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Today, I can’t figure myself out. And by today, I mean the entire summer.

I’m a pretty social guy. I wouldn’t go so far as to call me a social butterfly, but I’m far from a wallflower. I like to meet new people and see new places, and I’m totally a social drinker. But recently, I seem to be embracing my alone time.

And by embracing my alone time, I mean that’s just about all I do. I wake up in the morning, shower, and cook my usual three eggs on whole wheat bread. I watch an episode of something-or-other on Netflix. If it’s not an off day, I ready my exercise gear and head out the door for a few hours of roasting under the hot Texas sun. When I’m done, I watch some more something-or-other on Netflix. I’ll probably play a video game at some point, you know, if I’m in the mood to slay some newbs and whatnot. Come evening, I’ll fix myself some dinner, watch a movie, and pass out around midnight.

The only human contact I have throughout the day is with my roommate, who’s only here at night. Sure, I text and talk on the phone off and on, but that’s about it. If I’m invited to do something, I usually turn it down. If I don’t immediately say no, I think about it for a few hours and say no. Rarely, I’ll actually agree to some hang-out time. This is the exact opposite of how I was six months ago, and I can’t figure out why.

Normally, I wouldn’t give any numbers of shits. But my friends are starting to make me feel bad about it, and that’s starting to get me thinking. Is this just another phase, or what?

On my blogging of course, not my exercise. Never my exercise.

I’ve gotten a new bike since my last post:

I’m really liking it. I haven’t taken it out for any super long ride (34 miles is the most I’ve done), but it performs great on the trails. It’s amazing how different the riding experience is from my mom’s bike.

As far as my adventures go, it’s been dry lately. I haven’t done anything interesting since my ride to Bedias a month ago (I can’t believe it’s already been that long). That doesn’t mean I haven’t been riding and running though. I’ve been averaging between 10 and 20 miles running and 60 to 100 miles biking per week. I’ve started to use brick sessions on both the road and trail and I’m really focusing on speed over distance now.

Unfortunately, the heat is eating away at my soul, slowly but surely. I haven’t been able to run anything longer than 7 miles this summer. I don’t seem to have a problem biking in the heat, but running is another matter. I look forward to rainy days because those are the only days that I know I’ll get a decent run in.

With that negativity outta the way, I will say that I’m ridiculously excited to head up to White River Resort in north Arkansas in just over a week. I’m looking forward to some mountain biking, trail running, hiking, fishing and relaxing. I haven’t been up there in almost 5 years, but I doubt much has changed.

I biked 61 miles on Tuesday…yep.

I left at 9:20am and took 75N to 1696W until I hit Bedias some 28.5 miles later. I stopped at a church parking lot to eat lunch at 11:40am. I forgot one of my friends lived out there and she just happened to text me..so she picked me up and I hung out at her place for about an hour and a half. This probably saved me from passing out later on…

I started the return trip at 1:20pm riding south down 2620. I hit 30 and took it west until I made it back into Huntsville. The 20 miles I spent on 30 were hell..I was pretty hydrated but the heat was ripping me apart. With about 7 miles left I had to stop on the side of the road and lay down in the shade for a few minutes. I seriously considered hitching a ride back into town..but I already felt like shit and I knew I was going to feel like shit regardless so I just pushed through it.

I made it into town at 4pm and walked my bike about a half mile to the Sonic. I had a large apple juice slush and a large powerade slush…yummy. I had most of the symptoms of heat exhaustion and I was pretty confident I was going to black out. About 20 minutes later I managed to start on the 2 miles back to my apartment. It took me most of the next hour to make it there.

Lesson learned – don’t push yourself in this kind of heat. I’ve lived in Texas all my life so I’m no stranger to the heat, but biking 61 miles in it is something else. Regardless, good experience. I’ll start earlier next time!

Oh and as far as nutrition…I had a big breakfast in me before the ride. I took a GU after an hour of riding and ate lunch an hour and a half later. I had two snacks before I started the return ride. I downed another GU an hour and a half into the return ride. I had 20oz of electrolyte mix spread out over the entire ride and just under 4L of water. I’d say I did pretty good in this aspect.

The Sam Houston National Forest is all around the town that I live in. I’ve only seen little bits of it, mostly in Huntsville State Park and parts of the Lone Star Trail, so I want to get more familiar with it while I have a chance.

So I took the bike out there yesterday. I wasn’t planning to go more than 20-30 miles…but I got too into the exploring and ended up going way further west than I meant to. I ended up riding right at 40 miles. I rode on all sorts of surface…dirt, gravel, sand (unfortunately), pavement, a little bit of doubletrack..it was a nice variety.

I took FM1374 out of town and turned off on Ball Rd. Took Ball until it dead ended on some property..but there was a gated dirt road between the properties. I hopped the fence and rode it several miles into the middle of nothing and finally hit the bottom half of FM1374. I rode that west until Stubblefield Lake Rd and took that into the rec area. Ate lunch by the lake and rode southwest on FS216, then west on FS208. Took FS208 to FM1791 to TX30 and back into town. I made it just in time for Sonic happy hour!

I found all sorts of trails on the way down, but most branched off FS208. I found a couple atv trails, a bunch of multi-use non-atv trails, and 3 singletrack bike trails. I’m looking forward to checking them out.

It was freakin’ hot! I think it only hit 94 but the heat index was 100-101. I was out there for over 4 hours. The heat really started to get to me as I was riding TX30 back into town. Buuuut I made it.

Side note – so I still haven’t taken a bikepacking trip yet. I decided against going on Sunday mainly because it’s summer. I don’t mind going out for the day but I have no real desire to camp in this kind of weather. That being said, I will probably take mostly day trips until September/October.

With my bike in the shop and my foot still hurting, it’s been a pretty lame week. I’ve been able to run 3 times this week – 25 minutes, 35 minutes and 45 minutes – with only a little foot pain, so I’d say that’s pretty positive. Hopefully if I keep taking it easy I’ll be back to full speed in no time.

I should be getting my bike back on Saturday. That means I’ll be heading out Sunday (probably) for an overnighter somewhere in the Sam Houston National Forest. I will be taking the same route that I had planned in May, with a few minor adjustments here and there. I’ll get some gear pictures up before I head out.

I’m really excited to get my first bikepacking trip underway. Hell, my first solo trip too. It’s weird because I’ve never been a big fan of biking. The same thing happened with running, though. I hated it my entire life and then all of a sudden fell in love with it. I think the main draw of bikepacking for me is the amount of distance traveled for the amount of effort put forth. I’d bike over walk any day, especially with weight on my back.

When I first started this blog fastpacking seemed appealing. And then I realized I could do it on a bike.