No, My Bike Isn’t Broken

I don’t know what I was thinking when I resolved to cycle 500 miles this biking season. Even after starting in February with plans to bike into November, I may not come close to the 500 mile mark. By the end of May, I had totaled all of 50 miles. 50. Five oh. Ugh. Let’s see where that put me geographically.

After passing through Chicago, one of the great cities in the world (unless you listen to Fox News), I found myself at the border of … Indiana. Ugh, again. I’m not going to disparage Indiana. However, my plan was to cycle more in June to get out of Indiana as fast as I could. But here I am with one week left in the month, and I am still not pedaling enough.

In years past, knowing that I was going to miss a goal would either make me crazy or work harder to meet that goal. Now, I just want to see where I can get to before cold weather makes me hang the bike up for the season. I’m just going to enjoy the ride. My youngest daughter and I may be taking a driving trip along a similar route, so maybe I can point out some places to you that we see along the way while driving/imaginary biking.

Now as for swimming, even though we have no pool this year, I’ve been swimming frequently. I was feeling all puffy-chested as I headed out for a longish (for me) open water swim this morning at this gorgeous body of water.

The water is clear, clean, and cool. I strode out from the locker room in just swim trunks, surrounded by other swimmers with full wetsuits on, swim caps with Ironman logos, goggles (despite no chlorine in the lake), and inflatables they tow behind them in case they forget how to swim/float halfway through. Yep, I was feeling pretty tough compared to the lot of them until I reached the water. There, at the water’s edge, was a walker and an empty pair of shoes. Someone used a walker to get through the sand to reach the water and go swimming. Most likely, they probably swam faster than me, too. Props to them.

But I swam, and it felt great. I did about 3/4 of a mile at my usual snail’s pace, and I felt pretty good when I realized that I may swim as much this year as I have in year’s past when we had a pool … until I read this among a list of Great Lakes facts.

Show-off. That’s fine. I could never come close to that, so I’m just going to enjoy the times I get in the water and see how much I swim this year. Life doesn’t always have to be about ticking off arbitrary goals set for oneself. Life is sometimes best enjoyed when it’s just about the journey with no caveats regarding time or distance.