Video: Our Ride on Saturday

Video: Saturday Ride

Uploaded a video to Youtube of Wayne and a girl riding last Saturday morning, as I posted before i had a flat and did a fair amount of walking and ended up with a serious ankle ache that lasted until the next day, but everything's ok now.

I went for a quick ride this evening, I started off at 4pm and was back by 5, trying my best not to have a heart attack. The main road from Annotto Bay all the way to Stony Hill is really one long incline and it gets extreme at Golden Spring, but all through St. Mary and onwards through Temple Hall it is an incline, and after riding for months on the relatively flat road of Harbour View and clocking close to 12 miles per ride, I figured Temple Hall to Golden Spring and back would be a "cake walk" (5 miles) - but I didn't consider the friggin' incline.

Riding towards Golden Spring with the incline is like riding in heavy wind on the Palisadoes, it makes you feel like your heart is jumping out of your chest and you have to find somewhere to sit and take deep breaths until the feeling of puking your guts out while dying passes.
I did just that and drank some water and then reversed the course - NO !! I did not make it to Golden Spring. The best part of riding an incline going, is riding the decline coming, and that was fun and I am sure I was topping 30 mph at one point.


My adventures on Saturday told me that although I have been riding a little more and feeling better, I am still very very out of shape and I need to increase the frequency of my aerobic activity, I definitely will be riding this road more. The traffic wasn't that bad, a bit nerve wracking as buses and trucks raced past, but I had more than enough room to ride.

I called my good friend Andre this evening, we used to walk together and do the gym about 20 years ago, he was always heavy in high school and has dropped weight in the past, but with the approach of his 40th anniversary of his life on earth and the type of job he has (Accountant), he has really packed on some excess pounds, so I invited him to go walking on a Saturday morning while we are riding. He has expressed an interest in getting a bike and joining us, so I am going so see if I can get a suitable bike for him. Its not going to be easy dragging his ass out of bed at 5:30am as he is used to going to sleep late at nights, but I have to push him, or I might end up losing one of my best friends to a heart attack or something.

This weekend coming up I will try to record us while we are riding, so you all can look out for it

Peace

Feeling Flat Flat Flat !!!

with apologies to Arrow and his great soca song song (Feeling hot hot hot !)

I didnt get to ride on yesterday as I had a flat.

I have been riding for a while and have gotten used to having to stop to put air in my tyres occasionally, so I know which gas stations have air hoses attached to their pumps at 5am in the mornings (very few). Unlike the Boys Scouts though I was not prepared on Saturday morning.

Usual routine on Saturday morning and I headed out probably 10 minutes later than usual, I knew I had the flat and knew it wasnt just normal, as my tyres normally wouldn't loose a lot of pressure, this time it was flat ! I left it until reaching Harbour View and that is when I realized that there might be a big hole in the tube as the pumping wasnt helping and Wayne had neither patches or extra tubes with him today.

I was determined to exercise and went off for a brisk walk towards Port Royal. I had quite a few people asking me "where's the bike?" accusingly, as I if I had murdered it and hid it in the bushes, but the walking was good and very different from riding. I found it much more difficult and will concede that it and running is a better aerobic workout than riding, but man its hard on the joints. I completed a little over 4 miles and ended up the a serious ache in my right ankle that has eased only somewhat nearly 24 hours later.
No doubt about it though, I got a very good workout, the hear rate was up for 80-90% of the walk and I worked up a great sweat, I could feel the muscles getting pump and was sufficiently exhausted when I returned to the parking lot.


On the way home I stopped by the bicycle shop and picked up a small patch kit and an extra tube to carry around in my car so I will always be prepared, I couldnt find the air pump here and need to check my by my mother-in-law's house today as I am sure it was left there. I havent patched the tube yet and need to learn how to do that quickly as flats are part of the day to day routine of cyclists, also getting a pump that can be attached to the bike is a given.


I am off to a class in another hour or so, my ankle is still aching but has eased a bit, and I can only hope that it will be fine for work tomorrow