Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go north, to Peru/Lasalle, to ride the I & M Canal. I've ridden part of the canal before, but I wanted to go further, around 60 miles, to give me a chance to see what this distance feels like on the mountain bike. With the Gravel Grovel only two weeks away, I knew I needed to get some distance in or I will be hurting badly in two weeks. Hubby dropped me off at the Lasalle access, and I started off under sunny skies and a breeze blowing out of the south. My goal was to try and average at least 15 mph. My first five miles showed 14. I noticed I felt tired, like I didn't have a lot of energy though I'd made sure to eat a good breakfast. The last two or three weeks, I've not had much of an appetite. I've basically been eating only to make sure I don't get so fatigued I can't focus or function. There have been a couple of times, too, when I do eat that I reach a point where I feel nauseous. Mostly, though, I find myself ...

Spent a wonderful day on the I&M Canal path. Hubby and I started out from LaSalle and rode to Ottawa where we had lunch at an ice cream shop. Because my tooth/gum issue has reared its ugly head again, I stuck with a vanilla milkshake. Hubby had a decked out hotdog and onion rings. We then headed back to LaSalle. We hadn't gone more than a quarter mile when we saw a cheese/deli shop. The promise of fudge spurred us to turn off and check out the place. Unfortunately the fudge was gone, but Hubby was able to get some farmer's cheese, and I found a coffee I wanted to try. We started out again, making our way back to Utica where we found a candy/fudge shop. We left with a quarter pound each of peanut butter chocolate fudge, Belgian chocolate fudge, cheesecake fudge, and toffee chocolate fudge. Hubby felt drawn to try out the chocolate covered bacon but couldn't bring himself to actually buy a strip and follow through. From there we cycled back to LaSalle, passing the locks n...