All it takes is the lycra

Yesterday I felt awful. It was the end of my hell week, I had just had two exams, I was getting my usual stress letdown headache that frequently becomes a migraine, and I hadn't been sleeping enough. But I had promised myself that I would go for a ride that evening. So when I got home from school I gave myself until 5:30 to sleep, and then woke up still feeling tired and awful. But, I was determined to at least try to get a real ride in before the thunderstorms hit. So I start to change into my team kit. Like magic, as soon as I'm dressed to ride I feel energized and motivated. I go out there and get on my bike and my mood seems to improve with each pedal stroke. Instead of the ordeal that I had been expecting, that ride ended up being exactly what I needed. My headache went away, my mood lifted and the world just disappeared for a little while.

Fast forward to this evening. The plan was to meet Bernie for a ride around 5:30 after my class picnic. I got home and seriously considered calling and canceling because my headache was back and I was tired again. But, I had made a commitment so I started to get changed. Once again all it took was getting myself into the lycra cycling gear and I felt just fine. Once on my bike I felt even better. By the time I got to the designated meeting spot, I was feeling up for a couple hours of riding. I told Bernie as much and so he picked a route from his mental repertoire and off we went. Around mile 30 and close to 2 hours into our ride I was completely lost and Bernie asked me how far we'd gone. Turns out he doesn't have a computer on his bike so he had no idea. I told him and he was surprised, to say the least. I think he said something like, "Umm... I gues we should start heading home then..." I'm thinking that we're probably just doing a big loop and home should only be about a half hour away. I was wrong. Home was another hour and a half and almost 30 more miles away. Luckily Bernie is like a superhero and pulled almost the entire way back. So my nearly canceled ride that should have been a couple of hours ended up being about 60 miles and 3.5 hours. But I was smiling at the end and Bernie and I plan to do it again on Sunday. All I have to do is put on my lycra and I'll be ready to go.