It is getting easier, even though sometimes it's hard to see it in perspective. I just got back from a 25 mile ride, with hills that still kill me, but it didn't feel nearly as draining as it did in the beginning. Progress! As you might imagine I've got a lot of time to think while on these rides. I sometimes listen to This American Life
podcasts while I ride, but on the actual trip we aren't allowed to listen to anything. I've been trading off rides with my
ipod and rides with just my mind to entertain me. The super dork in me falls into repetitive sequences like counting the same numbers over and over when I'm going up a hill, or (and yes I am admitting this) I get stuck on Dori's chant in Finding
Nemo "just keep swimming, just keep swimming". It's surprising how much it helps to have
repetitious loops in my head. Or maybe this whole training thing is slowly making me crazy....either way you do what you have to do to push forward!
Aside from crazy mindless voices in my head I've got a few that can be distinctly identified. My dad reminds me at least four times a ride (in my head) that each successive ride will be easier and that every time I get out I am getting stronger. My sister reminds me to breathe, especially when I am stressed out, and that rest rides and food consumption are important too. I think of my mom pedaling away in the basement on an
exercise bike so that she can join me for a day on the road. I think of all the families who will be helped from all of the generous donations, and I think of crossing the San
Francisco bridge and how amazing that will feel. Sometimes, a lot of times, I don't know how I will make it but I suppose I will just do it by doing it which is true for a lot of things in life.
2 comments:
i think you're right about just doing it and then that's how you will have done it and how that is really just like life in all things. so- keep going? i like the "just keep swimming" line. ellen degeneres' voice (as a fish) in your head, encouraging you to go on is pretty awesome. i will use it! :)
Spring came early to Duluth. I'm officially off the basement exercise bike and on to the road: a brief stint yesterday on the Munger Trail, listening to the singing ("chuckling" in the guide book)of the wood frogs. Today along the North Shore, starting at Brighton Beach. Your mountains are OK, I suppose, but it's hard to top Lake Superior!
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