Know yourself and plan accordingly

My knees are so sore today, could my saddle height have changed without me knowing? Going to check on that. My throat hurts and my whole body aches. Poor Jack was up a lot in the night, but we slept good between 5am and 7:30am, so maybe we have a small ride in us, but 13 miles? Hmm. 13 miles is what it would take for me to reach my goal of 100 miles this month, a measly goal, which too many days off from riding might now stop me from achieving- lesson learned? Oh my YES!

Honestly I've gotten past the point of beating myself up about messing up on this month, and proceeded to the "shaking my head" in a "what the hell was I thinking" fashion. Note to self and anyone else considering a huge lifestyle change: Know yourself and plan accordingly. All the record keeping, calorie counting and mileage tracking goals actually made me feel like I had failed early in the month because I got sidetracked when Mum had surgery. If I'd have kept it simple and challenged myself to "ride everyday" I would certainly have had more miles, and felt accomplished and re-energized daily. I would no doubt be ending this month with a feeling of accomplishment like I did the one prior.

I would feel slightly depressed about all of this if it wasn't for the fact that I made some major growth this month- I cycled all the way to Walla Walla numerous times and I did so on my own, with no Kyle there to hide my social insecurities behind. I know I haven't touched on those issues much, and honestly it's because I find it such a deep subject that I'm not sure it can be spoken of here, but suffice it to say, I'm prouder of the fact that I rode that far solo, than I would be if I had ridden twice that distance with company. Just yesterday I was riding beside a very professional looking bicyclist and I wandered how we looked in comparison as we crossed the street. Then I realized I shouldn't care what people think; Jack couldn't care less if his Mum doesn't look fit, he still just rode 10 miles on the back of a Yuba Mundo, singing the alphabet song and pointing out "floweries" and that's pretty awesome.

I'm going to take a ride today, it won't be 13 miles, but I will still be proud of myself- I suggest you do the same. Next months goal- cycle every single day!