Monday, July 16, 2012

Riding in the rain

Wow, I did not want to ride my bike today. I know I've said that before but I think this morning was the worst. Most days I love it, but some days I really have to force myself and today was one of those days.

The high point of my ride was seeing a friend and neighbor out there riding her bike too. She's kind of new to daily bike rides too so seeing her out there working hard helped motivate me to keep going when I really wanted to give it up and go back to bed.

The other high point of the ride is that it started raining, which seems like it wouldn't be a high point, but I love rain. Being outside in the rain makes me happy.

So I had two things that made the ride bearable this morning, but mostly I just wanted to crawl back into my bed and eat chocolate.

The great thing about distance based exercises though, like walking, running or biking, is that it's sort of hard to just give up and go back to bed when you're a mile or more from home. You still have to finish your workout whether you want to or not because you still have to get home. Had I been riding the exercise bike in my basement I would have totally given up this morning. But once I'm at the park I realize I can't just give up. I'm there, I may as well keep going and I still have the ride home anyway.

So I did my five miles. Somewhat reluctantly, but I did it. I wear a heart monitor when I ride that syncs with the Cyclemeter app on my iPhone and updates me every few minutes on what my heart is doing (it's a Polar H7 if you're interested) and even my heart was working harder today than it normally does for the same speed and effort. My body just didn't want to ride today. But I did it anyway, and I'm always extra proud of myself on days like this because in the past I would have given up and this time I'm pushing through it no matter what. It's been really good for me to prove to myself that I can do hard things. This time I'm bound and determined to let my struggles make me stronger.

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