Quick Bike Ride

At Least I Exercised

Well, it just goes to show you sometimes you think one thing is going to happen and then you get something entirely different!

Went for a short bike ride this afternoon. Before I left the house I was feeling energetic and looked forward to getting out and hammering on the pedals. I rode my bike out into the street and took off.

I needed a quick workout so I went over to a neighborhood adjacent to ours that actually has a bike route and an amazing view of Puget Sound. A little six-mile loop with some not-too-serious hills. Perfect for a quickie.

Light Workout?

Because I wasn’t trying to do the death-by-exercise workout I went in the direction where you get more down hill grade than up. I turned a corner onto the road that was part of the loop and was immediately hit by a headwind. My legs started really pumping and I could feel my heart rate pounding against my temples. How much of it was the headwind and how much was the fact that my body wasn’t ready to work that hard yet was hard to tell.

I glanced up at the trees. They barely swayed, yet I felt like an invisible hand gently pushed against me. What is up with that? So not only are you working hard on a road that you normally shouldn’t be working that hard on, but when cars go by they probably are wondering what your problem is, struggling up that little grade of a hill. (Okay, enough whining!)

I’ve done this ride enough to know that by the time I get to a certain point I should be warmed up and feeling pretty good. Well, today, that didn’t happen. I just felt tired. Going in the direction I was going in I was on the down hill part of the ride by the time I got to the views of Puget Sound. I gamely geared up the bike and put the pedal to the metal to gain some speed, even though I seriously considered stopping at the viewpoint to chill and take in the view instead.

No matter how tired I felt I could never take that view for granted. I feel fortunate to live in a city where there are breath-taking views from so many places. The water, the sky, and the speed of the bike revived me a little and I considered doing the loop one more time until I came around a bend that led to the completion of the loop…and the headwind hit me again. Decided a short but relatively taxing ride would have to do and headed for home.

I came home humbled and not at all feeling like the jock I thought I was when I left the house. Today was the “at least I exercised, doesn’t that count?” day and we all have them, hopefully not too many, but they do happen. Oh well, the jock in me will hopefully come out to play another day.