7-16: Another ride today, this one a long one - well, long considering the circumstances - of just over three hours. So with the humidity today, I wanted to concentrate today on drinking while riding, a tactic I rarely used over the past years as discussed in yesterday’s blog. Filled on bottle up with electrolyte and the other just plain water, and I began nipping on the electro. bottle from the start. Since I’d planned on going long my conciliatory action was to reduce the intensity as much as possible below my target HR zone. 

Rode with Judy and our plan was to go on bike and hike out to Peck Rd, but damn, the devil got the best of me and I suggested we take some Hudson/Stow/Kent backroads out to Towner’s Woods. And road riding it was. Have to admit I felt so good just getting the F off of that bike trail for a bit. Shit, I’ve pretty much memorized every bump, hump, leaf, twig, groundhog hole, and dog doodie along the length of both the Summit and Portage bike and hike! Had to get the heck onto something else for a change. So…I broke the rules again by doing some road riding. Tell you what, it’s going to feel like I’m going to the confessional booth when I sit down with my cardiologist on 7/28. “Doc…um…well…you see, blah, blah, blah…but I’m feeling great!”

Yea, it’s a list that’s getting bigger by the day. So we did the backroads where I had a few little bumps to climb. Just kept it pretty mellow and I had darned near no problem controlling HR on the low side despite the humidity today. Only once did I go into my target zone in the whole ride and that was on this little wall climb on Johnson Rd. Yet I was still able to cruise along at like 15-16 mph on most other terrain. Got back on the bike and hike at Towners Woods and took that to Ravenna, then flipped it and came back home. I killed that first bottle of electro. in the first hour and then started on the second bottle of water the second hour. Killed both bottles by the end of the ride. Haven’t drank that much liquid on an easy ride in, well, I couldn’t tell you when, especially noodling around here. 

Got home, drank another 32 oz. of electrolyte, ate 2 big veggie sandwiches, then hauled my buda belly upstairs to work for a while. 

Then later in the evening, my big moment, doing my “cheat” meal, the first one I can remember in like two weeks. I took Judy and pop to the Red Lobster and we just splurged on all the cholesterol laden, butter infused, fat heavy, calorie rich food we could order. It was a damned eating orgy! Felt good to get that one off the chest. Now it’s back to being a good boy.