Bike Riding with an Attitude

Simply put, I am a rock star.

If you'll remember, I was planning to ride 12 miles today. Well, I overshot my mark and rode 13.2 miles!

My legs are a quivering mass of jelly right now, but I'm hoping that's a temporary thing.

I'm proud of this ride (as if you couldn't tell), because I was really lost in some negativity at around the 3-mile mark. I was on what has to be the bumpiest road in Memphis, it seemed as though I was having to tackle one hill after another, and my legs were just dead. My mind was cycling through (hee-hee!) one put down after another. I'm never going to get the hang of this. I ought to be able to go faster. My flabby legs look ridiculous. All sorts of useful stuff like that. Over and over and over.

Finally, after a mile or so of that, I got sick of my own self, and got back on track with more helpful internal stuff. I'm not going to get better by NOT doing it. I couldn't go even this far on my first few rides. My legs may be flabby, but they're strong. Ah, much better.

Only two significant events occurred on today's ride, both rather marginal. The first was when I approached an intersection and encountered one of the bike packs that regularly ride the area on Sunday mornings. These are Serious Bikers. They even have jerseys and wear bike shorts and keep pace with traffic.

And then there's me. Riding along at a whopping 10 miles per hour, with my too-big Fitness Together t-shirt and my flabby (but strong!) legs. They all looked at me and then at each other, as if to say, "Who the hell is this person, riding in our territory."

Then the light changed and they rode off, thus avoiding a potentially ugly Jets and Sharks moment.

Something about the way they looked at me (or the way I perceived it, to be more correct) sparked a little energy fuse in me, and I had a new mantra for the remainder of the ride to breakfast: I belong here, too.

The only other item of note was that I passed a dead possum on the side of the road. (If only I'd gotten there sooner!) I'm proud to report that I can now add 'Riding a bike with eyes closed and holding breath for 1/10 mile ' to my biking skills resume. Yuk!

Nothing else of note to report. Oh, wait! I almost forgot! JCPenney! No tip jars, but the cashier certainly deserved a big tip. They were having some sort of "early-bird" sale, and she got me an extra 10% off my purchase. It helped a LOT because I bought a pair of workout shorts, two workout tops (sleeveless!), two pair of every day shorts, a t-shirt, and a pair of pants. Pants and shorts were size 8's (!!!) and tops were all larges due to the flabby belly. (That's not a complaint: I started out in 2x and 3x. Large is a very good thing! *G*). I'm much more comfortable shopping in the "regular" section of the store now, feeling a lot less like an imposter than I did before. An NSV? I'll take it as one.

Is it lunchtime yet? That's the thing about a long ride. It takes a lot to fill up afterward. I'm off to do the countdown. I hope you all have a super Sunday!

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