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August 19, 2004
2000 miles and counting...
Tomorrow I am having a Celebration in honor of my reaching an important
milestone in my life. Tonight I have surpassed 2000 miles on my
bicycle!!! That is double my original goal for this whole year!!! To
celebrate I will be bringing bagels and toppings in the morning to share
with the people in my department and a few cyclists I know at work.
To give you some idea of how monumental this is for me, I'll share a
few highlights with you:
1. Setting goals and sticking with it: I started bicycle riding on
March 16th this year. Before that I was doing nothing. Last year I
rode my bike for about 13 weeks off and on, but only very short
distances. But that motivated me to set my goals higher this year. I
told myself that I would ride every day, weather permitting. I started
riding this year on March 16th and the next day it snowed. Being all
pumped to exercise, I decided to run the 2.7 miles into work. That was
a mistake, haha. I wasn't in shape yet. But I have only missed a few
days of riding since I began. Many times, especially at the beginning,
I would ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” I felt like quitting
many times.
2. Going beyond my previously known limits: It's been about 5 months
of riding bike for me now. After one month of riding 5.4 miles each day
round-trip, my friend Dan subtly convinced me I should extend my miles.
Dan has a way of making it sound like fun! haha. So I found a beautiful
detour of 7 miles along the West bank of the river, through Lillydale
and back to downtown. Then my next increase in miles came a few weeks
later when I realized that since I could handle 7 miles one way, I could
ride 10 miles one way. I started riding 10 miles two days per week from
my class at the University back to my house in St. Paul. Then on May
14th, almost 2 months later Dan took me on a ride along Shepard Road to
the Mendota bridge after work. This became my new 13 mile route which I
still ride quite frequently, but now with added variations, like through
Crosby and Hidden Falls parks! From that point on, I realized that I
would not die from extending my miles. Two weeks later I began riding
to Burnsville and back at least once per week for my part-time work
there. That's 20 miles each way!
On June 27th I went with Carol and her boyfriend Jeff to the Tour of
Saints bike tour by Saint Cloud. It was a 50 mile ride and it rained
almost the whole time! But it was a great experience with a lot of
participants, and it encouraged me to keep biking (it did not kill me).
By the beginning of August I was riding about 100 miles per week.
During the first month of cycling, I calculated that I would ride about
1000 miles for the whole year! As I increased my miles I had to keep
changing the projected date when I would reach 1000 miles. Finally on
July 2nd I reached my goal. Then I had to set a new goal. At that time
I thought I would be able to reach 2000 miles by the end of the season.
Now I'm there and still have a lot of bike riding left to do this year!
I am riding about 200 miles per week now, so weather permitting, I could
reach 4000 miles this season!!! At the beginning I never would have
dreamed I could do that!
3. Attitude: Riding my bike has changed my attitude in several ways.
The first is a certain liberation that came from being able to get to
and from different places on my own power. It freed me from the
limitations of my car and parking downtown or other places. I found
that I no longer needed my car to get around, especially since I combine
bike riding with the bus and light-rail. The second attitude adjustment
was in what I considered acceptable or not. I discovered I can ride in
the cold (March), I can ride in the rain (Commuting every day in
Minnesota weather and the Tour of Saints), I can ride in the heat (July)
and I can ride in the cold (this
morning). It's all good bike riding
now. I don't melt. The third attitude adjustment came when I started
to explore beyond my initial route (Thanks Dan). I learned the fun of
cycling and that I loved to discover new trails, parks and parts of the
city I had never seen. This adventure is an element I had not foreseen
in my original goals.
4. Fitness: We all have to start somewhere. My attitude coming into
this was, "whatever we do above and beyond nothing is better than
nothing." And I still hold that as true. But I've found that with the
better shape I'm getting into, it makes it more fun, and makes me able
to take on more. I started slowly this year, but now feel more like an
athlete training every day. That's a huge fitness improvement for
someone who sat at a computer screen all day and all evening. I still
can't believe how far I've come in such a short time. I feel much
better and stronger and more alive by integrating fitness into my life.
If I did nothing else but this, I'd be happy, because I've already far
surpassed my health expectations with this exercise.
5. Competition: This really has to do with attitude, but originally
my goals did not include competition. The only competition I saw was
with myself to keep doing it every day even if I felt like quitting,
which I did many times. But Carol said a few insightful words about
this. Competition helps us push ourselves beyond our limits. It
involves an attitude of not letting something like age or even ability
to be a limit in that process. It's really a 'CAN DO!' attitude. Over
the past few weeks I've made up my mind that I will compete next Spring.
I will attempt as many bike races as I have time to do. If I train
hard enough, maybe we'll be celebrating a race victory in the future.
In any case, the competition will drive me to go beyond my known limits.
I'm starting to train now, by riding at least 200 miles per week and
I'm joining the St. Paul Bike Racing club for training and assistance
and group rides.
Fitness is a great thing. Exercise goes a long way to helping us have a balanced life.
Posted by carl1236 at August 19, 2004 10:03 PM | Attitude