Spring Has Sprung

We're off to a week of very spring-like weather.  Sunday's mild temps drove people outdoors in throngs.  Kensington had hundreds and hundreds of people out enjoying the great weather.  Not that we've had much of a winter this year but when temps climb to 66F + early in March you'll see a lot of people outdoors enjoying nature. While the trees won't leaf out for a few weeks yet and grass hasn't greened there are signs everywhere it's about to burst.  With spring rains coming and warm temps it won't be long till it's looking vibrant.

While I don't even want to say it, this is Michigan and we are likely to see snow yet into April, I woudn't like it but I also wouldn't doubt it will happen.  Spring she is fickle.

Riding the trainer indoors this winter has helped me to stay conditioned to riding.  After a couple of hour long rides in the last week outdoors I am not experiencing the normal first rides of the season ouchies.  My legs muscles are feeling good, I'm not sore in the saddle and most importantly I do feel stronger.  Hills and inclines that were quite challenging last year are proving to be less difficult than I remember them.  I had expected to lose some core strength because I was not cross training in the winter, but this does not seem to be the case.  Three major differences on a trainer compared to outdoor riding are that you don't have to use core muscles to hold yourself upright with balance on the trainer like you do outdoors.  The other is the terrain and the elements.  Indoors there are no hills or wind to cope with.  However you never have to stop at street lights or slow down for pedestrians either, so your time on the trainer is different.

I'm looking forward to building up to some much longer rides this year.



Bike to Work Day...discovering all the gears

I ended up with a double commute today, had to make a trip home mid day. After work I had a very enjoyable ride. I've decided that the only way I am going to manage hills is to keep riding them. At some point I will get strong enough that they don't wear me out. So it was back to Island Lake State Park today. We had wonderful warm spring weather after a couple of days of rain it was nice to be out in the parks as everything is getting so lush looking and it seems like every tree, bush and shrub that flowers is out in full bloom. Spring is strutting her stuff!

Island Lake is pretty hilly and has some steep climbs (for these parts), I had the opportunity to discover my low gears today. So far with my new bike I've explored speed and the higher gears and found the joy of my large chain ring in front. Today was for exploring the low gears and the small front ring. I learned a lot about using it with various combinations of the rear cassette gears. I never got into what is called the "granny gear" which is the small front ring and the largest rear ring. Guess I didn't meet up with a hill that big yet. But I did notice that my average speed for my ride was greater than normal and that my time for the distance was shorter by a pretty fair amount. Not that I'm out to set records or concerned about speed. I prefer to enjoy my rides and surroundings. I do ride for exercise and fitness too and at times am more focused on the productivity of the ride, but don't sacrifice smelling the roses, I just don't stop an take pictures of them when I am out for a workout ride.

Today was certainly a workout ride and meant to be one, it was my mission. It just so happened to be absolutly gorgeous out too which just added to the whole aura of the ride. I might have had to stop and take a break while going up some hills today, but I rode up every one and didn't get off an walk once. That's improvement.

For me it's more an issue of getting winded instead of fatigue and legs giving out. While I had a normal early season conditioning issue to deal with (riding outside with wind and varying terrain and hills) is way different from a trainer in the winter on flat ground with no wind to deal with. So that passed quickly enough and I was gaining endurance and stamina. Then about two or so weeks ago I found that instead of getting stronger I was getting winded much more often. Just before that I had a flare up of my RA and took a Humira shot to tame it down. It was my first one since June of last year. Last year I had several bouts of shortness of breath and getting winded very easily. Three times it turned out to be pneumonia, however it happend more than that and pneumonia was not the cause as it could not be detected.

Last year I had a pulmonary and cardiac workup, several trips to various specalist doctors and loads of testing later that revealed no problems with lung functions and no significant heart items to cause what was happening. I have a heart murmur and some day the valve will need replacing but not at this time and it is not contributing to the shortness of breath. I have a 90% blockage in a very smalll artery going into my heart but again, the Dr. was not concered because of where it is located and the existance of 3 other arteries in that cluster that are ok with no blockage and agian, it was determined that this is not contributing to shortness of breath. I passed a stress test on a treadmill last year just fine.

So my family doctor (I believe they call them primary care physican these days) felt all along that it was more a matter of conditioning or rather being out of condition. One would think that continued biking would address that. Since I am experiencing this again several weeks into the season it leaves me to believe something I suspected last year and that is that RA is contributing to this. RA can attack organs as well as joints. A trip to the rheumatologist is in order. The most odd thing about this whole issue of shortness of breath is the following; during the first 20-30 minutes of a ride I get short of breath constantly and feel like I can't go on. Somehow I push through this and before I know it I am breathing fine and feel like I could go on for a very long time. That just dosen't make sense to me.

So, combined with commute of just over 4 miles and 9.3 at the park I had a total mileage today of 13 .8 and a total for Week #7 of 36.55 miles. I like it and I'm happy. And I brought home another big bouquet of lilacs and the home is perfumed by it.

Yesterday's ride

On Friday I started off a new week of riding with 5.12 miles. In my previouse week I rode 7 days however 2 of them were only commutes and combined they only represent 4 miles. Still today called for a recovery ride with low intensity and a tour around a local subdivision fit the bill. It was beautiful, sunny and 70 degree day. Perfect spring weather and the dogwoods, magnolias, pear and cherry trees are blossoming out and things could not look better.

It's one of the most beautiful times of the year to be outdoors and soaking up the scenery.

Another spring ritual is clean up and clean out and I had my share of it Saturday morning. Our township sponsors a Spring Clean Up and people can bring their cast off and whatnot to a recycling and trash dump day. We bring in trash haulers to take appliances, scrap and whatever. Concurrently this morning our local Kiwanis club did their 2nd Annual Clean Up On Main St. About 25 volunteers showed up to walk the main streets of downtown and pick up trash. My lower back is still talking to me about the bending over I gave it yesterday. Current photos to follow. The one included here is from last year's effort.