Believe It

"Theres gonna be times in life when people tell

you that you can't, that's when you just gotta

turn around and say 'watch me'.”

A couple of things today. Today the wind is supposed to gust up to 40mph. Can you say dangerous??? So out of fear I'm going to have to elliptical. When I think of ellipticaling I think of old men in short grey shorts with sweatbands and high socks. Or I think of women who pretend to exercise by parking themselves on an elliptical for half an hour and reading People magazine. I hate the elliptical....just wanted to rant on that for a second. Although, at the fitness club I belong to the machines all have TV's on them so I usually get to watch an episode of criminal minds. I'm sure they all have me pegged as a future serial killer or something by now. 

BUT here's the start of the exciting stuff. For the first time of this blog's history I get to write about doing something exciting without having to write about a following injury. So as you may remember, for this month's goals I may or may not have included "ride 70 miles first warm day". Yesterday, well it wasn't that nice, but it was warm. I figured that it was now or never and set out with two water bottles and a hammergel. I'm not sure  why I got the number 70 in my head yesterday. It wasn't really that nice out and there was actually a stiff wind. There was also a 50% chance of a pop up thunderstorm all day yesterday. It thunder-stormed about 10 minutes after I got back and didn't rain at all while I was on my ride...yeah. I'm the luckiest person alive.

Here's roughly how it went. I started off biking to a town called Pewaukee, which is about 15 miles from my apartment. Now, Peawukee is gorgeous and has this scenic lake. I figured that since I had some miles to kill, I'd make my way around this lake. How far could it be anyways? After a few wrong turns and a lot of excellent scenery I found out that it was about 20 miles around the whole thing. There was only one point, around mile 27 that I stopped a lady who was on a walk and asked her, as though it was a normal  question, "what city am I in?". She said it happens frequently with cyclists trying to figure out how to get around the lake and pointed me in the correct direction back to Pewaukee. It was soothing to spend my day finding my own way around the lake. There's something about not knowing where you're going and having to figure it out all by yourself. It's kind of a metaphor for life for me. If there's things that are bothering me, or that I'm trying to figure out, well then maybe if I can figure out my way around a lake I can figure out  life. Does that make sense?

After I made it around the lake I biked the 15 miles back, putting me at about 45. I toured the city of Brookfield and Elm Grove and then took some bike trails here and there. I also did my best to avoid all hill after the "walking my bike up a hill incident". Back by the lake I turned a corner and saw the steepest hill I've ever witnessed. I figured I could make it up but forgot to shift into an easier gear. Halfway up my pedals stopped moving. I got off and hiked my stupid little biking butt up the rest of it feeling humiliated every step of the way. And hoping that if there is any justice in this world that no one was watching me out of their windows.

 By the time I got back to my apartment I was at 70.3 miles. 

Ride totals: 

Bathroom stops: 1

Lakes conquered: 1

Cities ridden in: 6

Hours: 4.5

Miles: 70.3

Max Speed: 34.7mph

Times over 30mph: 5

Times asking for directions: 1

Hammer gels eaten: 1

Times I couldn't make it up a hill because I forgot to shift and had to walk my bike up: 1

Surprisingly I wasn't as dead as I thought I would be after this. I thought that after I was done I'd be banished to the couch with muscle cramps and an intense salt craving. Surprisingly though, I just went about the rest of my day as I normally would have, and this morning I wasn't stiff or sore in any way. I'm not celebrating yet, but I'm just saying this is a good sign. 

And speaking of good signs, tomorrow, I might get to run. I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to jinx it. But tomorrow I might get to RUN. 

One more day. Believe it.