Here it is Sunday night. I just finished four hours of my American Greetings card work and am feeding my kids supper at 8 pm. It seems that my Sundays never go quite as I hope. But I am not going to let it get to me today. Because tomorrow is MY DAY! Tomorrow I hope to finish my Tour de France challenge.
Back in June I committed myself to a challenge through Map My Ride.com. You could choose a distance that correlated to a percentage of the Tour de France. You would have 23 days to complete the challenge. So based on the distances I have ridden and what I had on my calendar for the next three weeks, I signed up for 544 miles in 23 days. Totally doable in my mind. 24 miles a day. June 30th is Go Day!
I started my challenge off strong. 50 miles on Day 1. That is the way to start a challenge. Day 2 - 33 miles. Day 3 - 27 miles. I needed to bank some miles knowing I would miss one day of riding for sure. I also committed to a family ride on July 4th and knew that would be a shorter ride. But I also wanted to push myself each time. No more short 16 mile rides. I need to push for those extra miles each time.
The biggest part of the challenge would not be physical. For me, this challenge would be more of a mental challenge. How would I be able to get up each day for three weeks and bike 24 miles?? What challenges would present themselves? How would my body hold up with the repetition? Would I find this challenge boring? Would my daily life/family life get in the way? So many things to think about. But I finally got to the point where I asked God to deal with the What - if and give me the mental and physical strength to tackle the challenge.
The challenges have been there. The last two weeks in Minnesota have been hot and humid. The first week, each morning when I left at 6am, the temp was already 80 and the dew points were in the upper 60's. Makes for very hot soupy air. Not fun to breathe when you are pounding out 50 miles at a good pace, or trying to race up some hills for some quad work. But I did it. Each morning I got up and headed out. I came home each day soaking wet and smelly (as my daughter has been so kind to point out). I even set an extra challenge within the challenge - in honor of Harrison Ford's 70th birthday - I biked 70 miles. It turned out to be a bigger struggle as the weather drove me inside to bike at the health club and I spent 4 1/2 hours on a putzy stationary bike that did not fit me well. But I did it.
So here I am on Sunday night. Day 15. I have managed 15 rides and knocked out 482 miles of my challenge. I am so close and I still have 7 days to finish. But I am not going to drag this out for 7 days. I have given myself 2 days to finish. And honestly I hope to ride my last 62 miles tomorrow. I know that physically I can do it. The forecast says hot and humid again - 80 to start. Been there, done that.
Before I realized I was this close to finishing I had set another challenge within a challenge. On Tuesday I will turn 40. So I had planned to bike 40 miles for my 40th. My dilemma right now is how far do I bike on Monday? Do I finish my challenge and then keep going? Do I drag out my challenge through the week? Can I do this??? I would love to be able to say that I finished my challenge - finished it early and finished it before I turned 40.
I think most of you who know me personally realize that I will probably head out Monday and bike the 62 miles and just finish my challenge. And then I will continue biking the rest of the week because I can and want to see how far I can go. But I am being honest with myself that there is the possibility that I won't finish tomorrow. I need to be able to accept that fact and continue on with my challenge.
I am so proud of myself for setting challenges for myself during this NEW journey. I have finished most of the challenges I have set. Maybe not always exactly as I had hoped - - but honestly most of them better than I expected. God has worked wonders in me. I am so much stronger physically, mentally and spiritually. I will use that strength to finish this challenge and turn around and set a new one.
Make sure you are listening for that big Woohoo on Monday morning as I finish my Tour de France challenge and put another notch in my NEW journey belt.
Shari, I thank you for this. Your willingness to go through something. As me lately, I have to push through my stuff in the mentality. I pray that each time you go out and ride that God gives you more clarity and patience. As for me I am starting to pick more things up that will be a challenging for me. And others that I thought were good fit to drop it. Thank you for setting the example.
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