Total mileage for 2017: 1476.6
Today was a day of downsizing. Last night I had considered trying to do a second straight day of six round trips today. But then, when I was up in the night, I felt as if God was speaking to me, telling me to accept the fact that I have limitations, and should settle for just four round trips. In general, I have always been wary of the claims of those who say God has spoken to them, finding it somewhat megalomaniacal. But, you know, it's funny—the more I seek Him out, and listen actively for what He is saying to me, the better I seem to able to hear Him!
So, accepting this, I pushed back my plans to rise super early, and payed myself stay in bed until 6:20, and began my ride at 6:50. For a while it was going fine. But early in the third round trip, two realizations came to the fore:
1) My dogs were really barking. (Tiger announcer-speak for "feet hurting." 😆 ) This had been the case yesterday, too, but I pushed through it, and could have done so today as well, if not for point #2.
2) I thought of the old saying, "Practice makes perfect," and the musician's modification of it—Perfect practice makes perfect, along with its corollary, Imperfect or sloppy practice builds in bad habits. And when I realized the slow pace at which I was riding today, I became concerned that this might tend to become an engraved habit for my riding. Evidently, yesterday's 50-mile ride took more out of my legs than I realized!
Too, I got to thinking—on the PALM website, they give us the daily mileages for the ride as 41, 46, 45, 44, 41, 31—a list that does not once hit 50 miles, to say nothing of doing it on consecutive days.
Given these thoughts, I tolerated scaling "four" back to "three," and completed the 26.3 miles in a glacial time of 3:41 I have no doubts that I could have pushed on through another round trip ... or even three more, for that matter. But, given the speed at which I was riding, it would have taken me quite a while.
Also, as I was on the home stretch of the third and final round trip, I had two interesting encounters. First, over time I've gotten to be familiar at sight with quite a few of my fellow trails users—riders, runners, and walkers. Of course, being unable to speak with them, I never really get to know them. But today, with a couple of miles left to go, a man came toward me whom I thought I recognized. He clearly recognized me, because he smiled and called out, "There he is!" And then just a couple of minutes later, my good friend Doug Franklin rolled down the passenger side window of a car in which he was riding past out, and hollered out encouragingly, 'GO, ALLEN, GO!" 😇
Alan, As a veteran of many PALM rides, just imagine stopping for morning snacks, a long lunch, waiting out an afternoon thunderstorm, of visiting a park during the day. You have many hours to ride, and stopping is what makes PALM so interesting. Every day there are donut shops, water stops, sunscreen stops, fruit stops, swim stops, and historical and cultural opportunities. My 12-year old daughter made it without any training, although I did hear a lot of whining. :) There are also SAGS if you get dehydrated or need any help. Enjoy the road! rob
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