Week 9: Day 5 - March 03, 2017

• commute to work/home (by bike) = 39:52 miles total; time = 3:12:35; average pace @ 12.3 mph
• easy walk with dogs = 2.6 miles

I didn't used to bring any food/snack for the ride home when I commute to work/home. I did just fine all of last year and the few times this year. Usually whatever I eat during break at work was enough to get me home, and I've been eating the same stuff. At the halfway point on the way home, I was starting to feel weak with my sugar level crashing. I had donuts, candy and other sugary foods on the brain. At some point, I was at this long stretch (five miles) where there weren't any businesses (in buildings) to just randomly in. I was really thinking about stopping by a donut shop or gas station (for candy) at the next chance that I got...until I saw a fruit stand. Buying a cup (one quart) of mango from the fruit stand was the best decision I made. Not only was it super healthy, it helped my appetite (it filled me up) and balanced out my sugar level. I got a better deal for my money on a quart of mango. One donut or a box of candy (I wanted twizzlers) wouldn't have helped my appetite and MAYBE it would fix my sugar level. On top of that, I "helped" out an immigrant (hopefully in the U.S. legally) who was trying to make a living. His fruit stand was pretty isolated...and by "isolated", I mean he wasn't near other businesses competing for money. His fruit stand was, however, on a busy road with lots of cars. I imagined that he made good money because he didn't have any competition. Whoever his boss was..was smart enough to have fruit stands on a busy street with no competition. Oh yeah, there was another fruit stand across the street, a few hundred yards away, but he was for the traffic going the other direction. The road had only two lanes (one for each directions). There were no signs that says "No U-turn", but it is just common sense to know that it is unsafe and dangerous to make a u-turn on a narrow two laned road. Anyway, I ate half of the fruit at the fruit stand before getting back on my bike to go home....that was how desperately I really needed to eat. I was only able to eat half for some reason. Then I finished the remainder of the fruits a few miles later, but not exactly close enough to home. I also took a detour and stopped by a bank on the way home. (I had enough energy to go home...then my acid reflux started to act up.)