We get a late start.  Neither one of us really wants to go. Between me traveling to two out-of-town baby showers this weekend and Dave spending an afternoon babysitting Nathan and a second afternoon doing yard work, it would have been so easy to decide to sit at home instead.  If it weren’t for our 60 4 60 goal, I am certain we would have found another way to spend our evening. But, neither one of us wants to be the one to prevent Ride 14 from happening, so we eat a hurried dinner and off we go.  

It’s a beautiful evening. The leaves at Oak Openings are in full bloom.  It’s a little hazy out which makes the colors seem all the richer as we make our way through the park.   

Our plan to take the new extension towards Delta is scrapped at our first water break.  Dave is irritated at what he says is a lack of energy on his part.  He wants the familiarity of the 18 mile loop that we have taken before.  And I guess he wants to shave off those two miles. 

We hop back on our bikes and surprisingly do our highest speed along the 5 mile stretch on   Fulton-Lucas Rd. 

We really haven’t committed ourselves to biking regularly since 2019. We are carrying more baggage now. We face the realities of being 4 years older.  The aches and pains seem as if they are both physical and mental.  We seem to have left the confident and carefree days behind.  Sometimes it seems like our rides are more something to prove and less an activity to enjoy together.  

I remind us both that Dave hasn’t really done any cardio for 4 years. We are stretching him. He really is doing well considering this.  I have months of walking and elliptical that makes this easier for me.  He will get there, right?  

We are tired, yet feeling accomplished.  We’ve met our goal: 15 rides by the end of May.  Now for the next 4 months if we can get 10 rides in each month we will only have 5 more to complete once October hits.  At only 2-3 rides/week, it seems do-able.  

I am still concerned about how do-able this seems to Dave though. Today he dealt with more foot pain than usual. He immediately went to icing when we got home which was unusual. Of course he doesn’t want to talk about it.  I struggle with knowing how much to push.

I am realizing that if I don’t write about a ride before I do another ride that I will not remember it clearly.  What I do remember about Ride 16 is that the night before Dave unexpectedly said, “Let’s go riding early tomorrow morning.”  I was surprised.  After some even worse than usual foot pain and a terrible cramp in his hamstring that woke both of us in the middle of the night, I had decided that I was just going to not say anything about riding. If 60 4 60 ended up being 15 4 60, so be it.  But then, he said, “let’s go.”  and so we did.  

Even more surprising was that we did the full loop, one of our longest rides.  It was a beautiful morning and because there was no wind we sailed.  Not only did we do the loop, but we had one of our better times.  Dave iced before and after and that seemed to help. Just when I’m ready to give up on it, it looks like we are back in the game.

If we had realized our mileage I’m pretty sure we would have gone around the cul de sac one or two times at the end of our ride. We came about as close as you can come to 26.  

Another beautiful morning. I love these morning rides.  The weather has been simply perfect.  The sun is getting us up early anyways and so why not go for a ride early enough that we are home in time for a full day?  

17 feels like progress.  Almost 20.  The goal is 25 by the end of June and with getting two in in the first 3 days of June, that feels quite do-able. Only 8 more for this month? Well, we may even get ahead of schedule!

By the end of the ride, today felt like a turning point.  As we were riding out to Side Cut I realized that Dave had hardly eaten anything and it was late afternoon.  I was mad. 

“Really?  Why do you do this to yourself?  Make it harder. Now you will be draggin all the way home.”

Well apparently those fighting words were all he needed.  We got back to the long stretch home from the mall and he just started sailing. He was determined to prove me wrong. I couldn’t keep up.  It felt like a few years ago.  This, THIS is what we have both been waiting for.  

Another beautiful morning, just like the morning 30 years ago today when we hopped in a car instead of on bikes and headed towards the hospital to have our second child. It seems like we were different people back then and I suppose we were.  It would have been hard back then to see that 30 years in the future we would have taken up biking and challenged ourselves with this 60 4 60 idea.  

We choose Delta again.  There is no wind.  Dave has decided that the big farmer’s fields on this trail are like tackling a horizontal hill when there is any wind in our face. So today, since there is very little wind, we are choosing Delta.  I like this route.  It still has some novelty to it. There is even a pretty covered bridge at the end.  

Once again Dave was in good form.  For two rides in a row there were times when he was clearly speeding up our pace. The tide is turning!