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The Long Road Ahead

These past few weeks have been both empowering and humbling. I spent two Sundays away from Austin and missed out on two very important cycling practices. Though the running has become much more natural to me, and I can now run for 60 minutes without wanting to keel over at the end of it, but I still feel like I will drown at swimming practice, and that I just might die while coasting down a hill at 20 mph. This morning, I received my punishment for so many missed practices. There was a 30 mile route planned out with long rolling hills: just the training we all needed for endurance and strength. I played “caboose” with my coach by my side for the entire ride. I nearly fell over (Randy caught me twice) and was on the verge of tears for about 25 percent of the ride. I felt so pathetic. If it wasn’t that I was struggling up the hill at a snail’s pace, it was that I couldn’t properly lock my feet into my clip-on pedals. Or even that I had no idea how to put my water bottle back in its cage while trying to stay upright on my bike, and not fall over into traffic. Apparently the correct way to pedal includes flexing your feet during the entire rotation and pushing from your heel, which is neither natural nor comfortable for me and I find myself using muscles I just really don’t want to use for 2 and a half hours. So I had to admit defeat, my coach granted me undeserved mercy, and I only did about 20 miles instead of the full route. He could see I was struggling, and while I was assiduously trying not to complain every 3 minutes, the few verbal clues I did give were enough. I also learned how to guzzle powergels one-handed.

I nixed the 5K idea and am now focusing on a music trivia party and a Pup & Pub Crawl. I have to give Randy credit for coming up with the P&P theme and a bar in Paris for the music trivia one, but hopefully I'll be able to raise a little money without guilty people to just write a check.

Posted by ech227 on 2008-06-21 16:06:38 | Rating: