Look At Your Legs

"It is in all of us to defy expectations, to go into the world and be brave, and to want, to need, to hunger for an adventure, to embrace, chance, and change and risk so that we may be breathe and know what it is like to be free."

A 100 Mile Journey
and some serious love to my quads. 


It was always my intention this summer to do a century ride. I had picked out one or two charity events that I thought would be fun, by the time I thought I would be ready. What I never thought I'd be doing is doing spur of the moment century rides.

And then I got this job with all of these people that bike. I was shocked when I told them of my plans and the conversation went something like this:
Me: "I was planning on doing a century ride this summer"
Crazy Biking People: "Oh....haven't you ever done one before?"
Me: "Well no....I was looking for a good ride to do but I couldn't decide."
CBP: "No...I mean haven't you ever just gone out on a free Saturday and done 100 by yourself?"
Me: ".........no?"

They couldn't believe that for my first century I was going to pay. So...on Thursday I set out at 8 in the morning with one of my crazy biking co-workers and we biked for about 7 hours (including food and bathroom stops).
Now I know what you're thinking. And yes. It is crazy to decide on a Thursday morning that because you have nothing better to do that you should go biking all day.

We rode right through the half-century mark right around 3 hours. I was a little nervous at the prospect of only being halfway done after a length that is what most of my rides are. I had previously considered anything over 50 an accomplishment. Now we were doubling it.

After 52 we climbed one of the only true mountains we have in Wisconsin known as Lapham's Peak. As the story goes Mr. Lapham used to climb to the top of this crazy hill in order to get the most up-to-date weather forecast because you can see so far. Unfortunately we were not climbing for the weather, but just for the workout. Halfway through, as I was struggling I was ahem complaining a tiny, tiny bit and being just a tiny tiny bit angry that he made this part of our loop after 50 miles. (people get a little cranky after beinng stuck on a bike for 3.5 hours.) He turns to me and says "You're small. You should be a better climber than me. You should be pulling me up this hill. Whenever you get scared of a climb, just look down at those legs. They're going to get you up there" And with that, I looked down at my quads (which are...giant by the way) and I climbed my little self the rest of the way up the mountain. Oh...and going down said mountain at almost 40 miles/hour. So worth the climb.

Luckily, after that hard climb it was decided that we needed a break. We took the next 10 miles to ride to a grocery store and pick up some ice cream and yogurt ( Hammer Gels and bananas can only get you so far people.) I was introduced by my vegan co-worker to coconut milk ice cream. Which is...really good by the way.

By this point we're almost to 70 and I'm really excited that out of 100 miles I only have 30 to go..which should be nothing. We took the last 30 and wandered around the cities surrounding Milwaukee discovering new bike trails and seeing if we could get lost within the last 20. We separated at 98 to go back to our respective apartments and I finished the last 2 miles on my own until my speedometer read 100.14 miles.

I went back to my apartment and ate for 10 minutes or so and then laid on the floor for pretty much the remainder of the night.  My apartment has a pool so I sat in there for awhile to try and get my body temperature down and get things under control.

My legs weren't actually that sore the next day for some reason, which leads me to the actual point of this post....more body-loving  I sometimes hate that my legs are so big and that biking has made my quads manly-sized. However they really got me through some long and tough miles and for that I love them and can't hold against them how giant they are. I realized that every time I get upset about my body not working/looking the way I want it to, all I really need to do is look at my legs. And to look at them is the answer. I am strong,and they are beautiful, and they will carry me over hills and through life. So here's to you muscular legs, thanks for 100 wonderful miles. Let's do it again sometime.