Scenery Matters

It's winter here in Missouri, and although we have been experiencing unusually warm temps for January - intermittent forties and fifties - and getting rain instead of snow, it's still a bit too brisk for me to be out riding my road bike. Yup. I'm a fair-weather rider now. Rain and cold didn't use to bother me. But with age, apparently, comes a desire to stay in, read (or write) a book, and drink herbal tea.

These nice temperatures are, however, giving me new aches. The biggest one is I am aching to break my bike out of shed jail, hook up the little trailer, and load up some camping gear. While most people are planning their spring gardens, I'm lining out camping trips, near and far.

Bike in Michalowice Poland
Photo by Jacek Dylag @dylu
on Unsplash.com

For the next few weeks, while I'm stuck inside, the Exerpeutic recumbent bike is filling the exercise gap and helping me set some new goals . . . and achieve them.

I have been stuck at the ten-mile barrier for a over a month, although that is better than the zero limit I was at when the medical issues began. So, I thank God for giving me those ten miles and I can't wait to see how much further He will help be go. It takes me a little more than an hour to ride those miles, but high speed wasn't one of the goals. It's the daily distance. I try to keep the speed consistent throughout, but ten miles is still a far cry from the eighteen or twenty I could do on a lazy afternoon a few years ago, one way. The new minimum daily goal is forty-five. I'm a third of the way there.

Today, with the help of a cycling video here, the journey through the Dolores River Canyon (southbound) by Jerry Nolan, I was able to change my focus from the digital readout for the bike and just focus on scenery, something other than the brown curtains covering the windows in the room. Scenery matters.

If you're working out indoors, waiting for the spring thaw, check out Mr. Nolan's videos. He has included music on some of them. However, if you have your cycling music all rounded out, you can mute the video and listen to your own. Both methods work equally well.

I am glad to finally put that ten-mile barrier behind me. The scenery is better the further you pedal.

Update: When I returned home from a group dinner at our local El Nopal, I added an extra 8.5 miles to today's ride, for a total of 22.5 miles. Halfway to minimum!