08/20/2026 Run

Travel day. I slept through the night but woke up early to try and get a run in before it warmed up too much. Was on the road around 6:45, but it was already over 80 deg and extremely humid. I ran through Lake Shadows and then through the adjoining neighborhood to get to Foley Rd by Steele Point Dr. I turned left and ran to a new road, Sundance Pr Dr, that took me over to a small neighborhood of new homes being built near the cove on Lake Houston. Most of the homes are under construction, I don't think any of them are occupied yet. After I ran around this neighborhood I retracted my path and then found a sidewalk that ran by an artificial lake. I got on it, and it ended up taking me into the original Sundance Cove neighborhood, by the new rec center. I had planned on a longer, slower run, and this made it happen. Eventually got back to Foley Rd, which I had to run along for a longer time than I wanted before turning on Steele Point Dr and heading back to the house. Didn't stretch before the run, and I didn't feel any twinge from my right knee during the run.

Avg pace = 8:56/mile (8:43 from Strava)

Total distance = 5.06

Elapsed moving time = 45:12

Avg heartrate = 166 bpm (Amazfit, nope)

Relative Effort = 119 (nope) 

https://www.strava.com/activities/19822782715

I was absolutely drenched in sweat when I got back, sat by the kitchen table for a bit to cool down, had potatoes for breakfast, and then took a shower. It was a quiet morning and early afternoon chatting with Mom and Ross, even taking a little nap. I left the house a little after 1:00, got gas, and stopped at Schlotzsky's to get a sandwich for the plane ride. Was a little worried about the length of the check-in process, but there was a guy at the counter (Jose) who made it go smoothly and ordered the shuttle to stop by. That took about 20-25 minutes, and it was a relatively quick trip to the airport and through security. So I was at the gate with plenty of time to spare before boarding started. We got on the plane, and it was maybe 5 minutes before the pilot came on and told us we needed to get off the plane so they could change a tire in the landing gear. Frustrating. It was slow getting everybody off, and we ended up waiting about 30 minutes by the gate before they boarded the plane again. Surprisingly, the re-boarding took less time than the first time. Once we got on the plane, they closed the door, taxied out to the runway, and took off, no need to wait in a long line of takeoffs. The flight was fairly smooth, only a little turbulence but nothing major. I ended up being about an hour late from the originally scheduled arrival time. Waited until it was my turn to get off the plane, then I walked through the terminal and over to near the cell phone parking lot, where Ann was waiting. They don't make it easy to walk this way, perhaps because there is still some construction around one of the sidewalks. But I got there. We drove over to Convoy St and had dinner at Tofu House. I wasn't really hungry but ended up eating all of the dish I got. Then it was home, and not too long after I laid down I was nodding off to sleep after another long day.

08-19-2026 Walk

Slept through the night but didn't get a lot of sleep, since I. Went to bed late and got up early for a walk through the neighborhoods by the lake house. Walked mostly around Lake Shadows but did walk around Mety Cove Dr as well before heading back. When I got back, Ross had unboxed his new HP laptop and was starting to set it up. I ate some cereal and and later helped him get going there. He found out that his phone's WiFi hotspot wasn't working, so we used my phone to get him connected to the web. It took a while to load the software updated, and we weren't fully successful in installing them, but we were able to get to the Windows home screen. Ben arrived around 10:15, and we sat down to have a depressing discussion with Mom about her future wishes. She reiterated her desire to die soon, and I got her to admit that was a prime reason for her wanting to moved into assisted living, where she feels she could do this more easily without upsetting Ross in particular. Key points:

• She feels she is holding Ross back from what he wants to do (e.g. camping)
• She was a quick and painless death
• She wasn't really hearing me when I talked about the suffering she will likely feel when she is actually dying
• I told her about the impact of her not being around on the brothers as well as our families (she feels like she has done her part as the Grandma when the grandkids were younger)
• Told a story about Dad talking to her about killing him and then herself.
• I shared the important support role she plays in Ross's life, again I don't think she heard me
• Ben was regularly strident and ornery, in my opinion, although he did pick up on Mom's feeling bad about Ross having to adjust his life to taking care of her
• I tried to emphasize the expectations from her son's and their families of her being around for important family celebrations and gatherings 
• If she wants to shorten her life, we should explore options that might assist there

I had some cheese and leftover garlic bread for lunch, talked with Mom and Ross for a while. Then Mom went back to lay down, so Ross and I drove into Crosby to run errands. We stopped at the Boost Mobile store and found out why his WiFi hotspot wasn't worki9, then we drove to the library to use their public WiFi to download Microsoft Office, which I bought for him off of Stack Social. That took a while but was successful. He also installed DuckDuckGo as his default browser, I may want to give it a try as well. Then we drove to Aldi to get some things to make dinner, and it was back to the house after that. I had a little downtime then, talked to Mom and Ross for a bit. While I made dinner (baked chicken drumsticks and potatoes au gratin) I talked mostly to Ross. Finished dinner prep, Mom woke up from snoozing on the couch, and we ate dinner and talked for quite a while, with Ross popping in occasionally and joining in. I cleaned the dinner dishes while talking with Mom and was able to go lie down around 9:00, it had been a fairly long day.

08-18-2026 Run

Woke up about 6:30 and got ready for what I thought would be an early-morning run. Sun rises later here, so it was technically early in the morning. It was also about 80 deg and very humid. I ran a little bit through the Lake Shadows neighborhood before using Foley Rd to get to the next neighborhood to the east. Then I took Indian Mound Tr to get to the next neighborhood further and ran to its end before starting to head back on different roads. It was heating up, and I was really sweating without cooling down. Got back to the house, really drenched.

Avg pace = 8:01 min/mi

Total distance = 4.18 mi

Elapsed moving time = 33:32

Avg heartrate = 157 bpm (Amazfit, too high)

Relative Effort = 64 (unrealistic)

https://www.strava.com/activities/19793336525

Had some cereal and tried to cool down, a shower later helped. Sarah, the hospice nurse, came at around 10:00 and examined Mom. She stayed for a bit after the exam and chatted with us, she is very nice. Then Mom and I drove over to Spring and met Ben, Adri, Susanne, and Abigail for lunch at Gringo's. Food was decent, place seems like it can work as the gathering spot for the Laura and Joe celebration in November. Not too many vegetarian options, though. Then we drove back to the house, Mom had a rest after that, and I relaxed as well. Later, I planned to go into Crosby to get some items for dinner, but I was able to find enough vegetables and supplies to be able to make stir-fry for dinner. Talked with Ross an fair amount while I was preparing dinner, he was in good form. Mom ended up sleeping through dinner (she did wake up later and eat some ice cream), so I had some of the stir-fry, and Ross had some later. Later in the evening he and I had a fairly productive conversation about his plans for taking time off and then going back to work. Plans seem solid, I'm still concerned about the execution part. Time will tell, and I will try to hold him to his pledges. Went to bed after that, it didn't take long to get to sleep. 

08-17-2026 Walk

Travel day. I woke up in the night and read for a while before getting back to sleep. Got up a little after 5:00 and had some toast for breakfast. Emptied the dishwasher and dish rack, then checked my travel list to make sure I had everything packed. We left the house a little before 6:00, and Ann dropped me off at the airport right at 6:30. Through security and to the gate with no issues, the flight left a little early. I had a middle seat near the back of the airplane, wasn't terrible. Watched Crime 101, which was a decent airplane movie that occupied much of the flight time. I ate a sandwich I'd brought with me. We landed right around 1:00 Houston time. It took me about 40 minutes to get off the plane and over to the spot where I was to catch the shuttle to the rental car location. Only then did I realize I needed to request the shuttle by answering questions via WhatsApp. Successfully navigated, and then the shuttle thankfully arrived much earlier than expected. I got in, it was a short ride to the rental car office, and that's where the fun began. There was no live human interaction, I communicated with a remote agent by video over a terrible connection that kept dropping out. Very frustrating. They wantedots of insurance information that I didn't have, luckily an was able to send it to me over the phone. Eventually I don't think it mattered because I had to pay extra for a waiver associated with an "unsupported" auto insurance company. The entire process took over 30 minutes, way too long, then I had to take pics of the car to document any damage before driving it. Finally I was on the road and did t run into any heavy traffic, just normal stuff. I stopped at HEB on the way to pick up supplies for dinner and then got stuck behind a school bus on Foley Rd. So I didn't make it to the house until about 4:30. Ross pulled up at the same time, and he was in a manic mood, tough to negotiate without setting him off. Mom saw this, I guess, and she was pretty quiet when I made dinner. She ended up napping on the living room couch and then going back to her room without eating any dinner, which was mildly frustrating. Ross went out later, so after I ate dinner and cleaned the kitchen I went for a walk through the neighborhood. I went to unpack and get ready for sleep after that.

08-16-2026 Swim

Slept pretty well after going to bed early (<>). After I got up, I got ready for a swim at the WWC, headed over there and was ready at the gate when it opened. I put a buoy by lane 3 and then checked in for my flight to Houston. Warmed up with a 250 and then did some speed drills before finishing up with a 500 followed by a cool-down 250 with the pull buoy. My stroke was quite shortened after the speed work, thus the inclusion of the last 250 to try and lengthen it again.

Warmup 250

    4:42

5 100s at 2:00 intervals

    1:37

    1:40

    1:40

    1:41

    1:40

5 50s at 1:00 intervals

    0:47

    0:46

    0:48

    0:48

    0:48

500

    9:29

Cool-down 250 (with pull buoy)

    4:39

Somehow I didn't start my watch for the last 250, so Zepp only recorded the 1500 yd workout.

Avg pace = 1:47/100 yds (Video)

Total distance = 1750 yds (Video)

Elapsed moving time = 31:05 (Video)

Avg heartrate = 163 bpm (first 1500 yds, too high)

Relative Effort = 78 (first 1500 yds, nope)

SWOLF = 38 (first 1500 yds)

Avg stroke rate = 22 bpm (first 1500 yds)

Avg pull distance = 2.24 yds (first 1500 yds)

https://www.strava.com/activities/19770218316

Got home, Ann was there, she didn't go to church. She'd made coffee cake, which was delicious. I had thought about going for a bike ride after the swim but decided not to. Updated my 2026 event log, this is a really tedious (but ultimately useful) process. Had some lunch and a little nap afterwards. Afternoon and evening were quiet. I packed for the trip and, after dinner, Ann and I watched some TV. 

08-15-2026 Ride

Special Bisikleta ride celebrating six years as a group. I planned the route, taking the inaugural route, reversing it, and adding in some miles. I rode over the normal way to the parking lot by Marco's Pizza, day was overcast but more humid than usual. On this day there were the following riders: Perse, Jed, Andy (all three of them OGs), Arnold, Fritz, Nel, and Ray. We rode down by the park and over the pedestrian bridge, I was leading the others for the most part on this ride, up to a point. Took Sunset Dr to Via Rancho Pkwy and turned left, riding up the climb and then down to Del Dios Hwy. When I started out on the day, my right knee had some minor twinges from when I felt down running on Friday. I thought it might slow me down, but I nearly ended up with a PR on the climb past Felicita Rd up to the top of VRP, off my PR by one second and second fastest posted time ever for my age group. So, I pushed pretty hard there and gapped the others, particularly Andy. I waited at the top for him to show up, then he and I rode to where the other riders were, most of them waiting for us on Del Dios Hwy. We turned left and started down. On the initial little climb several others were out in front, and I paced with them until passing them and again pushing pretty hard all the way to the top before the descent. Eventually several of the riders caught and passed me before the descent started in earnest. I had a number of PRs on this stretch, including the fastest overall descent segment from the turn onto the highway until the turn onto the reverse Stud Loop. Arnold hung with me throughout this stretch, was riding strong early on. We waited at the turn until everybody showed up, then we took the reverse Stud Loop over to VdlV. I thought that the others would attack on this segment, so I pushed out ahead, ready to respond to them. But they never materialized, nobody was feeling particularly strong, I guess. We gathered again at the turn and then took VdlV down to Via de Santa Fe, turning on El Apajo and stopping for our break at the deli and bakery by San Dieguito Rd (SDR). It was still overcast, had a funny break before continuing. We got on SDR and rode the flats in a pace line that didn't seem particularly fast to me but ended up wearing Andy out. Over to ECR, using it to get back to VdlV and then heading to Calzada del Bosque. On this stretch, Fritz and I traded leads for the entire way, then we turned and got back to Via de Santa Fe. Rode these roads again to SDR, turning left this time. I was out front, again waiting for others to kick into a higher gear and power up Three Witches. It didn't happen. I put in a moderate effort, got to the turn onto CdS and waited for the others to show up. Andy was really slow on this climb, so we all waited for him to show up. On the way back to the starting point from here, I rode at Andy's pace while the others rode ahead. That lowered my overall average speed, but he needed the company. Back to RB Rd, turning there and taking it through 4S Ranch and over to Matinal Rd, where we turned left. A right turn on Capilla Rd took us by Gideon's house (where the inaugural ride started and ended) and down the hill. The route had us turning on  Oculto Rd, but Andy missed that turn. I ended up getting ahead of him, as he was waiting for me before turning around and starting to ride back up to Gideon's. I called him and got him back on track, and we rode together back to the starting point. Especially in the first 3/4 of this ride, I put in a consistently high effort before slowing down to ride with Andy. Legs felt good, my right knee didn't end up causing any issues.

Avg speed = 17.0 mph (17.1 mph). Total mileage = 37.9 mi

Avg power = 146 W. Weighted avg power = 179 W

Total elevation gain = 2120' (2180')

Avg heartrate = 125 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 64 (75)

Training Load = 178 (164)

Intensity = 81% (81%)

https://www.strava.com/activities/19757639963

After the ride, we waited until Marco's Pizza opened at 11:00 and ordered pizza and beer (soda for me). Beer from the tap was off, so the others got free bottles of beer. Jhonar and Eric both showed up, as did Aaron (he didn't stay). We a good time reminiscing about the early days of the group, including how everybody connected into the group. I left before the party wrapped up. Got home, Ann was at a bell  workshop the entire day, so I had a small nap, watched some TV, and read. Went to the store in the afternoon to pick up some supplies for dinner. Then I finished up (finally) the 2023 event log, I don't think I'll try to recreate a similar list for earlier years, it's just too much work. I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, the recipe was from Mattie's Kitchen and was more involved than I expected. But it turned out well. I also roasted some broccolini, but it was a little overdone. But dinner was a success. Had a quiet evening, finishing The Photonic Effect and starting Gaudy Night, a Lord Peter Wimsey novel by Dorothy L. Sayers.

08-14-2026 Ocean Swim

Slept well and had an easy early morning for a change. I got up, had some cereal and a banana for breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher and put some dirty dishes in. Read and relaxed for a while, then I got ready for a swim down at Ventura Cove in Mission Bay. I put air in the bike tires and packed them into the car. Ann and I left around 9:30, no traffic to speak of on the way down there. When I unloaded the bikes, I noticed that the rear tire on my beach cruiser was flat. Dang it! It had seemed fine when I pumped it up earlier. So, no riding for me. Ann rode around Mission Bay while I went for a swim around the buoys in the cove. I ended up doing four laps and a little bit. Tried varying my breathing, but it seemed more natural for me to breathe every two strokes. Judging by my time, I was working harder than usual, so that may be why. Here are approximate splits for the four laps:

    Lap 1    0.19 mi    5:41

    Lap 2    0.19 mi    5:46

    Lap 3    0.20 mi    5:51

    Lap 4    0.20 mi    5:47

So, my speed was pretty consistent.

Avg pace = 1:42/100 yds (Zepp)

Total distance = 1434 yds

Elapsed moving time = 24:34 (Zepp)

Avg heartrate = 150 bpm (Zepp, possibly)

Relative Effort =  37 (possibly)

SWOLF = 85

Avg stroke rate = 31 bpm

Avg pull distance = 1.87 yds

https://www.strava.com/activities/19742205492

Got out of the water, a little wobbly as usual, and then walked back to the car to get my clothes out. I walked to the shower station and rinsed off, then changed in the men's room nearby. Back to the car, packing the bikes in, then driving home, a little sad that we weren't able to ride around the bay together. The afternoon was quiet. I had a little nap, made an attempt to patch the inner tube on my beach cruiser, and worked some more on the 2023 event log. Ann and Emily went to a show at the Rady Shell in the evening, so I made some dinner and had a quiet evening watching TV and reading.