Endorphin Rush Sunday

Well I got my dose of endorphins Sunday so it was a great day. In case you didn't know the definition, here is part of it that I copied: The term endorphin rush has been adopted in popular speech to refer to feelings of exhilaration brought on by pain, danger, or other forms of stress, supposedly due to the influence of endorphins. When a nerve impulse reaches the spinal cord, endorphins are released which prevent nerve cells from releasing more pain signals. Endorphins allow someone to immediately after injury feel a sense of power and control over themselves which allows them to persist with activity for an extended time.

Sunday morning I ran with Annette on the second half of her run here in the neighborhood. Bailey had come earlier and ran the first 5.5 miles so it gave me a little extra time to get awake and drink coffee. Only did 2.75 miles and then added about another 1/2 mile walking in but it was a good run even though it was 30 degrees. It was sunny so that helped. Held a 10:26 pace, not too hard and not too easy. I told Annette that I couldn't believe how my legs and foot felt. They felt like I had done nothing.

Sunday afternoon we met the Cruisers for Litter Pick Up. The club has a one mile section of road that we clean up every quarter. Had a record number of people show up, 25, which was awesome.

Afterwards 6 of us headed off for a group bike ride. James, Russ, Rob, David S., Rob, Scott and myself. The first couple miles we just eased around as we were waiting on James to meet us. Ended up we stopped at his house then we took off. I really liked the easy pace but as always, that wouldn't last.

The route that was picked was Campground Rd to 321 spur. 321 spur to Mt Carmel. Mt Carmel to 31, 31 to Mt Tabor, Mt Tabor to 89 and back. Anytime you have a road with the words "Mt" in it you know it will be hilly. Campground has a couple small climbs and some great downhills. Wasn't long and James and Russ were leading the group with me holding on to third. I let them go on at times as I didn't really want to work that hard. We stopped at 321 to wait on the others and then took off again. It was pretty breezy and I think we had just a little bit of a tail wind at times. Pace seemed to be 20-23 then slow on the hills. By the time we hit 31, Rob was the only one in sight so we stopped and waited. Then decided we didn't want to let our heart rates drop too much and headed on out. 31 seemed to be the flattest of the roads and I was glad. I can feel my lack of conditioning most on the hills that I was speeding up back in the summer. When we turned on Mt Tabor we had a head wind. Still, I looked down and I was maintaining 18mph but working hard for it. I should have been down in the drops or aerobars more but some of these roads have no shoulder so I tend to watch for traffic and holes more. Had a good pace line going here a few times and that really helped cut through the wind. It was still pretty chilly, around 48 degrees. I was so glad to have gotten my gortex shoe covers in last week. My feet were toasty!!

I said goodbye to James and Russ at 89 and Mt Carmel as I was parked at the school. It was a good ride with lots of hills thrown in. I waited around for the other three guys to get back in as I loaded up my bike and gear. I was about to leave when I saw them coming so I waited to chat for a bit.

Ended up with 21.4 miles and a 16.5mph bike average. I didn't think it was too bad considering all the big hills on this route and the fact we piddle around for 2-3 miles at the beginning. I'll have to say it took me a little while to thaw out afterwards but I felt good for doing it.

Later Sunday evening I had an officers meeting at the fire department. During the meeting we got called out for a vehicle accident. I manned engine 65 along with Bobby, Daryl, and Marcus. So we took off with sirens and air horns blazing. It's pretty rare to have three Captains and a Lieutenant on one engine. Two of the guys work for Little Rock Fire also, Bobby and Daryl both work for MEMs so we had probably 50 years plus of experience riding on the rig. I made the comment that we had the dream team on the engine tonight. Ended up getting canceled en-route. Finished our meeting, was heading home then we got called out again saying that the car that was in the accident had caught on fire. I was almost home so I turned around and headed straight for the scene. Ended up just being some leaves got stuck on the exhaust when the wrecker driver was loading it and they put it out with an extinguisher. Still added some extra excitement for the day.

All in all I got plenty of endorphins for the day and some good workouts, especially the bike.