104 Degrees

It's not the heat that kills you. It's the lack of water. Hot days are fun if your near the water. Pool, mountain stream, river, ocean. It's all really about the water. We are bags of water, with a few ounces of chemicals thrown in. Maybe a lightning strike to. Keep the bag full of what it needs and we can get to the next day of 103 degrees.
I think I will take a day off from the bike today. I got 135 mile on in the last 3 days. I need a recovery day anyway. At the advanced age of 57 recovery is a big issue. The body just does not replace tissue as fast as it once did. Age and ageing have a new set of rules to follow. It's like learning a new language. The language of the ageing body.
I was taking the payment to the storage company. We were not sure we had the right information on the check. So a face to face hand off of the check was in order. It took a bit, but the computer finally got what the humans knew was true all along. That would be the story except the lady at the counter looked at my tanned hands. My hands show the pattern from the riding gloves I spend so much time with. The tan is quite odd. An alligator skin pattern from the netting of the gloves. I had one guy at the local bike shop think I had tattooed the pattern on my hands. He thought it was very cool. This lady at the storage company thought I was a motorcycle rider. I explained that I was a Bike Rider. A serious bike rider. She wanted to know more. I told her the story of weight loss, improved health. Managing diabetes, high blood pressure, and all the other age related test that have come my way. I made it shorter than it reads. So the lady asked how I did it. I told her the bike. Changing my eating habits. Changing the food I ate. She wanted to know more for both her and her new husband were facing the same problems. They had started eating better and going to the local workout center. They were on their 10th day and starting to feel as though they did not want to go to the gym anymore. I asked what their schedule was. She said everyday. I told her to stop that. I told her about recovery days and the time it will take to turn their bodies around. What took time for them to become. Will take time to go away. Change like this takes time and there are no short cuts at all. I told her to reward herself with fun. One meal a week with the food that she like the most. This kind of body change takes so much time you can burn out if you do not have some fun rewards. She was surprised to hear me say this. You have lost 110 pounds of fat in 12 months. You must have never been off the hard work, she said. I told her I eat pizza once a week. I eat cake once a week. I eat burgers once and a while. Not to often anymore, but once and a while is OK. I told her I worked out every other day for the first year. Not everyday. She was so surprised to hear that she was working way to hard. I went over with her about her heart rate and where she would be best suited to work out at. She was working to hard. It's common for people to work too hard. Then not give there body recovery time. I still work out to hard on the bike often. I just push so hard some days. I mean like there is a someone coming to pass me by. I hate being passed. So I was trying to let this lady know it was OK to ease off and feel good about it. Both these folks were going to be off the program in days if they did not do their recovery time. They were already getting there after 10 days. I told her I was on 22 month of my new life. It was like a 12 step program almost. Wow that's like 666 days. Now that's a bit freaky.
So the life I live seems to be having an effect here and there. People want to know. People that need to do what I am doing get a little push from my story. I get a little push from hearing their story. It's the same story as mine. I'm lucky. I have always been involved with hard athletic challenges. I know the work it takes. Everyone can do it. Though, some need coaches and stories to help them along. I'll do what I can. I think this lady and her husband will do better now that I had a moment to share. I'll go back and see how they are doing soon.