bike a century

my earlier eantry about why I am giving up.

I quit. I give up on this goal. My form is all wrong, and, of course, I keep crashing.

I’ll be selling the bike, which is in good shape, and sticking to my first love for exercise – golf.

Yes, I said golf. It’s a zen game, a good walk spoiled, a showdown with Old Man Double Bogey. Cycling is a test of heart and lungs – golf is a test of wills. How does one execute EXACTLY the shot called for in the particular circumstance.

All the time on teh range, hitting off consistently perfect lies, can’t prepare you for a 160 yard bunker shot, or an open faced flop to a short sided green.

To hit the ball far, you must hit the ball hard; but if you’re only thought is to hit the ball hard, you will not hit the ball far.

So bye-bye bicycle. Or at least road bike. I may get something a little more comfy for running errands; but not for riding 100 miles. That’s crazy talk.

I should manage to ride for 2 miles with crashing.

Usually at less than 5 MPH.

My bruise is not as nasty.

First time in months. Of course, a lot has happened in the last several months. New home, self-realization, positive growth, and the occasional fits of terror. Since adopting this goal, perversely, I have gained 30 pounds.

Stress eating.

But I have been feeling so shitty lately. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually.

So I went for a short ride – not even two and a half miles. I had to walk the bike up a hill. I was wiped. In a very, very good way.

Another ride tomorrow.

I am learning metric assloads about bike mechanics and engineering. Always good…

The plan, in the abstract at least, is to ride about 30 minutes a day during the week, early before breakfast, and about 60-90 minutes on the weekend until my stamina gets up to speed.

Yesterday? No ride. Today? No ride. It was chilly, and I am seriously under-motivated to do anything in the morning.

Suggestions for staying focused?

I am giving myself until I am 40 to do this, which is a year and a half away. I’ll be starting more or less from scratch, having only recently taken up the sport for fitness, but getting bitten by the bug hard. I can barely make it 10 miles, I get passed like I’m standing still, and I walk the bike up most hills. That’s okay by me- a month I was basically sedentary.