There was a group ride this morning in Glen Echo Park (not far north of Virginia) in Maryland. I found plenty of reasons not to go - here are the top ten:
10. This is all happening too fast.
9. I need to pre-organize for the training (read all the pertinent materials, sort papers, etc.).
8. If I get my Christmas shopping done today, I have time to train the other weekends.
7. I need to start my Christmas shopping.
6. I wanted to go see a movie with Eric and have the nachos with cheese dip for breakfast, as a last ditch artery blocker before beginning training in earnest.
5. I need to once again start my neck exercises so I can be one step ahead of the pending pain.
4. I should start slowly, since my buttocks need to acclimate to the bike seat.
3. My tires are flat (no, really, which shows how long it has been since my last ride.....).
2. The Marine Corps Marathon was today, and anyone would be crazy to navigate their way through the myriad of closed streets in the morning.
....and the number one reason I shouldn't join the group ride this morning......(drumroll, please)...
1. I promised myself I would start on November 1st, so I have three more days to procrastinate!!!
All of these seemed pretty legitimate to me. Well, most. Well, ok, enough not to go. We went shopping in Bowie (skipped the movie, since we couldn't get to the theatres anyway due to the Marathon). I got the stuff I wanted and organized myself to start the training. (No Christmas shopping, though.)
Then, after doing chores, and giving the bike a couple of hours to be certain the tires didn't have a leak (I did pump them up the night before), and, once the Redskins game had started, (there would be less traffic on the streets), I went out.
Today was supposed to be a 15-mile ride. I was hoping to get around 20 minutes in as a beginner ride, not shooting for the 15-miles at all. I'm trying to start out slowly, as appropriate for the couch potato I have become.
On the way back from Bowie, I saw the new bike/running trail they had been creating around the old RFK parking lot, and figured I'd go in that direction and see where the trail led. Ended up along the Anacostia, a really nice ride.
I did really well, too. Only two people passed me on the trail (ok, only two other people were on the trail - one of them walking.....). I ended up doing 10 miles out there, and turned back, about 4-miles away, which was a bit too much, I should have stopped at 10 (but, of course, I would have been stuck in Anacostia if I had chosen to do that.....)
Got home, had a hard time getting upstairs - definitely leaden legs!
Let's rate this ride:
Miles: 14.6
Time: 1hr 13min
Avg Speed: 11.9
Sore patootie: Check
Sore neck: Check
Sore wrist: Check
Feeling of Accomplishment: Priceless.
Now to celebrate with wine and tacos!
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