There and Back Again

Since the triathlon I have gleefully discontinued much of my exercising regime. I have gone on a jog one time. And I have gone swimming one time if you count the time I sat in the hot tub. (If you don’t count that subtract one from that number.) Life has continued quite nicely cutting out these activities that are not on my joy list.

The one event from the Triathlon that I have continued with is Cycling. If you trust the Map my Ride application on an ipod I have gone nearly one thousand miles since November! I think the application exaggerates the mileage quite regularly. Regardless, my bike has certainly gone some distance.

Most of these miles are from biking to and from work. I have been able to do this a couple days a week - this distance is somewhere between 15 and 22 miles.

Jogie recently has had a rotation at the Phoenix VA which is nearby to where I work. It has been nice because our schedules have coincided nicely such that we have been able to carpool. On many of these carpool days we loaded up my bicycle so I can bike home when I am finished, and Jogie can drive home when he is finished. I have gotten many more biking days in per week than I otherwise would.

Meanwhile, Jogie’s been wanting to do a big, weekend bike ride. Over Conference Weekend we rode our bikes to Wickenburg, Arizona. This is a town that is about fifty miles from our home. The plan was to ride out Friday night after work, and ride back Saturday. Saturday morning as we were preparing for our return ride Jogie was considering calling our Home Teachers to come pick us up because he was just too tired. We started on our return bike ride without calling for a ride. This return ride was definitely more strenuous solely because of the sun. All said we made it there and back which means we did a hundred miles in a 24 hour period! As the week progressed the most difficult part of recovery for me was the sunburn from the bits of skin that I missed when I applied sun screen such as wrists, fingers, forehead under the bangs, ankle, and back of knee. As Jogie has been out of practice on his bike his path of recovery was a little different. All of his biking muscles were so sore that many of his activities of daily living were compromised for a couple days. Despite sunburns and muscle aches we are proud of our ride that took us there and back again.

Next thing on our list is to do a hundred miles in one day. The hardest thing will be having our schedules both match up with one of an organized ride. Hopefully, that goal can be realized soon.