I start Tuesday a shade late but get out walking for 70 minutes and have a good sweat going. Back at home I trim the roses and bring more new blooms into the house and then fix the road bicycle flat tire. I ride it up and down the street to make sure the installation is good and its ready to ride on Wednesday morning. After a shower the disappears in a Netflix binge of "The Politician".
I get out the door well before 6:30 am for a good road bicycle ride. I'm a bit nervous with the front wheel since I patched the inner tube (rather than replacing it with a new one), but the ride goes well. Throughout the 60 kilomeers I feel good and strong and the front wheel is good. After a shower I make a quick trip to the grocery store for supplies and then later have a noon Zoom call with a financial advisor. During the day I receive an email indcating that they have found nothing wrong from the MRI and that maybe I should consider a hearing aid for the left ear. Really? Really? There has to be something wrong or something else to do besides giving up and calling for me to wear a hearing aid. What about the ringing in the ear? I'm upset with this suggestion because I really believed that this Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor was on my side and would get to the bottom of things. So I cool down and decide on a plan of action. I mentally compose a letter to my primary care physician to ask for help on a path forward that doesn't require hearing aids - there has to be a reason for the hearing loss that can be fixed. Throughout the day I trade off working on crime demographics, stretching out, and watching Netflix shows.
On Thursday I'm hung over from Wednesday's good road bicycle ride. So I get up and trim roses and check out the new and the markets and have breakfast. Finally I get on the mountain bicycle and have a good recovery ride to the old yach club and back. Near the aquarium I stop and talk with a guy taking pictures and it turns out he works in IT for Molina health care and is from Indonesia. He sees my Czech Republic cycling jersey and we talk about his trip there from a few years ago with his wife and kids. He has to go back to work and I finish my ride. I have a slow day today watching some documentaries about human trafficking and then the Netflix series 13 Reasons.
Friday and Saturday pass slowly. I get out walking both days and do a lot of gardening and waxing the car and other cleaning around the house. But I'm bored. I watch another human trafficking documentary and other Netflix shows. On Saturday I get out to the library, which has finally opened with contactless delivery, and so I can start reading and learning again.
I start Sunday with a mountain bicycle ride since it is possible supposed to drizzle today. There is some mist in the air during my ride, but nothing werious. When I get home I finish waxing the World Rally Car and get a shower. Then I lay down on my bedroom floor and stretch out ymy back, neck, and sciatic nerves. By now there is a bit of rain coming down but still nothng serious that would have interrupted a bicycle ride. Throughout the day I trade between washing the hardwood floors, watching a golf tournamet on television, sorting through a box of former-work stuff that should be disposed of, and viewing some Netflix shows.
Monday is a planned day off from any legs exercises. I do take a short walk to the grocery store for supplies and trim the roses before reading the news and checking out the markets. Before noon I get in a good workout with the weights and then get down on my hands and knees to wax the gold rims of the World Rally Car. Finally I grab a shower and a bit later lunch. After lunch I wash the hardwood floors and then do some reading and some research for potential CSULA senior design projects for the fall.
The planned single day off from cycling turns into two days off as I don't cycle on Tuesday. I get in a session with the weights (though I probably shouldn't lift two days in a row). And the day disappears into the mush of days in lockdown due to to the Covid-19 pandemic.
I get out for 60 kilometers on the road bicycle on Wednesday morning. I feel strong and fast and have a good ride. Back at home I trim the roses and only get a few good blooms to cut and bring into the house. I watch a Phillippino movie and then watch a few epsiodes of some Netflix series that I've been staying up on. Today I finish installing the Brave Browser on all of my computes - a desktop, a laptop, and an Android phone. The Brave browser was developed to block a lot of advertisements, eliminate cross-site cookies that also contribute to Internet advertising, and has a Tor-type anonymousizing browser built-in when you need it. So far I'm impressed because the annoying advertisements are gone. Late in the day I hook the laptop up to the surround sound system and play a Trnasmission Prague 2019 set of dance/rave music very loud. If somebody comes knocking on the door, then I'll turn it down. Otherwise I immerse myself in the visuals and music and dance off some energy (since I can't go clubbing at this time).
Thursday and Friday are blahish recovery days. I get in almost two hours on the mountain bicycle on one day and out for a long walk on the other. And I take care of the yardwork and roses and carnations and vegetables. But I'm a bit lost now since most of the programming efforts that I was working on have come to a halt.
On Saturday I start north on the Los ANgeles river trail on the road bicycle. Within a few miles I'm already struggling. But I get up and over the WHittier Narrows damn and recover a bit as I go past my cow/oxen friends and get to a convenient turn around point. But then I struggle for the entire way home. Granted there are no riders who go past me on the run down the San Gabriel trail so I'm keeping up a decent pace, but it sure hurts. When I get off the river trail I stop and take a few minute break because my left lower back hurts with every pedal stroke. Its usualy the right lower back - either muscular or kidney - that hurts. During the few minute break I see stars (as I did on a Chiang Mai ride a few years ago and had to stabilize myself on a stand of fruity buns in a 7-11 because I thought I was going to tip over). Today I just try to stand upright and not tip over. And then I get on the bicycle and crawl home. It's an 80 kilometer ride with a time similar to this last ride, but my Fitbit, if you can believe it, says that I was in the redzone for almost half of the ride. What happened? Needless to say I'm a vegetable for the rest of the day until about 6 pm when I get out and trim the violet bushes that are coming over the fence.
I get out for a short ride on Sunday and about an hour long walk on Monday. Both of these days are hot so I ret to accomplsih my outdoor tasks in the morning or evening and stay out of the sun during the day. At least on Sunday Formula One is back from Austria (with no fans in the stands). Its' great to watch the racing and car development and strategies and failures again.