Riding has been fun.

I believe what I got from the SFM was the MCL (Medial
Collateral Ligament) sprain which was not helped by the
following Saturday morning's hill run. Pounding downhill
felt good but in general might not be a great idea. I read
that the ligament needs 12 weeks to fully recover.

 

Riding a bike 20 miles (total 1.5 hrs) a day commuting to
and from work has worked fine. I've done it four times this
week: Mon, Wed, Thu, and Fri. A good sweat in the morning
gives me appetite for coffee. At the end of the first two
days, I could do my normal sessions w/ 35 lbs free weight,
too. Thu evening I was dog-tired but, of course, slept like
a log. Fri morning was not easy as, unusually, I got head
wind going south-east. My folding bike with its 20" wheels
is slow. Full-size bikes often pass me on the trails. But I
don't care--my rides are not simply about speed. Friday
afternoon, I found I could lower the handlebar to get more
streamlined. My speed went up and I was even happier.

Today, I woke up at 6 and decided to take my son for a long
walk. We went to the mall, had a drink at Starbucks (one
grande coffee and one hot-chocolate cost about $5.50),
shopped at Smart&Final (two bunches of spinach and one bag
of carrots for $2.47), and made home around 9:00am. We
talked about important stuff, like how to make Xero shoes
popular, I told Tim that humans were hopeless, and we eventually
agreed that inspiring by example was the best way to go.

I stayed home until 10:15, got on my folding bike, and
headed toward my workplace. I stopped outside Living Space,
a new bigbox furniture store to the south of Automall, at
around 11:25. I kept going south and made a stop at the San
Jose library Alviso branch at around 12:00pm. Two little
dogs (chiwawas) chased me a couple of blocks before the
library, I raced them and won;-) I learnt from Rita the
librarian how to put a protective cover over a thrift-edition
book. She told me so many things including laminating films
and acid-free tapes. She wanted to give me a piece of the
film but I didn't have space for it. She was happy and so
was I. I rode on at around 12:25 and it only took 20 more
minutes to get to my employer's place. I had my fried rice
for lunch with an ice-cold beer (It reminded me of Shawshank
prison inmates), two Lay's potato chips, some chocolates,
and a cup of coffee. I napped and stayed till after 3:00pm
before heading back via Palo Alto.

The head wind was ferocious but I was energetic. Wearing my
SFM shirt reminded me that this riding should be a piece of
cake. I hit Embarcdero in 50 min, freeway 84 20 min, and
Dumbarton toll plaza 20 min. At Don Edwards, I took a 10 min
break and enjoyed some water and chcolates. Another 20min, I
was home. It took me under 2 hrs.

Overall, I rode about 48 miles today. Both bike and me are OK.