The Rule of Threes Rule

Only now I recognize it, know it for what it is, and what kind of number it's trying to play on my mind, and I can counteract.

The last time I ran was Wednesday, which was an awful workout. Today is Sunday, which is let's see thursday-friday-saturday FOUR days without a workout. (Why? I wanted to rest, didn't make good cross-training plans, started to slide into a bad-me lazy-me why-bother mindset.) Sunday mornings my local gym has been having bike rides at 8:30am - they started a couple months ago but today was the VERY first Sunday when I thought I could go. But, I've been very anxious about riding my bike on the road (it's that 1983 road bike I got last year - drop handlebars, stem shifters) - and I hadn't installed a water bottle holder or anything else. So I lay in bed this morning for at least an hour wondering whether I'd make myself get up and go, or not. Luckily my daughter had come into bed with me and was tossing and turning and poking me (she slides her hands and feet under my body, and then just when I start to fall asleep again, she takes them out and then pokes them into a new spot. They should try it at Guantanamo Bay - it's foolproof.) While lying there not sleeping, the narrative in my head was: I can't do it, it's going to be too hard, I can't do the hills, I don't know where all my stuff is, I can't shift, I can't brake, it will hurt, I'm lazy, blah blah blah. But I also had another little voice saying, you've been here before. You know what it feels like to face down the voices, do the thing you think you cannot do (thanks Eleanor) and come home sweaty and tired and happy. So I got up, scrambled all the stuff together, and got to the gym just on time.

Nobody was there.

I sat there for a while, but by then I knew I was going riding. In fact I was glad because I could kind of split the difference - get the feel of riding on the road without having to commit to a 10 or 20 mile ride. So I went back and forth from the gym to my house (and a little farther) for about 20 minutes and learned the following interesting facts:

I like the bent over position, mostly. My legs and back like it a lot - I had dramatically more power and it didn't feel like my back would get achy even after some time.
I like how light the bike is - it's really noticeable on the hills.
The skinny tires were comfortable even on rough roads.

On the other hand,
Shifting is REALLY hard - the shifters take some oomph to move, and it's hard to shift my weight around to reach them, especially during the moments you most need to shift - going up or down a hill.
The biggest problem is my shoulders and wrists. It's a LOT of pressure on them. I guess I need to get some padded gloves, and do some little stretch and strengthen exercises. Because I need to cross train, I love to be out there on the bike, and this is the bike I have now.

It wasn't really a workout though - too short - so I'll do a run later too.