\u00c2\u00a0Training continues in the hot sun. We did a 100 mile bike on Wednesday. We started at dawn before the heat got too bad and did a two loop ride on the same road we had been riding all along. Highway 776 goes to Port Charlotte and meets up again with US-41. We crossed over US-41 and the bike lane disappeared so we turned around and went back the same way we came. Due to horrendous traffic at the intersection of Highway 776 and US-41, we decided to turn around before we got there on the next loop.<\/p>\n
On the second loop I told Jean I would probably slow down. She smirked and said “That’s ok. If I have trouble I know you’ll be along shortly”. I’ve learned that what you hear is only a small part of what is actually being said. So I interpret that as, “Jack, if you have trouble, tough s—“! The other, more likely interpretation is “You’re slower than I am, so you’ll never get past me”. I think I have three choices. One is that I could ride faster and get ahead of her, but if I could do that, I would be already. It’s a man thing, you know. The other choice is, if I do come upon her with bike trouble, I could ride right on by. Or I could just keep my mouth shut. It’s quite a dilemma since I don’t think I am ready to give up sex yet at age 55.<\/p>\n
So on the second loop, I saw Jean ahead of me by about a half mile on the last straight stretch from El Jobean to Port Charlotte. I lost sight of her when the road turned slightly, but then at the turn around, I looked and she was only a block ahead of me. Apparently, her blonde hair took hold and she crossed US-41. After all it had been nearly two hours since the first time we were there and we had already decided that wasn’t the best choice. She didn’t go very far across but had to wait for two or three lights before getting back. It only pays to be the lead dog when you know where you are going!<\/p>\n
There were several instances of people pulling out in front of us or turning and cutting us off. Lest you think it’s all geezers, my closest call was with a late twenties or early thirties construction worker who never even looked at me and rolled through a stop sign. An older couple cut Jean off turning into a strip mall. I thought she gave them the “you’re number one salute” but she said she just waved. Becky, would you check\u00c2\u00a0in your engineering books and see if there is any physical reason turn signals won’t work south of the Georgia-Florida border?\u00c2\u00a0Maybe it’s a temperature thing!<\/p>\n
We found another restaurant downtown with excellent food. This time I strayed from my diet of fish and went with chicken portabella, a baked sweet potato and, of course, a Miller Lite. Jean had the blackened prime rib to satisfy her craving for red meat. She isn’t the fish eater I am! We were impressed by the food and service. We have yet to find a restaurant that has bad food.<\/p>\n
I ran seven and a half miles yesterday and everything still feels good and yes, I’m knocking on wood. Jean hasn’t run since the thirteen and a third miles she ran on Sunday. She may try running tomorrow if her foot feels better. I’m going fishing for grouper with my brother Bill, Mom and my brother Bob, also known as\u00c2\u00a0Bobbie Butane. We went to the YMCA and lifted weights for a couple of hours and swam forty five minutes. This morning we both went for a forty mile recovery bike. Jean had a flat tire before we ever got out of the parking lot. She is using up my spare tubes like candy, or in her case, her favorite evening snack, popcorn. I can see it all now. At the race, she won’t have a problem and I’ll be the one sitting on the curb out of spare tubes like Jim Everett at The Great Floridian last year.<\/p>\n
I’m being beckoned to the beach. We will walk down to the Jetty, at the harbor of Venice, which is about a mile. I could be talked into a stop at Sharky’s later. I may try the deck runner this time. It’s similar to a rum runner with rum, blackberry brandy and banana liqueur. I’m sure that’s on the training table of all good triathletes.<\/p>\n
Ta Ta,<\/p>\n
Jack & Jean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0Training continues in the hot sun. We did a 100 mile bike on Wednesday. We started at dawn before the heat got too bad and did a two loop ride on the same road we had been riding all along. Highway 776 goes to Port Charlotte and meets up again with US-41. We crossed over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-email"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jackswriting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}