Monday, January 14, 2008

Is this thing broken or am I just a wimp?

Ok...so last Wednesday I decide its time to get back to cycling. I hadn't been on a bike since the day before Thanksgiving so I drag Laura along for moral support....and by moral support I really mean shared suffering.

I get on the bike and I'm feeling a little rusty. Things don't seem quite as smooth as they used to but I figure that's to be expected. I've been a slacker so I know I'm about to suffer a little.

But about 8 minutes into our 10-minute warm up I'm beat red and starting to seriously sweat. This was probably the turning point for my mental stamina. It was all downhill from there. As we headed into the actual workout part and I'm starting feel like I'm going to die there were a lot of things that crossed my mind -- none of them positive.

Finally 30-minutes in and I'm thinking I really can't finish the class. I'm dying. I've had every negative thought possible about my chances for this race season and I finally start to think...this bike has got to be broken. I've never suffered this much in a class. But then, of course, I second guess....no, you're just a wimp.....you've been nothing but lazy and gluttonous for the past six weeks....the bike's not broken.

At about 32 minutes I break out of my downward spiral of negativity and ask Laura if her bike seems hard to spin on the easiest resistance. She's like "uh, no". So finally I just can't deal anymore. I get up and move to another bike and its like I suddenly discovered steroids or something. Whole new ball game. Turns out I'm not a complete wimp.

And I think I further proved that point at my cycling class tonight when I logged over 24 miles in an hour....way above my average on the road, even during peak season....and burned well over 400 calories. Nice. I so needed that little boost. And not that I'm competitive....'cuz I'm really not....but I was glancing at my neighbors computers and noticed I was ahead of both of them! HA! Err...I mean...this was not a competition and we all get gold stars for just getting ourselves to the class in the frigid temps. :)

So anyway...I feel a little relieved. Maybe I haven't completely lost all fitness. Then again, maybe that bike was broken too?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Glad you got a boost tonight and you KNOW I try to peek at other people's computers... it's hard to see though.. they must do that on purpose. I think they should project everyone's computer screens on the front wall. ha ha Of course it's all different for everyone! ha ha

I win every day in the spinning room. ha ha :) It's all mental.