Road Trip Review (7/21 - 7/27)

Well, another week has gone by, and another set of mileage has happened.

It's been two full weeks since we started this trip, how far from home have I been?

Sunday: 3.5 miles
Monday: 3.5 miles
Tuesday: 4.5 miles
Wednesday: 1.5 miles
Thursday: 3.5 miles
Friday: 1.75 miles
Saturday: 1.75 miles

Total: 20 miles
Goal: 24.5 miles
Deficit: -4.50 miles

Sunday was a Zumba day. 1 hour = 1 mile, then the rest from actual fitness walking.

On Monday I spent a good two and a half hours tuning up this bicycle my Father had given me a few years back. I thought it was a bad bike, as in had two blown tires, but it turned out I had just never inflated them to the correct pressure..... you know.... to keep my ass afloat!

Tuesday I came home from work and biked another 3.25 miles and walked the other 1.25 (not even counting the 2.6miles my FitBit says I did at work). My knees were killing me after, but what hurt more was what I affectionately call my vagina-bones. They are the bottom of my pelvic bones that sit on the seat when I ride, and even though I have a fat-girl seat, I'm used to sitting back on the fat of my butt and not leaning forward on those bones, so they are sore. Ouchies.

Wednesday I had a few errands to run, including what I thought was going to be a simple cleaning/post root canal dental appointment. I had actually planned to ride my bike the 2 miles to the dental office, but my knees were still bothering me that morning so I drove instead. The appointment went fine and was given a clean bill of health, except the cavities I still had. Well, as my luck would have it, I still had some insurance money leftover and still had a few fillings that needed to be filled (4, I think. I know.. bad Julie.) So, I was given the choice to have 2 of them filled today. Stupid me said yes... I really just needed to get it over with. So, I strolled out of there about an hour and a half later and had two fillings and a stroke-face as I finished the rest of my errands. I came home and made home-made cinnamon toast crunch, except that it's not very crunchy.... it's kinda poofy. But, as a first trial goes, I will just have to roll the dough WAY thinner next time!

Thursday: Walked. Simple as that. :-)    Also- on a side note, I'm down to 208lbs! Woohoo! Dropped 7 of the excess I'd gained last month! Woooootttt!!

Friday & Saturday: This weekend was a rough weekend to not only my goal but my sanity and family as well. My mother went into the hospital with severe abdominal pain, and ended up having an emergency gallbladder removal on Saturday night. It had perforated and was leaking bile into her stomach and rest of her abdomen and had begun to show signs of necrosis. She's okay now, still in the ICU but alert and giving the nurses a run for their money, which is a good sign. We're hoping she'll be moved from the ICU to a regular room either tomorrow or Tuesday.

The big green dot is where I ended up from Week 1, and the

red stop blip is where I ended up. Looking closer, I have stopped

between Port Charlotte and Arcadia, which I'm sure is mostly

swamp land and vagrant camps. Lovely! ...... :-\

So anyway, it's been a rough week, and if you've caught up with Amy you'll know that it's okay to slip off the wagon, because you will always have the opportunity to jump back on and right yourself.

Enjoy your week!

Side Mission: The Bicycle

So, I had this thought that's been nagging me in the back of my mind for quite some time.

I live in a city where things are spread out, but not so spread out that public transportation is a big part of our city. I live close to a Wal-Mart, a CVS, a gas station, Michael's Craft Store, Target, Publix, my dentist, my doctor, and my gym. As in... of all those places, Target is the farthest away from me at a whopping 4.0 miles. Most are within 2 miles of my house.

Once I realized how much gas I'm probably wasting driving to these, I started to look for options. Walking is always the number one choice, but it is time consuming especially if I have to get cold groceries which can quickly turn nasty in the Florida sun. That would probably be a more suitable mode of transportation in the winter time, when it gets down to 60 degrees in the middle of the day.

So, back to my side mission. The bicycle. I've had this bike for a few years now, going on 3 or 4 I would say. It's a FreeSpirit AT1800, which is fancy for "Wal-Mart bike". It's nothing super fancy, it does have gears and hand brakes, but the gears are a little worn and the brakes a little slower... but it works.

I spent around 2 hours this morning getting my bike back to riding shape. It had flat tires, which I thought was due to holes in the tubes. After watching a VERY informative YouTube video on how to remove the tubes, I checked both tubes and made sure they were just flat and not holey.

So, I pumped those babies up to the right pressure and brushed the cobwebs from the seat, and she cleaned up quite nicely!

Look at her! I installed that kickstand this morning.... did a pretty fine job if I say so!

This is my "fat ass" seat. It's wider and WAY more comfy then the standard butt-swallowing seat that is DEFINITELY not built for a woman of my size.... yeah.

Got my law-abiding rear red flasher, and I actually put 2 white lights, for safety! 

So... why is this being called a side mission? Well, I took her for a spin this morning. I only lasted 20 minutes. Twenty of the best, yet most painful minutes in awhile. My knees were absolutely killing me after ten minutes, so I had to turn around. It sucked. Now, my knees feel better, but I still don't think I can do much more than that at the moment.

My side mission is to slowly start building up time on the bike. Building up muscle for my knees to tolerate the constant stress of pedaling. I think by the end of August I can make it to 10 miles.

With that, have some Queen!