Today’s ride couldn’t have been more different from Tuesday’s; a very “intimate” group (just myself, my son Kevin and Zack) and while it reached 86 degrees on Tuesday, we saw temps as low as 50 today! That’s quite a swing.

I decided to skip the inhaler this morning, wanting to see how much difference it would really make, and looking forward to not having such a dry mouth during the ride. Didn’t notice a lot of difference, although there was a bit more audible wheezing. Might have been worse if we were pushing it today, which we weren’t.

It was also an interesting ride for Kevin, since this was his first ride since having his Vagal Nerve Stimulator activated. It had been implanted a month ago, but was turn on yesterday, and every 5 minutes it produces a 30-second zap to the Vagal nerve, which hopefully will keep his epilepsy seizures at bay. Don’t know about that yet, but it does have the effect of tightening up his throat a bit, interfering slightly with breathing… which doesn’t put him on equal footing with me, but does slow him down a bit.

One thing I really miss about a warm day is feeling better on the descents. Your body is looser, and you’re less tense because you’re not worried about hitting a slick spot in the road. Today, I took it easy. Darn, heading downhill fast on Tuesday was fun!