Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Super Star Super Cyclist!


Starting weight: 151.8
Freakout weight: 145
Today's weight: 148.5
Freakout factor: Oh, who gives a crap anymore? :) Maybe this is what I weigh now.

Well, I am very happy to say that today I successfully loaded my bike onto the bus with very little drama. It was a bit short-sighted, in that I had to walk it the long block to my son's school and then across campus to the bus stop. Hrm. I was wearing high heel boots and probably could have pedaled it anyway, except for the big-ass bag of bike gear I was carrying. And my tea cup. :) Maybe I need a backpack. I had bought one but  one of my children absconded* with it shortly after I brought it home.

*This is not proper use of the word "abscond," but I don't care, I'm sticking with it. Me likey.

Later, MTB and I rode from work to the I-90 bridge so he could show me the way. I have been so nervous to ride into work because of this piece of the ride! So much traffic. Trucks. Buses. Another cyclist in my office told me laughingly that I was overthinking this portion of the ride and I would see how easy it was. It was easy. :) Ha! Really easy. Um, I'm glad I didn't hold off commuting in for years over this, just months. :)

Because you can never have too many pictures of me standing at the same spot overlooking the Lake Washington I-90 bridge, here I am feeling triumphant! And a little silly. It wasn't hard to get here from there.

Future bike commuter.
I am lucky because they have really awesome bike parking in City Hall and they set up my access in a blink of an eye. There's showers and locker rooms, too. I think I'll just start by bringing the bike in on the bus in the mornings some days and riding home. We'll see. It is really, really fun and not a hard commute. I think it's about 12 miles, we'll see what my bike computer and Strava says today.

Strava is this very silly app that I love with my whole heart. :) It tracks your rides and runs with GPS and you get your speed and such. There's leader boards that compare your time to others that have ridden certain road segments. For a gold-star person like me, this is pure heaven, even though I assure you I am always at the bottom of the charts. I don't care!

So two funny things with Strava...one, I told MTB (who hates Strava) that I *thought* I had SUCH a fun ride with him this afternoon...until I saw the Strava leader boards for our ride and that I am at the bottom on all the segments. That made me realize that, in fact, I did not have fun at all. What would I do without Strava to tell me how good I am? (Or not, haha)

The other thing is this little image I found online...


Hahaha, I love it. :) I'm a goofball.

Let's see, Greg is out of town the rest of this week with his daughter but he did tell me he told her we're seeing each other again and she was fine with it. It's different this time around because she did move back to her mom's shortly after we broke up and is not moving back. That was a lot of turmoil for both of them at the time.

Mr. W hasn't texted me today for the first time since we broke up. It's been awful. I hate hurting him, and boy, did I ever break his heart. And he has soooooooooo much stuff at my house! Oh my, it's like he was moving in piece by piece every time he visited. I have to say: I did not have one single thing at his house. Not a toothbrush or article of clothing, nothing. I think the contrast shows that we were in very different places in our relationship. Maybe this weekend I'll get his stuff back to him, but wow, I am dreading it. He was so blindsided, and he shouldn't have been, because I have been telling him for months to SLOW DOWN and stop reading step-parenting books and stop telling me he'll never leave my side again (after his week in Cali on vacation) and stop, stop, stop. :(

Well, today is a giant workout day if all goes as planned. The short ride at lunch (six miles of urban riding was giving me absolute terrors, haha, I still feel a little silly). Doing the stairs again later and riding my bike home. Promised to take my daughter to the Y when I get home, even if "taking her to the Y" means sitting on my butt reading while she works out. :) I am very, very excited at the prospect of riding my bike to/from work now that the weather is improving. Besides being FUN, it will also take a lot of pressure off me to fit in workouts, because that's a good length ride with some hills. Plus, my Wednesday night ride series starts up again next Wednesday night and I believe it's scheduled through the end of May. The starting point is halfway on my commute home, so riding in those days will be perfect.

4 comments:

  1. YOU. DID. IT.

    Freaking fantastic!!! Great solution to the bike to work issue, glad you didn't wait years... :)

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  2. So, SO impressed!!!! I'm so proud you conquered your fear and did it, and it sounds like it worked out really well! I totally get you on the "gold star" thing. I worked out at this Y once that had a "Fitlinxx" program that tracked EVERYTHING you did, like every rep on every weight machine, etc and I was never so toned in my life. :-D

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  3. Nice job! What kind(s) of bike(s) do you have?

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  4. Love Strava! Love!

    Sarah
    www.thinfluenced.com

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