I Can

That's a satellite photo of last Saturday's bike ride. It looks tiny from space. Close up, from the seat of my bike, after not riding for too long- it felt like a ride around the world.

Look very closely and you can see our starting point, in front of Starbucks at Newport Coast- where I had a couple of vente hot chocolates -one to get me going and one to revive me on safe return. What's difficult to see is the long climb up hill on each end of the ride. Newport's Back Bay is visible- it's a wonderful area to ride, I highly recommend it: flat as a pancake. Sweet as it was, the part of the ride that stands out most in reflection is the couple hundred yards I walked up hill on the way back in... ouch... what a wimp!

Riding Newport Coast is like cycling through a little slice of Heaven. The ocean on one end, bay on the other, coastal hills in between dotted- no jammed- with more high priced houses then most states hold. Again, from space, it’s just one more coastal shot, from my memory it’s a 200 yard walk when it felt like my legs didn’t have one more push left in them. A friend got off his bike to walk with me. A walker on the side of the road spoke words of encouragement. I felt like a failure.

Doesn’t make much sense- walking, just getting outdoors, enjoying the day, is a major success. I’m never going to ride the Tour De France, or any other major ride for that matter. If my legs hurt, if my psyche’s overwhelmed, if I’m nervous that I’ll slow too much and tip over on the uphill- cleats firmly locked into my pedals and skin my knee, why not walk? A great argument from the comfort of my living room: on the climb, watching my companions pull away, feeling my own lack of fitness drag me down, those 200 yards were longer then the over twenty miles we’d ridden.

I want to be better- to continue to improve- I want to complete every climb, in the saddle, at the head of the pack, feeling good about me, for me. That little satellite shot’s a reminder- I can – I didn’t last Saturday… but I can- and if that means I have to walk a few more hills, so be it. Every walk’s just a reminder that as long as I’m outside, taking a stride forward, that even if I didn’t today, that doesn’t mean that I can’t… I can. You can too.

Blessings,

Eric