Day 5--In Two Parts

I really wanted to take it easy today because I am going snowshoeing, for the first time, tomorrow. I don't imagine there is too steep of a learning curve, but it might be good to not have too sore of legs to start with. Besides, I rode a lot yesterday.

I did what I'm now going to call "The Hat" route. On the map, the route looks just like a hat (picture a pointy hat with a dangly ball on top--almost like a Santa hat). It is the Chehalis Western Trail to the Yelm/Tenino Trail, Y/T to Tenino, Hwy 99 back to Rich Rd, 89th back to the CW trail and back home. It is 31.3 miles roundtrip. Since I really wanted to take the whole ride easy, I wore my new heart rate monitor and tried to keep my heart rate around or below 120. That seemed to equate to 14-15 mph (on the flat). I didn't quite keep within the 120 range when I was going uphill out of Tenino, but I didn't want to take forever to get up the hill either. I can't say as I was all that tired when I got home, but that was the plan, anyway. There were a couple of times where I wanted to go all out just to see how high my heart rate would get, but I forced myself to save that for another day (oh, and I'm sure there will be MANY other days!).

So, I got home just before noon. I took a shower and got dressed in my "commuting" bike clothes for Part 2 of today's ride. I was headed to play Mah Jongg (ancient Chinese tile game played with actual tiles--not on the computer) with my friends, Debra, Elaine, and Mary Beth. First, however, I had some errands to do. The first, and most important stop, was for some lunch (at Subway of course!). After lunch I rode into town (Lacey) to the credit union to cash a Christmas check (thanks Dad!) and then to Super Supplements to get more pro-biotics. From there I rode over to Elaine's. We played an hour and a half or so of Mah Jongg, then I rode home (with a quick stop at Safeway to get some food for tomorrow). Total miles for Part 2 was 15.8.

And for the first day since I started this challenge, there was no rain!!!

Total miles for Day 5--47.1 (75.8km)
Total Kilometers remaining of the Festive 500--58 (36.1 miles)