In Which I Skip The Gym...

...in favor of sunshine and fresh air!!

(Bet you thought I was going to be all slackass, huh?)

It's a bit after 7PM here in Toledo, and the sun is only just now beginning to wander down to the horizon.  It's still 70 degrees, a GORGEOUS day - I want to call it Spring, but officially, it's still Late Winter.  For another couple days, anyway.  I'll incline my head to the calendar and the axial tilt and call it Late Winter...but it surely feels like Spring to me!

The air smelled so fresh and clean when I started gathering up my stuff for the gym...a change of clothes, the toiletry box, the pink hip scarf with silver coins and iridescent pink butterflies, the black spandex tights, the purple Camelback that The Vita Guru had considerately filled with AminoVital and who knows what else, the shaker cup with the post workout supplements he thought I should take...

I looked at my bag.  I looked outside.  I watched the dogs romping about.

Hey, Bubbazander?  (That's my Elder Monster, 20 years old, handsome, mouthy, and an avid cyclist.)

"Yeah Moo?"

Would you please get my bike down for me?

"Riding to the gym?"

It's a little late to go to the gym --

...and Younger Monster yells "MOTHER!" (Younger Monster is 16, an aspiring engineer, pendantic as hell, and a rules lawyer.  He knows what the training plan is, and will have a cow if I deviate.)

WHAT?!  I'M GONNA GO RIDE MY REAL BIKE!!

That was acceptable to Younger Monster.  When I had my playlist set and ready, I emerged from the house to find that Bubbazander had checked my tire pressure and brakes, and had adjusted both.

My bike is old, old, old.  It's an ancient Arrow, weighs about a ton, and is still in pretty great shape.  See?  (Jack likes to investigate bikes.  I think he thinks he can catch those better than cars.)  I like the red well enough, but I think I'm going to paint it sometime before June, a shiny bright purple, as is right and proper!

I even have safety equipment!  Dr. Warder thinks it's important to keep my brains all in one spot, so he got me the pretty Arella helmet that's been on my Wish List for a while.  It's shiny and pretty comfy, even if I do look like I have half an Easter Egg on my head!

I rode around the neighborhood, and I learned something - our neighborhood streets SUCK!  It's not so much that we have streets as we have long chains of potholes, broken up by the occasional patch of pavement.  YIPES!  I need to get used to it, though, because The Ride will be over lots of roads, and I'm sure most of them suck just as much.  This is Northwestern Ohio, after all.  The freeze and thaw cycle is hell on pavement!

Anyway, I rode a wibbly-wobbly path, making sure to go down every street, up around the school, and back through the route again.  The Vita Guru and I have done this route, and it's about 6 miles.  I did it at a pretty good clip, too, no pauses and no coasting.  I really, really wanted to coast after hauling ass up that incline on Celesta, though.  Yeesh. 

I suppose that on the days I ride outside, I should start using the tracker that The Vita Guru uses, to help me stay on top of where I go, where I should go, and how far I've gone.  Next time!

I also learned that I need to get a bottle clip for the bike.  I didn't have my Camelback with me - nowhere to put it! - and wow, was I a bit of a mess when I rolled up the driveway.  I belted back that quart of AminoVital like I hadn't had anything to drink in ever!  (On the upside, sucking it down so fast meant I couldn't taste it.  The stuff is great, but I don't care for the taste.)

So, the upshot of all this blithering is that I GOT TO GO OUTSIDE TODAY!  And it was sunny and breezy and beautiful and even though my ass is still mighty uncomfortable, I feel exhilarated and cheerful and really, really good!

Of course, skipping the gym meant no lifting.  Do you think I can count pedaling my tank of a bike, with my fluffy self atop it, as leg presses?


--Missy, the Fat Bottomed Girl