I was able to make it to Woodview in 20 minutes and back in the same time. So, I'm slower than last week, but covered more ground than this Monday and Tuesday.

Starting this week, I'm focusing more on time than distance. Each run will be 1 minute longer on the way out, and I will try to get back in the same time. So, today's was 21 minutes out, and then back. For Thursday, I will go out for 22 minutes and then return. The goal will be to increase this time to 30 minutes on the way out, and return for a total time of 1 hour.

That should put me at about 5 miles, and that is where I will stay. Five miles a day, five days a week is my goal now. I will stay there until the day I can run 5 miles in 50 minutes. So, that means going from a 12 minute mile, where I am now, to a 10 minute mile.

BMI is at 35.2, but Amy says I'm definitely getting thinner.

30 minutes

Just one of those days when you have to almost force yourself to run.

I woke up at 4:30, shortly before our 6-year-old, Liam, burst through our door announcing the cat, Ashley,  had thrown up in his bed. We let him climb into ours and told him we'd take care of it in the morning. Then the cat decided to pound on our door for the rest of the night. No way were we letting her into our room.

I dozed until my alarm went off at 6 a.m. I switched it off and heard rain against the window. Uggh!

But I got on the computer to check the radar. "Misting rain," reported the Weather Underground. And the radar showed the heavy concentration was right on top of us. That meant that by the time I was ready, it should have moved on. But the cat drama upset the cycle of the morning. Our dog, Romeo, insisted on going out first. He usually is not even up when I leave. Then the other cat, Ninja,  ran out and faked an emergency of getting caught in the tree. He wasn't. He just didn't like the rain.

Anyway, I got out on the step a little late, it was rainy and I was tired. I might have canceled the run, but decided that if I cancel for marginal conditions like this, I'd be canceling too many runs. So, I opted for a 30 -minute run, and once I started I was glad I did. I just felt sluggish and slow the whole time.

All sorts of minor factors could have contributed to that. The stomach trouble the day before, the loss of sleep, playing soccer with first graders the previous evening, not eating enough pasta. .... blah, blah blah.

At least I ran. At least I finished what I set out to do. And there will be better days of running very soon.

Sorry for the griping today. Anybody want a free cat?

30-minute run

My stomach is off today. I'm going to say it's because I didn't have enough fiber this weekend. The long and short of it is that I ended up getting out the door about 15 minutes too late. Also, my cell phone had died during the night.

These seemed to be bad omens, so I took it easy today and only ran for half an hour. Just an easy 15 minutes out and back. I didn't want to push it. I got to the mile mark around 13 minutes.

I don't like running without my phone. I'm just at that age when I may need help very quickly.

So, if things go better Tuesday, I'll try for a 41-minute run then.