Category Archives: cupcakes

Bike + Road = Love

Well, this certainly was a weekend full of biking!  Is there such a thing as a bike binge?  If so, I had one LOL!  All that pent up wanting to be outside with the slow start to spring.

Saturday was for sure the nicer day, so that was the long ride day.  It started chilly, around 45 or so to start, so we bundled up a little and headed out down to Saratoga.   I was happy to be on the road.  In fact, after a couple of miles I yelled “I AM SO HAPPY!!”  :mrgreen:  We took our first break at 10 miles going past Moreau State Park.

I partook of a couple medjool dates (my favorite ride food next to pears).

Note the snow piles still.  In this wooded part, there actually was still a fair amount of snow.  I love the dates!

There was a bit of a headwind on the way there, but that is not unusual going to Saratoga.  It makes coming home easier!  We stopped a couple times just to check on the legs.

Most of the second half of the ride looks like this.

With hills.  This side lane is the wide official bike lane.  Mostly in good repair, although some spots have pot holes.  Can you believe how brown it still is around here? Late spring.

It was a sunny day, though.

I see my pinky sticking out in this photo and I really wonder if I take all of my photos that way?

We arrived at Saratoga after 22 miles to have lunch and er…something else at Cucake Lab!

It is very airy and  comfy inside the lab.

Plus some local artwork:

I like pretty colors….

I had a pulled pork sandwich.

Tasty!   I haven’t had bread like this in a while.  Today was not a wheat-free day, that is for sure.   I was pretty hungry for this sandwich and fairly wolfed it down!

Then it was time for the real reason to come here.  Coffee and cupcakes!

Raspberry.  Vanilla cake with a bit of raspberry filling topped with buttercream.

And the one I think is my very favorite – Pistachio!

Pistachio flavored cupcake with pistachio frosting!  Not overwhelmingly strong, just perfect.  And uber fresh!

We walked around Saratoga to digest.  There was a young boy playing guitar, only it was amped rock and roll on this guitar.  It was kind of funny.

After walking around, we headed back home.  I was a little concerned about the hills coming home, as they are steeper than the way there due to going up in elevation.  I am happy to say we made it up all the hills without stopping!  The steepest hill was around mile 32.  I was in granny gear and just talking myself to the top.  I knew that if I could just keep enough speed to not fall over, I would be fine.  I think I was down to about 5 miles an hour right near the top LOL!  Reward after that?

Hooray for coconut water!  I love this stuff.

After that big hill, the other ones felt okay, but my thighs were starting to get tired.  One thing about trainer, you can do the miles, but hills are another story.

I was ready to be finished when we got home.  Super pleased with the first long ride.  We are definitely doing another 100-mile ride this year!

Saturday ride stats:

Total miles 43.9 (close enough to 44)

Top speed:  27.1 mph(hills – woo hoo!)

Average speed 12.8 mph

Calories burned:  1300 (hello cupcakes!)

Sunday morning we decided our legs were okay, so we biked to breakfast!  It is 16 miles round trip to Panera Bread and back.  I was a squidge chilly, but above freezing.

Total miles this weeked: 60.2 miles! Not too shabby.  I need to be careful, I put 84 miles on the bike this week (including the trainer riding earlier in the week).  😯  Don’t want to overdo it.

This weekend we got the first cupcake ride of the year and the first bagel ride of the year!  Do I hear frozen yogurt ride coming soon?  I think so!

For even more of a bike binge, tonight is Paris Roubaix cycling on TV and the famous cobblestones!

Last ride for cupcakes!

Saturday was just a stunner of a day.  Even though it was 30 degrees and frost when we got up, we knew the high was going to get up into the upper 50s.  That is biking weather, people!  We unhooked the bikes from the trainers and got them down the stairs.

It was time for breakfast.  The go-to for long rides?  You know what it is 😀

Banana custard oats with cashew butter and blueberry jam.  Had a nice relaxed morning while waiting for the temps to rise enough to head out.    I could barely contain my excitement!

It was a wee bit chilly at the start, and we had some layers on, but there was not even the slightest breeze and it was sunny.  I was so happy to be riding.  John came up next to me and I had a huge grin on my face, which he commented should be on the blog.

So here it is!

You can tell it is fall around here.  This is part of a detour we take to avoid being near the interchange to the highway.   It adds a couple miles to the trip, but worth it.  This is around the 10 mile mark.

Arrived in Saratoga after 22 miles and ready to fill up on carbs!  We were going to go to Uncommon Grounds as we like to, but the line was practically out the door and we didn’t want to have to deal with that.  So we walked up the street to Brueggers.

I had an apple bagel with pumpkin cream cheese.

It was pretty good, but not near as good as Uncommon Grounds.  I also pulled out my pear to have.

Quite a lot of shoppers out today.  Maybe because the weather was so gorgeous!

Then it was time for the reason for the ride 😀

Cupcake Lab!  I had some trouble deciding what to have.  The maple cupcakes really caught my eye – so I got the regular size of that one.

It was a maple cupcake with maple frosting and sprinkled with maple sugar.  A maple trifecta!

I also got one of the 2-bite cupcakes.  Heath bar.

It was a chocolate cupcake with heath bits on it.  It was good, but I have come to realize that I like non-chocolate flavors best for my baked goods.  Does that make me weird?

John got a big size of the heath and a fresh baked butterscotch oatmeal cookie (yum).   These were perfect along side fresh brewed coffee.  Got to love the big calorie burn days!

It was nice to sit and chat, too.  Our schedules are so busy and funny how we both work at home and still need to make time to spend together.

A little more walking around and it was time to pedal home.   My legs were feeling really good.  Again, no wind helped.  We often face winds on this ride, so it sure was nice today!  After the 32 mile mark, we stopped for a bit of a break since it was after a big climbing hill.  Look at the long shadows:

I’ve never been so tall! I had some coconut water (you knew that was coming, right?).

Perfect fuel to finish out the ride.  I am surprised I still had bike legs this good!  It appears that  my lower half seems to be just fine thankyouverymuch.

You could tell every bike out today was appreciating this chance to have another ride.  Lots of waving and head nodding 😀

Ride stats:

44.8 miles – eh, 45!

Average speed: 13.3 mph

Top speed 22.4 mph

Calories burned:  1382 – woohoo!

My appetite was really dampened by this ride, but I knew I needed to eat food tonight.  I had half of a protein muffin that John baked this morning:

and then we watched TV for a while waiting for some sort of appetite.

After a while, I got craving some veggies, so I cooked up this for dinner.

Sweet potato topped with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli and a cute little macintosh apple.

The balance bar was pictured there, but I didn’t eat it.  I ate the plated stuff and just wasn’t hungry.  Funny how large amounts of exercise make me so not hungry for a while.

About 9 pm, I did feel hunger kicking in again and had some granola and a couple Dove Promises.

We brought the bikes back inside again.  Pixie doesn’t really like them, but she has to investigate.

All in all a good day, but it is November, so unless we get lucky again, this was probably the last cupcake ride until spring!  Now it will have to be biking on the trainer and then driving down there LOL!

Along the cupcake trail.

Saturday is bike day!  Sunny, but windy today.  I wanted a nice warm breakfast to fuel up:

Plus 3 cups of coffee :mrgreen:

After it warmed up a little, we headed on out.  I was actually a little cranky at first because it was chilly and windy, which are 2 conditions I don’t care for.  The older I get, the more I just want to stay toasty warm.  We thought about just hanging around the area, but then I just sucked it up and we went.  I knew it would be fine after a few miles and I had warmed up.

We decided to ride and not stop, just to go for a longer ride.  Only a couple stop lights, but we trekked on down.  The wind was not quite at our backs, so we weren’t going all that fast.   I felt pretty good.  My legs are a little tired just because it is the end of the week for my workouts.  21.5 miles and we arrived at Saratoga for lunch!

We stopped at Esperanto first, where I had the falafel with hummus pita.  Yum!

The hummus really made it.  After lunch, we headed for the real reason we biked all the way down here:

We had some fresh brewed coffee and then each got a regular cupcake and a mini:

Mocha espresso:

and my mini was cookies and cream:

I really like this one – it tasted just like a soft oreo!

After sitting for a while, John said he wanted another cupcake.  Gotta love what the biking miles do to you!  We decided to share the raspberry cupcake.  This was fresh out of the oven, so it was light and fluffy.  It had a raspberry fruit filling in it as well.

Yu-um!  I haven’t had a cupcake in 3 weeks!  Then it was time to hit the road home.  The wind was more into our faces, but sort of swirling around, too.  It was slower on the way home.  We stopped at mile 32 just for a breather.  No need to fuel up as we were still being powered by cupcakes!

Colors are going to get close to peak pretty soon.

Can you see that sugar thrumming?  Not sure if I was supposed to get bunny ears there or what…

Another 10 miles to home.

Ride stats:

Total mileage:  43.7

Avg speed:  12.9 mph

Top speed: 24 mph

Calories burned: 1350 – hello cupcakes!

Even though it was windy, it was a very pretty day.  After we got back, we didn’t want to eat dinner yet (depressed appetite from mileage).  So, we decided to make up lattes in travel mugs and do a little leaf peeping.  We drove up around Lake George on the non-tourist side.

Can you imagine having this view from your porch?  There were houses on the other side of the road with this view.  It would be my dream to live in one of them!

In a week or 2, this will be even more beautiful.  I love fall!

After we got back home, it was time for dinner.  I cooked up a small potato and topped it with laughing cow, cooked chicken and BBQ sauce.  It was really good.  My appetite had returned by this time (evidenced by granola munching).

An evening of movies tonight!

Pink item of the day: My slippers!

The Breast Cancer Site

56 miles to Ireland and back

Absolutely gorgeous day.  Again!  Our Saturdays have just been amazing all summer and into fall (although it technically is still summer).  The plan was to bike down to the Irish Fest for the early afternoon.  You do know it is halfway to St. Patty’s Day, right? Started off the day with some pumpkin oats.  These were made with fresh pumpkin that John cooked up the other day with a pie pumpkin I brought home.

1 tsp of molasses, 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 cup fresh pumpkin, topped with apple cranberry jam (that I made last month) and almonds.  Pecans would have been better, but we are out.

Nice relaxing morning waiting for the fog to lift and the temps to warm up some before heading on out.   After 11 miles, it was a stop for a quick snack. Pear power!

22 miles to lunch. Avoiding the festival $food$, we stopped in Saratoga at our favorite Cupcake lab!  I had a breakfast burrito that was super yummy.

It really helps when you are hungry.   Of course, that was just the prelude to the real reason we stopped in:

This was a green tea chai cupcake, which John and I split.  Needed more cardamom flavor.  I actually think this cupcake would be good as is with an apple filling.

I had my own Pistachio cupcake.

I love pistachio gelatto, so I quite enjoyed this one.  Lot of frosting, which is always a good thing.  The cupcake itself was green 😀

Gratuitous cupcake shot.

This was John’s Almond Joy.

With a tummy full of cupcake goodness, we headed on another 6 miles to the fairgrounds.  We actually biked this last year for another reason and using Google, it said it was 25 miles there.  Using actual odometer this year and it was actually 28 miles there.  Longer ride than anticipated today!

Lots more fest happening today and a lot more people. 3 different music stages for different types of music:  Traditional, up and coming, and rock/contemporary

Many imported Irish things:

Plus the usual fair junk.

And some alpacas.

Biker dudes in leather and kilts:

What does a complete dork get?  Porridge!  LOL.

I can’t wait to try these  (aren’t you all surprised).

We listened to some more music and then the real reason we came – Lunasa.  If you don’t have a CD of theirs, you should get one.  Go now.  I’ll still be here.

One of my very favorite things to have at any kind of fair is the fresh squeezed lemonade.  I don’t know why I love it so, but I do.

John also picked up some Irish soda bread so that we could get few carbs for the ride home.  So much for not eating at the fest…

Unfortunately, Lunasa got moved back in the schedule, which meant we could not stay for the whole performance as we had a 2-hour bike ride to get home with no real stop for any kind of dinner.  And we left at 5:00! As it was, we really pushed it past the lightness buffer.

We did stop around mile 45 for some coconut water and dates.

I felt so rejuvenated by the coconut water.  I don’t know if Gatorade does the same thing, but it is amazing to me.

Pushing home and my legs really felt good.

Can you see my odometer? The garage light is on.  That is how dark it was for the final mile or so.  Kinda scary. We don’t ride at night for safety reasons – even if I had lights on my bike, I don’t trust the cars.

Ride stats:

56.9 miles (damn close to 57!)

Top speed:  29.9

Avg Speed:  13.2 mph

Calories burned:  1720  (sweet).

This is the kind of long ride I like.  Leisurely with stops and yummy food in the middle.  Riding with my buddy:

I felt like I could have ridden for another 10 miles.  A lot different than the charity ride last week!  My legs are so awesome – I just love them! 😀  It’s one of those times where I am feeling in great shape (last 10 pounds be damned!)

As you can imagine, we were ready for food when we got home.  It was way past dinner time and that was quite a calorie burn.  I was totally craving veggies, as my diet has been deficient in them the last day or 2.  I made up a stirfry of cauliflower, broccoli and chick peas sauteed in coconut oil and some ginger stir fry sauce.

It was really good and cured the veggie need.  However, still deficient in calories.

The cure for that?

John made pumpkin donuts.  He had the dough rising for the last 2 days and I made him do them so I could take advantage of the long ride 😀

With some decaf coffee it was delicious.  Who doesn’t want a fresh donut (or more) at 10 pm?

This was a most excellent day.  I am going to miss these long rides in a couple months.

Biking and Bettie’s Cupcakes

Ahhhh…. glorious coolness!  Wonderful breeze coming in this morning through our new windows 😀

I was up early, as per usual, but John was sleeping in after a poker night.   Normally on Saturdays I eat when I get up, then John eats a couple hours later and we go biking.  I would get hungry really early in the ride.  So, I figured I would eat a snack and have a later breakfast.

Toast and jam!  Yum.  I am loving this bread I’ve been eating over the summer.  Doing endurance things really makes me crave carbs (cause I need them).

I poked around blogs and puttered around outside for a while.  Then John got up after a couple hours and I made brekkie.  I am all about the pumpkin after seeing those yesterday! 😀

Pumpkin custard oats topped with some light cream cheese mixed with powdered sugar.  I threw in about 1/4 cup of frozen cranberries while cooking the oats.

This bowl is sitting by a couple pie pumpkins I picked up yesterday.  John said I was taking oats to a higher art form.   Did you know it is National Better Breakfast month?

Packed a few items and headed out to Saratoga.  It was really windy today.  Strong headwind on the way down to the tune of 15 mph.  That adds a *lot* of resistance to the ride.  We stopped around 10 miles in for a little snackie.

I was trying to take a picture of the date I was going to eat, but the camera was focusing on the date I was with 😀

John took some action shots of me:

I look like a badass, but I am really not.  I just play one on the internet.

Just passin’ by! Bike shorts just aren’t flattering.

After 20 miles, we reached our destination. We were going to go to the Cupcake Lab as per usual, but they were closed for the weekend!  Ooops.  So, we headed to our other favorite – Uncommon Grounds.

I had a banana walnut bagel.  (Coffee roaster in background). Yum.  We walked around a little, and John ended up buying a ring to kind of match mine (since he has lost 2 wedding rings now).

It’s a little nicer than mine, what is up with that?  Anyway, 3rd time is a charm for rings, right?  Good thing he doesn’t go through marriages as fast as he does his wedding rings….

So, you didn’t think there wouldn’t be a cupcake on this ride, did you?  We stopped at Betties – which I believe is going to be on the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network.

Sorry Shelley – I know you are seeing these everywhere!

I had trouble deciding, so I got a peanut butter/chocolate cupcake and a mini thin mint.  The small ones are about the size of a bon-bon.

Very good.  Very dense, too.  The frosting at Bettie’s is much more rich than at Cupcake Lab.

With cupcake power inside (sitting like a rock), we headed home.  It was cloudy and started spitting some rain on us – yay…..  At least we had somewhat of a tailwind!  Stopped after mile 30 to have some coconut water.

Then the last 11 miles home.

Ride stats:


Distance: 41.6 miles

Avg speed: 13.3 mph

Calories burned: 1275

Awesome! I was feeling great.  My legs feel strong.  I didn’t have any chafing issues today (sorry).   Next week’s ride will be tough, but I know I have the distance in me.

I have all of this energy after that ride.  I think it is the cooler weather or something.  The heat just saps out so much energy from me.

I headed on out to the Smokehouse to pick up meat.  I love buying local!  Boneless chicken breast for $2.89 a pound.  Can’t beat that.

John cooked up chicken and I had to make my classic.  Need some veggies/protein after that carb fest I had earlier today.

Tonight is going to be porch sitting with my hubby and drinking some coffee (decaf).  Starting to feel like fall…..

Welcome to your new life Mr. Bike.

What a gorgeous morning.  It was nice and cool overnight.  I got up and made some banana custard oats with the soaked steel cut technique

Topped with some homemade fluff and peanut butter.  I then took the bowl and my coffee and sat out on the porch to eat.  It was cool enough to need a jacket out there.

I also saw my first hummingbird of the season!  I heard this loud buzzing noise and I was about the freak out at what I assumed was the world’s biggest wasp, but looked up and saw the hummingbird!  He buzzed around the feeder (which had old syrup in it) and flew away.  I quick ran inside to put fresh stuff in there, so hopefully they will be back through.

Today was a long ride day.  This is the first typical type ride with the new  bikes. We loaded up the backpacks since we are still waiting for the replacement bag frames to arrive.  Still have the bike bags, just not the rack to put it on.  1 week ago today and our bikes were stolen.  Still hurts.  Since we got a later start than usual, I had a Luna bar before leaving the house.

It was a gorgeous day.   I swear every Saturday has been so nice this summer.  We didn’t end up stopping for any snacks, as John had a late breakfast and I had that Luna bar.  I did need to stop around mile 15 to put on some more anti-chafing gel.  😳 My bike is so clean.

I need to save this look for posterity.

I don’t know if I will name the bike or not.  I never did name the old one and I had it for almost 6 years.

I’ll have to see if a name comes to me.  Right now I still feel like it is Mr. Fuji since we are still getting to know each other.

20ish miles later and we arrived in Saratoga at the Cupcake Lab!

This is getting to be a habit.  I actually was pretty hungry by this time.  I saw the perfect sammie for me on the menu, which I think was new.   Ham and brie with granny smith apple panini-style.

This was sooo good!  It had honey mustard on it.

John had the mac and cheese.

This was good and very, very rich.

We sat around and chatted and then had coffee and dessert.

This is our coffee being brewed individually:

Of course.  I chose a raspberry cupcake.

It had a raspberry filling in it as well and so delicious.  I think it is my new favorite.

John had a S’mores cupcake.  It was good as well, although hard to eat with the marshmallow on top.

It was cloudy by the time we left for home.  It was definitely cooler today as well.  We stopped at the usual point around mile 30.  I just drank a little water as I didn’t want the same nausea I felt the last time I drank too much at this rest stop.

My bike was zooming up the hills and the flats were easy peasy.  This bike wants to go!  I actually was holding back some.  John was finding his seat to be pretty uncomfortable after 30 miles and started to not enjoy the ride.

This is my seat:

It is not as wide as my old seat, but actually fairly soft.  I think I will keep it for now.  It’s just chafing, which is more of a problem with my shorts than the seat and I do have the Lanacane for that.

I hate my water bottle cage.  I got an adjustable one and it has a sharp edge on it that scratched my thigh when I would get on and off the bike.

I had even more scratches by the time I got home.  That has to go.

After mile 36, we stopped at a drive in  for some coconut water. 

Enjoyed in the shadow of this man:

Finished up:

Total miles:  42 – this is actually not quite right.  I think I have the tire size too big on the bike computer as this ride is actually more like 45.

Top speed:  26.2 mph

Avg speed:  14.0 mph – much faster than the old bikes.

Calories burned: 1339 – woohoo!

I am feeling a lot more comfortable on the bike.  It is just going to take time.  It is much more responsive than my old bike, so I tend to over correct a little bit, which makes me slightly nervous at times.   The brakes are also much touchier, so I have to be careful not to hit them hard and fly over the handle bars.  The first of many long rides in the books.

I have no appetite now.  Not unusual after a long ride.  Had a light dinner of toast with laughing cow and some blueberries:

I’ll eat some chocolate later to get in a few more calories.  Doing 40 miles is like running a 1/2 marathon.

Question:  Did you do something fun today?

Will bike for cupcakes

Unbelievably gorgeous day today!  It was chilly this morning, though.  I was ready for a warm brekkie.  I had forethought last night to soak some steel cut oats, so they were quicker to cook this morning.  Love that technique.

I did the usual banana custard style topped with some strawberry jam and cashew butter.

My mouth and tummy were happy campers!  I got a chance to catch up on blogs and some emails while waiting for John to get up 😛

We packed up some snacks and got ready to hit the road for a long ride.  I am so happy to go riding!

Headed down to Saratoga today.  It was such a beautiful day for a ride.  I kept saying that until John got annoyed LOL!  (Did I mention it was a beautiful day??)  We stopped around mile 12 as I wanted a snack.  It’s hard to wait longer when I ate breakfast about 2 hours earlier than John did.  Product placement:

This was in the swag bag from the Silk & Satins race. I wanted to see how Craisins did in place of my usual dates.  They did fine.

Does anyone smell ham?  I do:

(He thinks he is so cool now all decked out in the new jersey….)

I started to have chain problems around mile 16.  Uh oh.  I messed with it a little.  There is one link that if it gets the smallest dust speck in it, it tends to stick.  This is after wiping off my hands.  Ick.

It seemed okay after that for the rest of the ride.  After 22 miles, we got to Saratoga.  First stop?  Cupcake Lab!

We wanted lunch and a little something else.  It was nice not to be dripping sweat since the day was so nice.  Did I mention that already?

I love this saying:

Of course, anything that says coffee is all right by me…. My choice for lunch was the breakfast burrito.  I got that forgetting it had sausage in it (I thought it was the local bacon).  They get the bacon locally, but not the other meats.  Not quite sure why that is as the smokehouse they get the bacon from is where we buy all our meat.  Anyway – here is my delicious burrito in a honey wheat wrap with egg, cheese, potato, and sausage.  With a perfect strawberry on the side.

Yum!  I was so hungry that I kind of woofed this down.  Ooops.  Trying to be mindful, but really hard when you are hungry.

We wanted dessert, of course.  How can you go to a cupcake place and not have anything?  Choices, choices.  I wanted a peanut butter frosted cupcake:

We also had the Almond Joy, which I was remiss in gettng a picture of.

And some fresh brewed coffee.

They brew each cup individually with a filter, which I adore!  I got a coffee called Witches Brew.  Very smooth coffee. I would probably brew this a little stronger, but everyone I know says we make our coffee too strong. 🙄

Then the owner brought out a new flavor cupcake to us to try on the house.  How nice is that?  She actually recognized me from my blog.  First local recognition!

This was a coconut cream cupcake.  Vanilla cupcake with coconut cream filling topped with buttercream.  It was really good.  Very coconuty.  Again, I like this size of cupcake because it isn’t monstrous in size.

John proclaimed the almond joy to be his favorite.  I like the peanut butter frosted.  I like anything nutty anyway.

After this, we walked around town.  Big horse.

Saratoga is horse town, as the track runs during the summer.  It is track season now, but downtown was surprisingly uncrowded.  Guess everyone was at the track itself.  Stopped in to Borders just to see if Caitlin’s Operation Beautiful book was there, but it was not.  Boooo on Borders.

We were trying to let our cupcake babies settle for a bit.  I was a little full.  Hopped over to the bike store and got some much needed chain lube.  Chain all better now!  Yay!

Then we rode home.  My legs felt quite good.  After 30 miles, John asked if I was warmed up yet.  Hardeehar.  Such a comedian.  After 32 miles, we took a break for some coconut water.  More product placement!

Maybe Zico would sponsor my Team Challenge ride?? (I wish!!)

Long road behind us.

This is the entry to someone’s driveway.

It’s all gravel.  That has to suck in winter time LOL!

We hit a big hill right after this and I think I drank too much water and coconut water, because I was getting a side cramp that lasted for about 3 miles.  Ugh.  Then I felt fine.

It was an awesome ride today!  Great weather can make all the difference in how a ride feels.  I could do the 62 mile Team Challenge ride tomorrow.  Well, maybe not tomorrow since I did 45 today, but I am ready now.

Ride stats:

45.6  miles

3:25 of actual ride time

Top speed:  24.8 mph

Avg speed:  13.4 mph

Calories burned: 1440 (good thing after those cuppicakes!)

I have to say that I feel so strong right now.  I still have work to do on my leg, but I don’t think I could ask to be more in bike shape than I am right now.  The scale is just a box with a number on it.  It does not tell me that I am strong and beautiful.  It does not know that I can bike 100 miles in a day.  It does not know that I can squat and deadlift in the weight room with the guys.  And I don’t care what it doesn’t know about me – because *I* know it 😀

45-mile ride and carb loading!

Thank you all for the nice comments on my hair.  It’s going to take some getting used to again.  A year ago my hair was about this length.  It grew a lot!

I had a nice carby breakfast to get ready for the bike ride today.  Banana custard oats topped with some of that fresh made peanut butter and some jam.

Yum!  Plus a couple cups of cafe au lait.  I am going to do a nut butter primer this week some time.  Just gotta find the time to put it together.

I made up some protein snacks for the ride.  These are a mix of dates, cashews, unsweetened coconut, coconut oil and brown rice protein powder.  Formed into balls.

These are flipping good!  They are just begging to be dipped in chocolate, too.  I love these!  I’ll have to figure out an exact recipe for them and post.  They are calorie dense, but good for fueling.

We were debating on where to ride today.  This was going to be my first long ride (more than 20 miles) since I hurt my back.  It was pretty windy today, but we decided to head down to Saratoga.  I was a little bit nervous because of how hilly it is.  We took this same route a few days before I hurt my back  about 6 weeks ago.  I told John that I was worried I would be holding him back, and he said that we were a team.  I almost cried at that.  We did pretty well.  It was quite windy, and a headwind to boot.  Perfect temperature, though!

( I love John’s legs. 😳  )Snack time!

Those date balls.  So good.  The bike route going this way is part of the main road, so it is just a wide shoulder.  We got to Saratoga and stopped at the farmer’s market.  I wish the Glens Falls market was like this one.  It’s quite large and lots of fun stuff!

I would have gotten some greek yogurt if we weren’t riding!  These are alien and scary:

Celeriac.  I should try this sometime, but I don’t like celery that much, and that is what it is supposed to taste like.

We did buy some cheese, though.  Had samples of it.  This was sooooo good!

Spendy, so I only got a 1/4 pound.  I think eating it with some crusty bread will happen at some point this week.

We were pretty hungry for lunch at this point, so we stopped off to Uncommon Grounds to have one of their fabulous bagels!

Banana nut bagel with honey walnut cream cheese.  Now *this* is a bagel.  Worth every carby bite.  We then spent some time in town, and John got a new wheel put on his bike.  We ended up riding a few miles around there and stopped to get more carbs for the ride home.  This is a german chocolate cake cupcake:

We split this cupcake and lookie what was in the middle!

Scrumptious!  And very rich.  Good thing we split it.  Although truth be told, I definitely probably could have eaten the whole thing myself.

Then we headed home.  Still pretty windy.  I was doing quite well until we hit mile 35.  We had just made a turn and there was a steep hill.  I just knew I wasn’t going to make it to the top without walking some without all my former strength, and my speed dropped too much to make it all the way up.  This time I did cry.  I got to the top where John was waiting and I just was so frustrated about this stupid injury that I started to cry.  John said it’s okay because I am still recovering, but I just said, “but I don’t want to be anymore!”  Sometimes the emotional part of this injury really gets to me.  I know it will take time, but it just takes a toll on the psyche.

Anyway, we rested a little bit so I could compose myself and we continued on.  I knew that the hill to home would not be happening, so we took a different route around.  It added a few miles to the trip, but I was so pleased we took it.  It’s much flatter and this was where my clip shoes shined (shone?).  I felt so efficient and got my second wind.  Yay!  I could have kept going after we got  back.  I found my quads didn’t burn much, which I attribute to the clip shoes.  And I was wearing my new padded bike shorts.  My butt never hurt before riding, and it certainly didn’t hurt at all with the shorts.  Cool.

Arrived home:

Total distance:  45.6 miles (Longest ride of the year to date!!)

Average speed:  12.3 going, 13.2 coming home.  Pretty good with wind and hills.

Time:  3 hours 30 minutes

Top speed: 27.8 mph (Hills and kinda scary!)

Calories burned:  1380  (per odometer, I say 1200).

Assessment:  I feel really good.  My back is a squidge achy, as well as my knee, but it doesn’t feel injured, if that makes sense.  It only gets better from here.  Who needs running?? :mrgreen:

I was pretty hungry for dinner, and wanted a good protein hit.

3.5 oz of chicken with 1 oz of feta cheese and some toasted almonds.  Mixed with BBQ sauce.  The standard salad.  I wolfed this down and my body wanted a few more carbs, so I had a small dish of rice.

Now I am munching on an Attune bar.  I feel like a bottomless pit right now.  I’ll probably have some cereal later to make sure I have eaten enough today.

Hope you all had a super Saturday!

Question:  Do you shop at farmer’s markets?

Bike rides and birthdays!

What a wonderful Saturday!  I actually didn’t sleep very well last night.  It was hot and we had changed the flannel sheets off the bed, so not sure if that made me restless or what, but I would like to have slept in some before the ride.  Nevertheless, coffee and breakfast always make things better 😀

Superfoods to fuel up!  After a leisurely breakfast and some housework, we packed up some snacks and were ready to hit the trail.

Biker thighs are ready 😉  I look 4 feet tall in this picture, but I am really 5’2″.  Today was a 40-mile scheduled ride.  The bike path along this route is actually a wide shoulder of a main road for most of the way, so it isn’t quite as nice as the regular path.  We cross over the bridge leaving town here:

To avoid the instate overpass, we detoured around Moreau State Park, and I jumped up and down when I saw these along the side of the road:

Yay!!!  Little pops of color.  Actually, you can just see the faintest shimmer of green in the trees as the buds are starting to pop.  Green is coming!  The ride there is very hilly and challenging, not to mention the headwind.  We stopped half way and had a snack.  Phew!  20 miles from home and we arrived.

Today is my sister’s birthday, so we met her in Saratoga and took her out to lunch at Ravenous:

The crepe place!  Yum.  I had a crepe filled with scrambled eggs (redundant, I guess), cheddar cheese, and broccoli!  Served with pommes frites:

Happy birthday Colleen!!

John and I decided to walk around town after eating and window shop.  Saratoga is really a very cute city.  A little spendy, but cute.  I kind of would like to live here, just for a little more nightlife :mrgreen:

Needed dessert, and a new cupcake shop opened up called Betties Cakes.

It’s very retro.

Yum:

One thing I appreciate about this place is how there are 3 different sizes of cupcakes.  They actually bought this business from Spa City Cupcakes and redesigned everything.  I got the medium size cupcake, which was the perfect size:

The flavor?

Blueberry pancake, which is a blueberry cupcake topped with maple buttercream frosting.  I  had it alongside a cup of coffee.  It was outstanding!  I could have sat there happily with a bowl of this frosting and a spoon. 😳  This just makes me want to open a cupcake shop….

After this, we hit the road back home.  Interestingly, it was much faster coming back than getting there, and we shaved 10 minutes off the time.  I don’t know if it was just the tailwind or if the hills were more up on the way there?  Maybe both.  Or maybe we were powered by cupcake. We cruised home pretty easily, although the last hill to our house is just a killer.  I was kind of tired at that point.

Distance:  40.5 miles

Time:  3 hours, 5 minutes

Average speed:  12.7 mph  (11.9 first half, 13.6 second half)

Top speed:  27.7 mph (Hills – woo hoo!)

I felt great after we got back.  I could go farther, but not sure how much.  It feels so good to have these kind of bike legs in early April!  All that winter work paid off.  I know I can bike 100 miles this summer.

Calorie burn for this ride is probably about 1,000.  I give myself between 20 and 25 calories per mile, depending on how hard the ride is, just to be conservative. Snacks consumed during this ride included a homemade granola bar, some dried pineapple, and an apple.  Then another granola bar after we got home.

Dinner time!  Easy cooking stuff since we are a little tired.  Brussel sprouts, strawberries and Pierogies!

I ate these all the time when I was younger and forgot how good they are.

Company coming over tonight and lots of relaxing in store.  We are having Easter lunch/dinner at my sister’s tomorrow, but I also have to work, as per every Sunday.

Did you have a fabulous day?

40 miles and a flat.

We decided to bike to Saratoga today, which is 20 miles each way.  Was going along well, then a little more than 1/2 way (in the middle of nowhere) my tire started going flat.  Of course, being the unprepared bikers – we did not have a repair kit or anything.  Since it was a slow leak, we decided to press on and get to a gas station to fill the tire so we could get to the city.  5or 6 grueling miles later,  we got to the gas station, and the tire was just about flat.  Anyone who had ridden on low pressure tires knows that it is like biking through sand – really, really tough on the legs.  Anyway, we put air in and were able to go the last few miles to town, where we stopped at a bike shop and got not only a new tube, but 2 new tires that I was going to get anyway prior to the triathlon.  So my bike has new shoes now!

So then, we hit the farmer’s market, which is great in Saratoga!  Wish we could have brought home some more perishable stuff.

market

Then ate lunch and walked around town and enjoyed Congress Park, where these little darlings were swimming around! So damn cute!

ducks

Somehow, I ended up with this. It’s a cupcake with frosting.  I ended up just eating the top for the frosting and tossing the bottom half, since the taste of the cupcake itself wasn’t worth the calories.  The top was really good, though!

cupcake

The bike ride home was much easier with a good tire!  So,  I can do at least 40 miles in a day with hills.  HIIT training is good and all, but there is a lot to be said for endurance training.  Bring on the triathlon!

Note to self….. go out and buy an emergency repair kit for the bike before the next long ride.