Thursday, September 10, 2009

Walk #252: Back Home..

After dinner, a short walk with Angel. The lollipop walk.

It is good to be back home with Joni, Kylie, Jazzy, Angel, Rocky, PePe', River, our half completed strawbale house, hot water bags, olive trees, solar panels, computer, the heat, no air conditioning, three walls, mud, dust, the lazyboy chair (yes!), wrangling kids, yelling kids, grumpy kids, oak trees, ponderosa pines and an excellent homecoming dinner.

4 comments:

Ian Woofenden said...

Big riding day for me. I had a sustainability task force meeting in Mt. Vernon, and planned for the first time not to get the bus in Anacortes, but to ride out the rail trail 4 miles and get the bus at March Point. When I got there, I still had quite a while to wait for the bus, and was wanting to go farther. The bus arrived on its westbound run, and I asked the driver where his next eastbound stop was. He said the casino (tribal), so I rode on out there, got some air in my ailing tire, bought some snacks, and visited with a nice old man waiting for the bus - he was off to Mt. Vernon to look for work.

I got dropped off at Cascade Mall and rode to my meeting, hitting about 14.6 miles by then. After the meeting, which was actually productive, I got some food and then started riding the bus route, more or less, figuring I'd find a stop ahead of the bus and get a ride back to the casino. But I ended up beating the bus to the casino and went on, doing 40 miles in the end before I got home. The last couple of miles were extra -- me wanting to hit the big 4-0, but also me going to look at a solar job. And at 39 miles, my ailing tire finally blew, and I walked the last mile. This walking made my average suffer, which before that was a surprising 11+, even with me fighting the NW wind most of the way home.

It was great to find that I could easily do this -- time was the great need, not muscle or breath.

38.81 miles
3:51
10.32 mph average
31.54 mph max

I only wish I had four hours more often to do this...

Allan Stellar said...

Ian,

Wow. I'm wondering if the benefits of using the bike aren't as time consuming as you think. You beat the bus. You got a hefty, long work out in (which all of us should do anyway). You got work done. And you probably slept really well when you were done, giving you energy for the next day.

You were multi-tasking all day.

And you do all of this on a hybrid bike? Not a racey bike?

I am jealous of your in-shaped-ness. And by golly, one of these days I'm gonna do the same.

Ian Woofenden said...

Yeah, you're right Allan -- and the time it takes is time that many Americans use to watch TV. ;-)

My bike is pretty mountain, since I ride on rough island roads, gravel, and trails.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to an RE biz's hogroast, and will put on 30-50 miles, depending on how late I stay -- bus and other schedules...

Ian Woofenden said...

Rode to town for errands and an appointment. Stopped by to drop a tree for a friend, and then had a conference call on the rest of my ride home.
12.09 miles
1:22
8.83 mph average (took it easy to reduce wind noise during conference call)
29.22 mph max