100th ride of 2016 - Wednesday, 6/22/2016

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR 2016: 1459.8

I am very much a person of habit and routine, both by temperament and by intention. For instance, after a ride I always leave my helmet on the seat of my trike. However, for some reason still unknown to me, I wore it into our home after my ride on Monday. I did not ride yesterday, because of our late return from the Tiger game Monday night (1:00 a.m.), and the fact that I was absolutely exhausted.

Today when I rode, I forget to put on the helmet before going outside (not being accustomed to that order of events), and so set off on my ride without it. When Stowe, the TerraTrike employee, brought over my new trike on May 14, he also brought me a TerraTrike cap, which I have been wearing beneath my helmet for each ride. It was the cap that tipped me off today as to the helmet's absence—the breeze keep lifting it, and a couple of miles in I realized what was missing. Fortunately, Michelle was planning to go do some work at school this morning, and hadn't left yet, so I texted her to ask if she might be able to bring it to me. When we met up, I thanked profusely and apologized for it, but said, "I figured you'd probably prefer that to dealing with head trauma." She laughed, "Yes—once in a lifetime is plenty for that!"

I pushed myself to do three consecutive round trips to Marsh Park—I want to see how close I can come to topping 1700 miles by the first of July. Today I moved along at a little better pace than I have been riding recently, completing the 26 miles in 2:41. This was far from a record, though—on May 30, I did it in 2:27:05.

I saw Doris Granum riding again today, with a wave and a bright cheery smile. Also had an interesting experience, during my third time in Marsh Park. While riding the loop of the trail that allows me to head back towards home, I passed a man with his back to me, unloading two little yippy dogs out of the back of an SUV. (I am not a dog person and cannot tell their breed.) He was getting the second of the two—the first was already out and on the ground, unleashed. It took off after me, yipping and scrambling to catch me. I could her his owner calling futilely after him, but after a couple of hundred feet or so, when the dog saw he couldn't catch me, he gave up the chase.

I was also delighted to be able to ride this morning, because this afternoon we are going up to meet Christy, Izzy, and Danny—our first time to see them since they moved to Michigan from Colorado last week. YEE-HAH!