It was on a stationary bike at the gym. The course I chose was of "medium" difficulty- not long or steep- only about 6 miles, but I pushed hard the whole time. Sweat was dripping off my forehead, creating a visible puddle beneath me. I'm sure that people passing by could hear me gasping for breath. They probably looked at me with wonder. They probably thought to themselves "who does this guy think he is?" I didn't care. I had my earphones on and the music was blasting, pushing me forward. I was going to rock this.
When I finished the ride, I made a mistake. I stood up. And then, like a palace of snow on a warm day, I felt the foundation give way and started going down. My legs were simply gone, having somehow been replaced with noodles of spaghetti. It was pathetic, and the only thing that stopped me from creating a scene was my floundering for the handle bars of the bike to help me up again.
Now, not to brag or anything (hint- I'm about to brag), but I'm no wimp. I realize that I'm no professional athlete, but for a 36 year old dentist with a family I like to think I keep myself in decent shape. I can run a 19 minute 5k, onsite 5.12 rock climbs, and bench press close to twice my body weight. And yet, I cannot remember the last time I felt so...wasted. Because of this, I reasoned with myself that I must have accomplished something amazing that day. In fact, I had probably set some sort of record with my herculean effort. I took a picture of the screen summarizing my ride so that I could share it with all who wished to bask in my greatness. The first person on my list?...Rachel.
Later that morning, sitting across from her at a restaurant I told her of my amazing ride. She looked impressed. She then asked the question I knew she would..."So, what were the stats?" I was ready for this, and with a flourish I whipped out my phone and showed her the picture I had taken. She looked at it for a couple of seconds, and then raised her eyebrows and said "cool," and handed the phone back to me.
"Cool? That's all you've got? I mean, those are pretty good stats, right?"
"Yeah, I guess." She was being gracious, but everything about her body language said something to the effect of "That's cute. You are able to ride a big boy bike now!"
"Ok," I asked her. "I know you've done this course before. How did you do?"
She considered for a moment. "I can't remember."
"Look it up," I demanded. Oh, the double edged sword of technology- a perfect record of all of our successes and failures at our fingertips. It keeps us honest, I guess. Mostly.
She appeared reluctant, but then pressed a few buttons on her phone and handed the screen across the table for me to see. At first, I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing, but then it set in.
She had averaged more than 3 miles-per-hour faster than me, and on a day that was simply routine training for her real races that she would be doing later on. I was dumbfounded.
Correction- I AM dumbfounded.
I mean, I knew that Rach took this biking thing seriously, but here she was making me look like a child on a tricycle after giving something my very best effort. I have to say, my respect for her grew that day.
Rach- you are amazing. That is all I can say. And now, I challenge you to a race- on foot! I need to regain some of my dignity :).
*****
As far as our week, there were two major events. First of all, we went skiing for the last time of the year. Conditions were horrible, but the kids wanted to say goodbye to the small resort where they learned to ski since we probably won't be going back there much anymore (we already got passes for next year at a larger resort). Also, did I mention that conditions were horrible? We couldn't have gotten any more wet if we had jumped into a lake with our snow clothes on.
Here is an actual selfie that I took on my way home:
On a happier note, we finally made good on our promise to the kids to celebrate the workbooks they completed over their summer vacation. We were just a little late, I know, but it was the school fund-raiser night at triple play which is what the reward was supposed to be in the first place. It was a fun time.
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| Evelyn with her best friend, Sonja |
Have a good week!
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