Let's Ride!

I thought I'd take you on a bike ride today from our campground at Catalina State Park.  They have lots of bike trails and paths around here so it is just a matter of deciding to do it.  Kind of like going to the fitness center or swimming laps in the pool...

I love the warm (hot) weather and got underway about 12:30 PM.

I checked up my gear as in aired up my tires and then got my iPhone handle bar case out.  I have used it in the past and I like the way I can see how fast and how far I am going right there on the handle bars.  But it happened again - after about 10 minutes in the intense heat - my iPhone locked up and ad a 'Temperature' warning displayed.  So I took it out of the case and put in my pocket so it would cool off.

After about 25 minutes of a little bit of a tough (for me) uphill ride I found a spot of shade and checked my iPhone again to see if it was cooling off.  Gladly it was and I had my displays back.

 But I kept it in my pocket so it wouldn't heat up again.

After starting out in the bike lane on the highway, I made it up to the Rancho Vistoso area and went a few more miles along a nice bike path.

Since I haven't ridden in a while I didn't want to over do it.  10+ miles would be a good ride I figured.

 The bike paths were nice and wide and on good streets.

 Love those octotillo blooms!

After about 6 miles or so, I figured it was time to turn around and I did so near 'Honeybee Canyon'.

A few hundred yards down the road, I passed a 'Park'.

When I checked it out, it had a number of canyon/loop trails from that point and a very nice desert trail system in the neighborhood.

After a quick drink of water, I moved on back onto the bike path.

Some of these 'washes' are pretty big with 200-300 yard bridges.

Love those Santa Catalina mountains in the distance.

I joined up with Highway 77/Oro Valley Road and road down to the entrance to the Catalina State Park Campground.

Our campsite is about a mile from the front gate.

And the last turn off to Campground B where we parked the Roadrunner.

My ride was a little over 13 miles and some good exercise.

That was my recent bike ride and I hope to have some more in the next few days.

Thanks for joining me!  Until next time...

On the Sioux Falls Bike Trail

It has been a long time since I have been out on a good long bike ride.  I miss that.  I am hesitant to go out on a route that is not well marked and/or does not have a separate trail.  Especially in a new place.  So I was especially glad to get back to Sioux Falls and on my bike again.

Sioux Falls has an excellent set of trails and routes around and through the city.

I had to air up my tires and check things out and install a Father's Day present:  A holder for my iPhone.

I also installed a locking bike cable just in case I found somewhere I wanted to securely tie up.

Then I picked up the trail near marker 12 and put in some miles.  Interesting shelter near the start

on the bike path with lots of picnic tables, a restroom and my first ever on a bike trail:

electronic sign with temperature and time!

The trail follows along the city canal.

It crosses the canal a few times on these type of bridges.

 I was out by the end of the airport and the Air National Guard.

 Fun to see some F-16's do some 'touch and goes'.

Over near the State Penitentiary

the canal merges with some other ones and flows at a pretty sharp decline over the spillway.

The trail crosses a bridge and has a pretty sharp decline down to the other bridge.

I rode to the bottom on some switchbacks to get some aerobic work in on the otherwise pretty flat course.  Going back up, the trail follows the split rail fence.

The complete circuit around to my starting location is about 24 miles.  At this point, I began to notice how long this ride was getting to be and turned back and retraced my path.

 It was a fairly windy day so it was a challenge at times.  I really enjoyed getting out there though and would love to come back and do a complete loop.  I will have to train for that one though.  It took my just under 2:30 do go a little over 18.5 miles.  I use the app:  M aymyride+ and it logged the course and details for me.

It was a nice day for it - thanks for joining me on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

On to Florida

We broke camp just after the sun came up on Tuesday when we left Virginia Beach.  We drove down to Shaw AFB (in Sumter SC not far from Columbia)and stayed a couple of nights at the FamCamp.  The drive was 384 miles and took us about 7 hours.

From Shaw AFB, we are en route to Mayport, FL near Jacksonville where we will stay for a few days.  It has been good weather and looks like it will even get better.

While at Shaw AFB, we played golf on Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day and a very nice golf course.  And the price at $12 each included greens fees and an electric cart.

The course was very well maintained and in great shape.  It wasn't very crowded and we made it around in about 3 1/2 hours.

Yesterday, we went to the base gym which has been renovated and expanded.  It has  a lot of new equipment so we got on the elliptical, rowing and bike machines.  It was a great hour of cardio work.

This is the time of the month that I do my online work, so Pam is driving while I get this out and then log some  work hours.  I am very thankful for the work.  And Pam is a great driver so I expect to get a lot done while we motor down the highway to Mayport.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

How To Lose 25 lbs…

I have wanted to do this post for some time.  This is not another story in a long line of diets or drink formulas or sales gimmicks.

The real truth of the matter is that I lost 25 lbs with my iPhone.  Yep - it even does that.

More specifically, I have an app that counts calories.  I am amazed that the secret to the success (for me anyway) is counting calories.  I have heard about counting calories for a long long time but never done it.

How about you?  What has worked for you over the years?

Back about 10 years ago Pam and I found some success with the Adkins diet.  I think I lost 17 lbs then.  But it was very stringent and not without controversy.  And I love some carbs now and then.

Then in the summer we went to see our good friends Steve and Theressa in Sioux Falls.  They have made dramatic changes in their weight, losing a combed 100 lbs.  They look great!  And are going for more. When I asked how them did it ~ she indicated she tracked the food she ate on an iPhone app.

The app is from LoseIt.com  The online account synchs with your iPhone.  I mostly use my iPhone.

It is pretty basic.  I just enter what I eat for all my meals and snacks.  And I get more calories if I exercise.
Here is what it looks like on the iPhone app:

To begin with I register my age, height and weight and my target weight.  It asks how aggressive I want to be in achieved my target weight.  I figured 1 lb a week would be good.

I went from over a little over 180 to 165 in nine weeks.

All the literature I have read says my ideal weight is 155 so I decided to pursue that and got there in another couple of weeks.

It has changed my thinking about weight loss.  I can eat anything I want and now that I am where I want to be, I know how much I can eat to stay here.  It has also changed my eating habits and I snack about 1/3 of what I used to.  And I stay away from candy bars (Snickers), carbonated drinks (even the diet ones 'bloat' me).

The success has changed my thinking about food.  I don't want to get over-full any more.  I like feeling a  little lean.  I also was surprised how I didn't have a large amount of craving going on.  I was more interested every day in seeing if I could lose another pound, then another etc.

One thing I wish I had done at the beginning was buy scales.  We have not had any until recently.  I didn't start weighing in until I had already lost over 10 lbs.

So I wanted to share it with those of you out there who have thought about it and never really counted calories before.  It works.

In our RV lifestyle, it is a lot easier to put the pounds on rather than take them off with exercise and fresh air.  I thought it would be easier to do.

A word of caution:  though I my current daily calorie budget is 2194 calories, there have been days that I have gone over.  The key for me is not to get discouraged and not to cheat on my counting!  The scales don't lie.  And counting the calories tells a pretty good story.

Another thing:  I am very aware of is that weight lost does not mean fitness.  I can be where I want to be weight-wise and be very out of shape.  So I have to get in walks, runs and some time in the gym when we are near one.  I can also be in relatively good shape with lots of exercise and still be over my goal weight. I spent a lot of time over the years there...

That is it for today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  We'd love to hear your story so please share it.  Thanks for joining us today.  Until next time...

Virginia Beach Week 1 Highlights

We have been here a little over a week.  The first few days we stayed at Ocean Pines Campground at Ocean Naval Air Station.

(This is a photo off the website since I didn't remember to take my own while we were there…)

The campground was once a mobile home park they have converted to a campground.  The laundry facilities and restrooms are good.  But it is about 4 miles from the beach.

After three days, we moved over to Dam Neck where we have reservations.  Sea Mist RV campground is where we stayed last year for a couple of months.  They opened up 26 new sites and the old portion of the campground is closed until they can finish upgrading it.

The new portion has nice concrete pads with 50 amp electricity and full hook ups. And it is only about 200 yards from the beach.  And the price is right at $450/month.

Kelly lives in Norfolk with is about 30 minutes away.  Last weekend we met some of her friends and had dinner at the Baron Pub in Portsmith.   We took the ferry across from Norfolk.

We walked about 4 blocks down to the pub and met her friends.  There were about 15 of us in the group.  I sat next to Megan from DC who was visiting her boyfriend here.  She is in a small group in DC that includes Betsy who is the daughter of very good friends of ours.  I have known Betsy's parents (Ed and Candice) since the mid 1970's from my Arizona State days.  Small world!

Earlier in the day, Kelly had us go with her to her workout class.  Ugh oh…

You have to figure that anything with 'Extreme' in the name is going to hurt a little.  Or a lot…

Pam and I survived.  We were out of breath a lot.  The real soreness didn't set in until the next day or two.  But it was fun and Pam and Kelly are going back for more.  Since I was the only guy besides Heath (the trainer) there, I decided I would stick to biking and walking and running…

In fact we all did some of that yesterday.  It was the 2nd Annual 'For The Love of Meghan Team' (Susan G. Komen) Run for the Cure here in Virginia Beach.  We ran to celebrate the life of Meghan, our daughter-in-law who succumbed to breast cancer 18 months ago at age 28.  She ran in a few of these and would be right there with Ricky and Nicos and Pam and Kelly and Lauren and Dan and Ryan J and Ryan H.
We ran to shake our fist at this deadly disease and to raise money and to remind ourselves to check regularly for breast cancer.  We saw a number of different messages during the day:  'Save the boobies', 'Check your tatas' etc.  Among my favorite is 'Squeeze.  And we ran to have fun.

We also ran for survivors Sue (my sister in law), and Barbara (friend from our Hawaii days), and Rebecca (friend from our Korea days) and Gill (next door neighbor in Fairfax).  All are doing well now.

It was a beautiful day for a walk or a run.

And we were off!

We are definitely enjoying it here in Virginia Beach.  The weather has been fairly warm (low 70's) and only a little rain.  We plan to be here until after Thanksgiving.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Until next time...