As usual for my ride days, the alarm is blaring at 5:00 AM. For some reason, though, I’m very disorganized this morning and take forever to get myself ready and out the door. It must have been because I was sleeping like a baby and was disoriented when I woke up. Somehow I doubt that. I couldn’t find my socks. I rummage through several drawers to find them. I get to the garage and notice it’s cold so I go back inside to get a long sleeve shirt. I go back out the the garage and realize my computer is sitting on my desk where I copied down the stats from Ride 5. So, I head back inside to get the computer and head back to the garage. Now, try and picture me going in and out. Every time I open the door to the garage the house alarm system goes, “DING, DONG.” I’m sure my wife didn’t appreciate that. Not to mention the kids, the two cats, and the dog. I don’t actually get pedaling until about 5:20 which has me a little upset. Note to self – set out my gear the night before so that I’m ready to go when I get up.

Well, with the alarm clock going off at 5:00 AM this morning, I’ve officially started week two of Biking To Live. It feels good. It feels very good. I haven’t been this jazzed about working out in a long time. Is it because I’m losing weight? No. In fact, I’m not even sure I’ve lost any yet. Weigh-in isn’t until Thursday. Is it because of the potential of weight loss? Sure. I think what has gotten more more excited than anything, though, is returning to a sport that I’ve always loved. Did I mention it feels good?

I didn’t know what to expect this morning. The weather channel the night before was calling for 80% showers. When I rolled out of the garage it was partly cloudy and a little warmer than it’s been. Probably in the high 60s F. I pedaled out of the driveway and headed down the street for Ride 5.

Trying to improve a little bit over last week, I consciously tried to push myself a little harder. It didn’t seem to be a problem and it felt good. My legs weren’t even sluggish after my first week of good exercise in a few years. I pushed it pretty good and felt like I turned in a half-way decent workout for a 100 pound overweight slob. I also rode just a bit further than I did last week so that I can push my weekly mileage up above 50. All told, it was a good ride. As I pulled into my neighborhood I did get sprinkled on a little but that’s it. The rain held off until this evening. Here are the numbers for Ride 5: 10.59 miles, 48:16, 16.8 mph max, and 13.1 mph average speed.

I didn’t see many folks out this morning except for a lady walking her two dogs, a runner I hadn’t seen before, and a dead armadillo in the middle of the road. Where I come from, a dead armadillo on the road during the day is called a Hot Lunch. Here, in the pre-dawn hours of Ride 5, I guess you could call it Road Rash.

While I usually sleep in on Saturdays, I made a commitment to myself to carry my riding into Saturdays as well. That means I turned in early on Friday and got up early today to ride. While I didn’t get up as early as I do on weekdays (5:00 AM), I did get up at 7:00 AM and was on the road by 7:15. I don’t think I’ve gotten up that early on a Saturday since my days in the military. Since I’ve set out on my mission, Biking To Live, this is the first day/ride that I’ve ridden my route in daylight. Also, since it was daylight, I was able to ride the bike lane for most of the ride. Once my light comes in I’ll be able to do this for my early morning weekday rides as well.

This morning it wasn’t as hard to get up but it wasn’t easy either. I still feel like I’m not getting enough sleep. I’m going to have to make a commitment to ensure I start getting 7+ hrs of sleep a night. I feel no ill effects from Ride 1 or 2 so I’m ready to get to it. As usual I down a bottle of water before leaving the house. Not sure it’s doing any good but I don’t think it’s bad either. I want to make sure I’m getting enough water.

While not nearly as nice as yesterday’s weather today’s isn’t bad. There were some high cirrus clouds filtering the moonlight and the temp was crisp again. Near the middle of the ride I ran into a little bit of ground fog but it didn’t hamper the riding at all.

Well, today marked day 1 of Biking To Live. The alarm went off promptly at 5:00 AM. Man is that early. I’m glad I went to bed early the night before. I was surprised at how dark it was outside. Well, I proceeded to get dressed and downed a quick bottle of water before even leaving the bedroom. It was a little more brisk than I anticipated so I went back inside and threw on a long sleeve t-shirt.

The ride, for the most part, was uneventful. Because I wasn’t sure how the traffic was going to be I stayed to the sidewalk for the first part of the ride. The sidewalk in this area is frequently used by runners but there were no other dedicated “athletes” out at this time in the morning. Maybe they were smarter and still in bed. I eventually left the side walk and hit the bike path. Surprisingly, I fell into a good rhythm and everything seemed to be going good. About halfway through my route my hands started to cramp up some and I had to shake them out every so often to get the feeling back. It was at this point that I decided I needed new gloves. The ones I had were….I don’t know….at least ten years old. I’ve also decided by this point that I need to get a flashing red light for the rear. There wasn’t much traffic, and I had the bike path, but I just didn’t feel too comfortable riding with it still so dark. I guess I’ll be visiting Nashbar later in the day to order gloves and a light.