tsl

Not necessarily. I've never been good with goal-setting and working towards them. It always seemed arbitrary to me, and frankly, if a goal seemed too hard, I'd just quit instead of even try.

In cycling, I've been able to set goals, work towards them and achieve them, although I still haven't been able to carry this over to the rest of my life.

My first goal (in March 2006) was to replace commuting by bus with commuting by bike. My first ride was 0.67 miles. I had to stop halfway to rest. The next day, I rode to work, and had to stop and rest every mile. My goals became a block further, and a block further. All little increments and I achieved them. Within a month, I could ride to work non-stop, and instead of hoping for red lights, hoping for green instead.

Adding little bits of distance and difficulty--like hills--helped me a lot. When I plateaued, in November 2006, I knew it was time to quit smoking. Cycling helped me do that too.

Then it was skills. Riding with people a lot better than me, and asking questions about how to learn, helped there. There are two groups I ride with now, one from a shop ride where I'm pretty good, and another is my club, where my goals are measured in how many miles can I go before getting dropped.

Along the way, I came upon the opportunity to ride the Rockies--real pie in the sky stuff for a lifelong lowlander and ex-smoker. Around here, a half-mile long hill, gaining only 150 feet knocked me on me @$$. But I figured the higher I aim, the higher I'll hit. I paid for the trip.

I peppered everyone with questions, learned what I needed to train for, how to train for it, then I went out and did my best, hoping it would be enough.

I came back from that trip three weeks ago. I rode to the top of Mt. Evans, at 14,130 feet, it's the highest paved road in North America.



Three days later, I rode from the high plains to Rocky Mountain National Park.



I'm not sure what my next goals will be--it's awfully hard to top 14,130 feet.

Well, actually, I'm hoping that on tomorrow night's club ride, I can make it five miles before being dropped. If not, then the week after that.

Now, I could have accepted that I would always suck at cycling, given I was age 50, a 35 year smoker, with one bum knee and an arrhythmia. No one would have blamed be for wheezing and wobbling along at 6 or 7 mph and pushing the bike up hills. I simply decided I could do better and set out to discover how much better I could do. Still haven't found the max.