"A Glimmer"

I love my bike!  Have I ever told you that?

I love looking at it.  I love tinkering with it.  And of course I love riding it.  Hell, I even love cleaning it!

And yes I know I've told you this about a million times but it bears repeating just because of  how important it is to me.  When I get on my bike I feel free.  Even with my real or imaginary health problems, it seems I'm never too tired to ride.  And although I am certainly slower than in days gone past, not by a huge margin.  And no matter if I'm riding hell bent for leather with the sweat pouring off me, or just riding gently while checking out the scenery, the pleasure is there.

I didn't decide til I got up this morning what I would do for a workout, but the weather left me no option.  I can always run in the rain, but sunshine calls for a bike ride.  I decided to keep it relatively easy as well, since I wanted to make sure I was over any race trauma.  I didn't even know how far I was gonna go until I headed out.

In the end I rode a very nice 40 kms, at a very relaxed, but fairly strong pace.  I was actually a bit surprised at how good my legs felt.  I could have gone much harder but experience told me to be smart.  I felt well enough afterwards to try a little run as well, and when I say run, I mean run.  No walking!!

I left my options open however, and was determined that I wouldn't do anything stupid.  If it didn't feel good, I would walk.  I'm happy to report that while the second half was indeed a bit tougher, I never got the ugly feeling for the entire 5 kms.  I can't even remember the last time I ran 5K without a break.

So that's the glimmer that my title referred to.  I don't fool myself that it's anything more than a glimmer, but to feel this good just 3 days after a half feels pretty fine.  I do believe that the run/walk strategy I used is a major factor in my good recovery.

40 km ride, 30.5kms/hr--5km transition run, 5:32/km

And perhaps it would seem that my glimmer title implied a "glimmer of hope".  I want to qualify that a bit.  I believe there is great risk in "hoping" for anything, because it keeps us from living for today.  And despite the fact that I find myself failing that challenge many times, I know in my heart that I need to come to terms with the disappointments in my life, rather than hope they're gonna change.  I don't mean that in a fatalistic sense, but the reality is that even if today's problem gets resolved tomorrow, the following day will just bring a new one.  Knowing that, I need to work on not being afraid of the future. The time to live is now, and hope that things will get better, combined with fear that they won't, only leaves us miserable.  I've got work to do.  Thanks goodness for bike rides to puzzle this stuff out!

....and when I went to find hope quotes I discovered lots of fanciful ones about the joy and beauty it can bring into our lives.  I also found a few less hopeful, but more useful ones...

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."---Friedrich Nietzsche

"Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope."---Epictetus

"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds."---Aristotle Onassis

Love
Peter