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JPONCIN's Recent Blog Entries
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Monday, May 21, 2012
Yesterday morning I beat the heat with an early ride to Comlara Park. I had a 15mph tailwind the whole way there and it was nice! Not so nice coming home, but I caught the trail north of town on my way home and the woods around it broke up the wind. I got 27 miles.
For the first time, I felt completely exhausted when I came home. My limbs felt like Jello, and I just took it easy the rest of the day, washed some clothes and just generally laid around. It was my kick-off to summer and it was great! I put in 67 miles on my bike for the weekend. I'm looking forward to having a few century weekends this summer. :)
Eating has been pretty good. When it's hot, I want water. I still eat, but not horribly like I do when it is colder. Strange how that works. Today is much cooler outside after a band of storms came through last night. My husband's vegetables needed the rain badly. We are going to have some great vegetables growing this year. He's doing a great job out there.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
It's been a fun-filled 3 more days of biking; a half mile to my daughter's orchestra concert on Thursday, accompanied by her violin, because she insisted she couldn't ride a bike and carry a violin. The whole reason I got her a case with a shoulder strap. ;)
Then last night, the Friday night ride, and I got a new friend to come with me! She is actually a neighbor who lives a couple streets over, and she works at my kids' school. Really nice woman. And get this. Her husband works at ISU as an academic advisor, and he was the one who got me into my major. AND...she is originally from the South Suburbs of Chicago, right where my husband grew up. She went to the same middle school my husband and his brother went to. But anyway I digress! We rode about 10.5 miles, because she has a hybrid bike that doesn't do long distances well, so we stayed on the trail. Then when we got back from our ride, she turned her bike in for a tune-up and scheduled an appt. to test-ride a road bike today. She is going to give her hybrid to her daughter and have a nice new road bike for herself. I'm very excited for her! I can't wait to get a new road bike when I graduate. I was looking at a few bikes last night while she was talking to the owner of the shop. I think I might get a carbon bike. They are crazy fast.
Then this morning, I rode 26.2 miles with another friend, and we went from Danvers, to Spin Lake, to Mackinaw, and back. She lives by Spin Lake and there are a LOT of hills there. People who think Illinois is flat, need to check out this area, because it's NOT. I did a pretty good job of using my momentum on the downhills to get up the uphills that followed. Also I did a good job of eating this morning. I had OJ, an apple, and a piece of toast with PB, and I had plenty of energy for the whole ride. About 2 miles before we were done, I felt hungry, and when I came home, I had a big bowl of bran flakes with a box of raisins on it.
Tomorrow morning I may ride again with a new friend I haven't gone out with before. She posted on the fb page that she was looking for someone to ride with early in the morning. If I can get out and ride and be done before I have to go to church, that would be great. If that doesn't work out, I will ride by myself in the morning, only about 20 miles and then I need to do a brick-workout to start training for the Evergreen Triathlon, so I want to run 2 miles right when I get off my bike.
All this biking will hopefully offset all the Kit Kat's I had last week when Dan and Ryan made a special cake together for Cub Scouts. Some of the Kit Kat's melted in the car after he bought them, and I ate some! :( Fortunately, when it is hot outside like it is today, the only thing I really like is water. This evening we are having pizza, and my 6th grader just put the last 2 pizzas in the oven. I made the dough in the bread machine, so she didn't mind making the pizzas. That seems to be working out for now. I hope everyone is having a Spark-tastic weekend. :)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Last night, I joined the Ride of Silence. It is a ride in memory of cyclists who have been killed while riding on roads. It was a solemn event, and we rode from downtown Bloomington to downtown Normal at about 8 mph. I had parked by my church in Bloomington, so at least I got to ride back at a faster pace, and also picked up a friend along the way.
I'm feeling distressed about a biking situation I'm in. I took 2 of my kids' bikes in to the bike shop about 6 weeks ago to be fixed. I love that shop; the guys always do a great job and they are reasonably priced. I took my hybrid there last summer, not even thinking it was fixable, and they got me all set with it and it's been a great bike for my commutes and off-road rides. But with my kids' bikes, it's been a long time and my kids have been waiting. It's their busiest time, and I get that. I didn't hear anything after 3 weeks so when I asked, the guy told me the bikes were in bad shape and couldn't be fixed, and they were looking for different ones to just give to us instead. #1. I know they are trying to be nice, they know my financial situation isn't the greatest and they want to help, but I didn't ask them to do this. #2. I have offered to just purchase used bikes instead, and the guy has told me on at least 2 occasions, "I have a lead on a bike, I just need tires...I'll call you tomorrow." And then I don't hear from him. So this week, after watching my 1st grader stand on the driveway crying because his brother and sister were both riding their bikes and he didn't have one to ride, I posted on fb that I'm desperately looking for a used bike for him. I saw the bike shop guy at the ride last night, and he barely said hello to me. I think he's pissed that I did this. Like I said, I didn't ask for this bike shop to GIVE me FREE bikes. If they can't be fixed, I'd rather they just give me the bikes back, or better yet, just use them for parts if they can use them.
I would love for all my kids to have nice bikes to ride. But this has been craziness. Last night, one of my choir friends met up with me after the ride, and gave me a bike. Her son is now in HS and way too big for the bike she gave me. It's an awesome bike, and it's perfect for my son. He rode it last night when I brought it home, and he is so excited to have a bike.
In the meantime, I have one more kid to secure a bike for. I might even get her a mt. bike because she mainly wants to go off-road with it. Hopefully in the next month or so I can pull some money together to get a bike for her, because it doesn't look like I'll be getting her old one back either. :/
Sorry this has been a little off-topic, but it's been on my mind this week.
My food intake has been okay. It could be a lot better. I think I'm just tired of the tediousness of logging food. I need a break. Hopefully next month I can pull myself together again.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Good morning! Sorry I haven't been around. It's a busy week so far.
On Sunday, I didn't ride my bike. I planned on it all day, and having it be Mother's Day took it away. In the morning, I promised my daughter I would stay in bed until she made me b-fast...then after 2 hours of sitting in bed waiting for her, it was time to get everyone ready for church. Then in the afternoon, I cleaned out my van and caught up on laundry, so I told myself I would go for a nice short ride after dinner. Then, my oldest daughter wanted to go to youth group, and "forgot to tell me" that they were staying until 8:30, not 8. So I sat in the parking lot waiting for her and watching the sun go down, along with my last chance to go for a ride. :(
But I did do something FOR my biking hobby; one of my riding friends invited me to ride with her to Rockford on Memorial Day weekend for the Blackhawk Country Road ride, and so I signed up for that ride and made plans with her. I'm looking forward to that. :)
Yesterday I had to work in the morning, and it was too cold for me to ride, so I waited until after dinner last night and went for a quick 6.5 miles on this loop near my house I like to ride when I don't have a lot of time. Done in 30 minutes. My riding is getting faster, thanks to this amazing bike. When we get out of debt, I think I may even go with the special shoes/clips that a lot of my friends ride with.
This morning, I went for a nice 16.5 mile ride to Carlock, IL and back, and I watched the sun rise over I-74. It's a pretty morning out there!!! The winds were light so that wasn't much of an issue, and there were just enough hills to make it interesting at times. It was so quiet out there this morning, you could hear the "Whoosh" of the wind turbines as they spun.
Tomorrow morning I have to work again, but if it's not too cold, I may ride there again. After today, I have to work every day this week. We really need the money so I'm not complaining. The good thing about being broke is that you can't afford to buy food. So my eating plan should work out pretty good this week. :/
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Last night, another 12 miles with the ladies, and a party afterward. This morning, 20 miles with another group of friends. One of them was a first-timer, and she had a blast. She was a trooper, too. She rode a hybrid 20 miles with us, and her asthma didn't like that, but she did it and she can't wait to ride with us again. I love finding new friends to ride with.
It's been a very exhausting day. After my 20-mile ride, I did all the shopping with kids in tow. That's more tiring than biking!!! Then, I moved a bunch of furniture around because a couple of my kids changed rooms. Whew, I'm beat tonight. But I got another ride in so I'm happy. ;)
On tap for tomorrow, a possible off-road ride at Comlara Park, if it doesn't rain. I haven't been there since last fall. It would be a treat. :)
On a side note, I got my final grade for Anatomy...an 89%. That's so disappointing for me!!! I was really hoping for an A in that class. But I learned so much about healthy eating, exercising at the right heart rate, the importance of strength training, and also all the specific details of things like heart disease, diabetes, and pulmonary disease. Besides, as one of my teacher friends said, a B still gets the degree. I only took that class because the other Anatomy class I could've taken had a lab, and I couldn't fit it in my schedule. But I'm glad I ended up in this one because it had a ton of great information for me in it. And also, I already have a great middle school math lesson plan in mind for determining predicted pulmonary performance levels. So every class I take is great. :)
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