Memorial Day

Here's some information on Memorial Day that I found online, while taking a few moments this morning to observe this special day, before getting ready for a bike ride down the Platte River with Ken. We met K and Freddie at Racines for lunch, then rode down to the light rail station, and cheated by hitching a ride back to Littleton. That was a really nice option for a hot day, to avoid the long uphill ride home on a full stomach! Here are some pictures. Watch out for the three movies - they're big! You'll spot them as the second of a pair of apparently repeated pictures. K asked me to make more water movies, after seeing the one I made of the waterfall in Waterton Canyon on Saturday.

Rode up to Bear Creek Dam on Sunday. Was intending to ride with the guys, but missed them by a few minutes, and spent the entire ride trying to catch up. I guess that was good exercise for the heart, which is a lot of the reason I've gotten back into walking and bike riding. My exercise watch recorded a new peak at 90% of my recommended max rate. So we'll call that a good thing, since it was just a peak...

Ken and I rode up Waterton Canyon for the first time, on Saturday. I wasn't sure about my skinny wheel road bike, so I borrowed Freddie's bike for the ride. I think the lower part, up to the dam, would've been fine with my bike, but the rocky trail heading up into the woods definitely required a trail bike. We didn't get far, just to the first bench, but it was enough to get a sense of what kind of riding equipment I would need, if I wanted to venture off the flatland trails I've been enjoying the past year. We celebrated surviving our first "mountain" ride, by meeting the girls for lunch at Hacienda Colorado, and splurging on a Loco Sundae for dessert, splitting that monstrous dish four ways.

We had quite a crowd for our regular Thursday afternoon Lee Gulch bike ride.

More Rides

Rode on Thursday with the guys and Friday with Ken this week. Loved the new wrist GPS, which lets me review cardio and other data from each ride. This'll be helpful in knowing how hard I'm pushing myself. Not to mention the fun gadget factor...

Ride 'til you drop

I've been a bike riding demon this week. I rode the Lee Gulch loop on Wednesday evening, and had a beautiful ride, with just a few raindrops from a passing T-storm. Then we did the usual Thursday afternoon ride, and it was also great weather and company. We took advantage of a special opportunity to ride Friday afternoon. Saturday came knocking with beautiful weather and a mid-day ride to the Bear Creek Dam. K and I drove downtown on Saturday afternoon, for spaghetti dinner at OSF and a visit to REI for their big anniversary sale. They'd discounted the Garmin Forerunner 305 by almost half, which made it pretty much irresistible. I got a few other riding goodies too, including a safety helmet, which I've been avoiding for years, but after a little event with a bus and a tree on Saturday morning, I decided I'd better stop fighting and get one. Naturally, I had to go riding today too, just to try out everything. Ken and I took a leisurely (he disagrees :-) ride out to Bear Creek Dam. It was his first experience with this route, and our longest ride together to date - 30.5 miles.