We have completed two weeks of the school year already. It is hard to believe that it has already been that long. We are falling into a semi-routine. Alright, I confess, I am totally faking it. We will probably find our groove and routine this coming week. This next week is the a full week again. Last week was a partial week with the Labor Day holiday.
One of my goals this year is to keep track of the miles that I am really doing on the bike or on foot. I do a little bit of the trip on foot, so I will just do a total. I will round up. Our trip is “almost” two full miles, but is just shy of that. However, there are days that we go around heavy traffic and we take the longer side roads around so it all evens out in the end because these side roads could add another half mile to the trip. For mathematical ease, I am just going to call it two complete miles. Since I do other walking and stuff through out the day as well, I feel comfortable that the little shortage is completely made up and then some.
We made it to the first Friday of the school year and I was completely achy. I was hurting. You would think that someone of higher intelligence would “warm up” to getting on a bike for eight miles a day. I have to say that I “thought” about it, but my distaste for sweating won out. So I started my training for an eight miles a day bike experience the day I got on the bike to do the first eight miles. So by August 31, 2012, I was in a considerable amount of pain…
That week, I logged in roughly 36.5 miles.
That would be a full 40 miles but I had a little problem with a flat tire just over the half mile point on my trip back to get Lance from school the first day of school. I called my husband and had to drive over while my husband walked the bike back home (there was not enough time for me to walk the rest of the way). Fortunately, my husband was kind enough to rescue me in my time of need.
That flat tire was promptly fixed the night I got it – less than $15 and 15 minutes of my time at Bike Barn. Took me longer to load the bike and drive there and back. Granted I was dropping kids off various places and it was on the way to another errand I needed to run. I am just grateful for places that do these things at reasonable prices. Most people would hesitate at the price, but when you think about the price of the inner tube itself being about $7 it is not so bad. Also, keep in mind that I am riding my oldest son’s (Andrew) 28″ bike so finding inner tubes for it is a little harder than a quick trip to Walmart. I actually had a spare inner tube already. Two of them, in fact. It was the back tire that went flat. I did not have a lot of time to deal with it and it would have taken me more than 15 minutes. So that day, $15 was a steal of a deal to not have to mess with it.
The weather the first week, was hot and humid and it was not a lot of fun when your body ached terribly from getting back in the groove again. This was still better than the craziness of the car mess in the pick up and drop off line that has not found its sanity yet.
The best part is in spite of the pain, I was still doing it. I was still sucking down the asthma inhaler, but I knew that too would pass. I knew I just had to get past the first couple of weeks.
Of course, I was grateful for Labor Day and the fact the kids had the day off school. My body was still achy, but the intensity of the pain was easing up from the two days off the bike. I am sure that the muscle relaxers that I was on for the migraines were also helping, but just resting everything seemed to have the biggest impact.
Week two yielded roughly 32 miles. The total so far is roughly 68.5 miles in two weeks.
Week two (this past week), was a short week. It has been hot and miserable. Increasingly hot and miserable. As someone that does not like to sweat, the fact that I still went out in this without the comforts of my car’s air conditioning is actually a good thing. To step outside was to sweat. To go two miles in it was to be drenched in sweat by the time you reached your destination. You still had your return trip home.
Next week we are shooting for a full 40 miles. Since the cold front arrived today, next week should be a bit more enjoyable while we do it. I am actually looking forward to it. My body is not so achy anymore. I can do this…
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