It’s Good to Know Your Limits, So You Can Exceed Them

It’s late on a Sunday night, cool and windy outside.  You’re tired after a long week.  But you haven’t met your bicycling (or running, blogging, yoga, walking,  crotcheting, or whatever) goal.  What do you do?

Well, you could stay in and rest, get ready for the week, and try again next week.  Or you could drag yourself out the door and go for it.  Only you know what’s best for you, but I can tell you what I did:  I went for it.  Why?  Because I like to push myself to see what I can do.  And I wanted to start the first week of the year meeting as many goals as possible.  Looking deeper, I can see that my motivation came from a desire for consistency in my bicycling practice, especially since I have cut my goal in half from two years ago to 50/week (although I may raise it again).

There’s also a sense of accountability to the larger community, like friends, fellow riders using the GPS application Strava, and even perhaps readers of this blog, which is getting alot more views this week (thank you very much everyone!).  That’s useful if ego is not overly involved.  Community is much appreciated and a great guide.  But when accountability changes to expectation or peer pressure, that is for each person to decide to say yes or no to.  If ego is telling you yes, but your inner voice says no, then that’s a clue you may be overdoing it and listening to others more than yourself.  Or it could be a test for you to ignore.  Only you know when you still have gas in the tank and will need to siphon it out and get a refill ASAP after you meet your goal.  It’s a fine line; tread softly.

Why So Serious?  Don’t Worry, Be Happy.  It’s a Bike.

Take for example the guy I met today outside Wheatsville Coop.  He does an insane amount of miles, usually over 200 per week.  Does he enjoy his life?  Have time for things other than working and cycling?  Well, he had recently broken his wrist by falling in the rain.  So he had missed weeks of biking because of what happened on one ride.  Maybe it was just bad luck, but it seems a bit unhealthy to me.  On the other hand, he was very thin and strong; he rode a single-speed fixie.  It was his first ride back, but he did not look happy.  A Dude often doesn’t look happy either when he’s out there busting his tuchus, but at least he’s smiling on the inside.  My point is, stay within your limits and enjoy life a little.

The latter is exactly what I intend to do Monday.  I ate vegan for the seventh day:  fruit salad with hemp protein and walnuts; crudité, sauerkraut and guacamole; fruit and almonds; and water with lemon and apple cider vinegar plus some psyllium fiber.  It sufficed, and this may work for some people indefinitely, but it’s not working for me because my energy is quite low, even though that’s partly due to sleep deficit.  Also, I’m not eating a balanced diet.  So tomorrow I’ll add in oats, legumes, quinoa and chia seeds.  I may find myself eating meat, dairy, poultry and fish to sustain my activities.  But the goal is to eat more veggies, which I am.

Big News Happening SOON!

Today’s follow-up to that interesting meeting Thursday was pretty cool.  Stay tuned.

___________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2015-18 A Dude Abikes