On Becoming fit, confident and learning to live in the moment
How the simple choice to ride my bike to work changed my life.
It was August 22, 2013, my son had just gotten his driver’s license, and I no longer needed to make sure I had a car handy in order to pick him up and take him from one place to another. I seized this as the perfect opportunity to trade the car keys for the bike lock. Five miles from door to door seemed just right and because I work on a college campus, I have access to a gym at work, making it easy to change out of proper riding attire and into proper work attire. I always thought that riding my bike to work would be a great way to save money, save the environment and, of course, exercise. But what happened has continued to floor me.
The first few days of riding my bike to work were hard, especially the ride home, into head winds and slightly uphill, and I mean slightly, i think its 85 feet over the course of 5 miles. But a lot of that had to do with my clunky old cruiser that I purchased off of craigslist for $80. I quickly realized that what I needed to do was give up the neighborhood cruiser and get myself a commuter bike. A week later I had purchased a bike from La Dolce Velo, the locally owned shop that had always taken care of my daughter, the avid cyclist in the family. They were thrilled to finally get me some new wheels. And once on those wheels, I began to soar!
I started riding to work, and since I was stopping at the gym to shower, I might as well to do some weight training while I was there (also something I had never done before). I started to get into my new routine and as a result, started meeting new people and making friends. For a spell, I would see the student who was obviously a boxer, jumping rope, lifting weights and flashing his morning smile my direction. He helped me figure out the chin assist machine. Then, there was John (who I called Sean for the first 6 months) — John was on faculty in the military science department. Super nice guy who always seems genuinely happy to see me, he must be on sabbatical now, I haven’t seen in him in a couple of quarters, or maybe his routine changed just enough so that we’re not there at the gym at the same time anymore. I met Tim, an English Professor and award winning author, one morning as I was unlocking my bike and heading off to the office and he was locking up his bike to head into the gym. Tim plays in the pick-up basketball game on Thursday mornings with other faculty, staff and occasional students. A game that has been played every Thursday morning for nearly 40 years.
I’ve never been what I would call fat, but there have certainly been times when I have not been happy with the shape of my body. Less than six months into my new commute, I had trimmed down in size from 9/10 to 5/6 and people were actually calling me ‘fit’. I’ve been short, skinny and petite, but NEVER fit! I liked being fit! By the time I turned 48 in February of 2014, I was in the best shape of my life both physically and mentally. I didn’t imagine it could get better, but it did.
That feeling of being in the best shape of my life has been empowering — really, in order to cross four lanes of automobile traffic to take a left hand turn on a bicycle takes a lot of guts and is as frightening as it sounds. The more you do it, the easier it gets and one’s confidence simply grows. That’s empowering. Being that empowered — that feeling like I can do anything I set my mind to, led to more and more of the unexpected.
I recognized some of the folks that were playing basketball — there was the Philosophy Professor who had written a play about the Japanese Internment camps. There was Tim the English Professor. There was Raphael, an Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. There was Jefferson, the English Department Administrator. There were even a couple of women who played, I didn’t know them, but I was encouraged that there were women who played — it meant that it was possible that I might be able to find a spot when they needed someone else to play. And, then, I was invited to play. I had no choice but to take them up on the offer. March 6, 2014 was my first game. I only remember the date because there was a birthday celebration immediately following the game. A tradition among the players.
That first game was rough, 60 minutes running up and down the court with these old farts! Much like the first days of my bike commute. But I kept going every Thursday morning, and like the bike ride it got easier and I started to contribute to the game with a couple of baskets and couple of strong defensive plays a game. A year later, they are some of my favorite people on campus and its a game I hate to miss.
Nearly a year after I started riding my bike to work I had seen the results of reshaping my body through cardio and weight training, I slimmed down to a size 2/3. I was being called athletic. Athletic? Well that just seems crazy, but I definitely felt fit. My confidence simply continued to grow and I even found myself hiking trails in mountains that I wouldn’t have considered doing a year earlier.
About 15 months into my ride, I noticed this very strange feeling. A feeling that I was a part of the world in which I lived. I don’t mean that I decided to get involved in my community or teach others how to do something, what I mean, is that in order to ride safely and defensively I had to pay attention. There is no auto pilot when you ride your bike. You’re exposed and you’re definitely at a disadvantage. Over the course of a year, I had been fully engaged with my ride, I had to be. So for about an hour a day, I was really paying attention, completely aware of my surroundings — learning to anticipate and respond to potential dangers. I had to live in the moment, not thinking about the past, not tripping on the future and not worrying. There I am, riding my bike, my vehicle of presence, learning to live in the moment, unbeknownst to me. The absolute cliche catch phrase of the millennium all the sudden made sense to me. I am a part of the world I am living in and I love it.
A year-and-a-half after first making the choice to ride my bike to work, my life has changed and that change has taken me by surprise all along the way. I am officially pushing 50 and I’ve never been in better shape. I’ve upgraded my bike again, only this time I was involved in building it along with this gorgeous 40-year old man who wanted to build me a bike so that we could do some long distance rides together: On New Year’s Day 2015 we went on the longest and steepest ride I had ever gone on — 24 miles with a nearly 2500 foot climb. On MLK day we rode 26 miles with a 3600 foot climb, and on President’s day, we took it easy and rode 19 miles with a 1500 foot climb. And just this month, March 2015, he let me borrow his spare mountain bike and for the first time ever, we went mountain biking. Scary as shit, fun as hell!
Through out life, we make big, huge, ginormous decisions that we know will have significant impact on our lives. We recognize these decisions as they are presented to us and we understand that when we make them we are making choices about the overall direction of our lives. But its the simple choices in life, like whether or not to ride our bike to work that can take us by surprise, I feel fortunate that I recognized this moment. August 22, 2013 was the first day to the rest of my life.
