Day 126: Bike Rides

A couple of years ago a friend and I decided to sign up for a Sprint Triathlon. It was mostly on the whim of, "I've always thought that would be cool," paired with the nudge from another friend who'd signed up saying, "You should do it too!" We signed up and trained for the 2 months we had... and in that time, I found that I love cycling.

I went for rides with a cycling friend and learned the basic rules of cycling and when the triathlon came, it was the one portion of the three events that I dominated. Even after the slowest swim ever I was able to pass a large number of other contestants while riding my bike. Through all of this my love of cycling grew and became a passion.

I would cycle to work when I could, and then when winter hit I stopped cycling as much... and then as time went on I needed a tune-up and so many other little excuses that could be made, that I didn't cycle for quite some time.

When I left on my road trip this past September I loaded up my bike and planned to ride it everywhere I went. Unfortunately some of the stops were not bike friendly enough, and a week after a fantastic day of riding in Washington, DC, I severely sprained my ankle (read: tore a ligament) and did not ride for the rest of my travels.

I was excited in my physical therapy sessions when they would throw me on a bike - it wasn't at all like cycling, but it was moving in that direction.  After arriving back in CO, my spirit that wants to hike and run and cycle was feeling a little crushed.  Beyond that, my friend that did the triathlon with me before also became injured in February and was feeling similarly. I started allowing myself to go on "easy hikes" - and an agreement with friends to aim for 100 mile bike ride near the end of May led us to take a long bike ride yesterday.

We rode about 8 miles when the hills were too much for our untrained bodies. We turned back and packed up, but upon arriving home we decided to continue our ride. Coming out with a total of about 28 miles for our first ride of the year, I was/am pretty proud.

We're working towards something - goals... and while both of us may have had injuries in the past year to hold us down, instead of wallowing in the sorrows, we are aiming for the future.  Not only that, but we are aiming with something I absolutely adore: cycling.

It's an odd sense of bliss, but I will never turn bliss away.