theSmudge.com

What do you do if you haven’t run for seven weeks due to an injury, you haven’t biked in a while because you have a (mental) pedal issue, and you live in a pancake-flat place? Why, you go ride up and down a bunch of hills, of course!

My running buddy, Rick, invited me on a bike ride around Lake Camanche, about 45 minutes east of the town where we live. (If we want any kind of hills, we have to drive.) I immediately said yes, because I would much rather have fun company, and I knew it would actually get me some desperately needed exercise. So we set out Sunday morning, and we were on our bikes at 8 a.m. It was going to be a scorcher of a day — 93+ degrees outside in October?! By about 4 or 5 miles in, I was toast. I’m not used to hills, I’m incredibly out of shape, and the result was that I couldn’t see and my stomach was queasy. After about 10 minutes that I don’t remember very well, I rallied and we pedaled onward and upward.

What goes up also comes down: The fastest speed I saw on my Garmin was 37 mph, a new record for me. That was incredibly fun and made the uphills worth it. I live at about 50 feet above sea level, and we started around 200 feet, climbing to around 750 feet. Here’s the profile of the 24-mile ride:

Rick always says that he labors along running while I slow down for him and do more talking so he doesn’t have to. I don’t quite buy that. But at any rate, the roles were more than reversed Sunday: I was laboring painfully up the hills while he was occasionally riding in circles or slowing down to wait for me. I vowed to greatly increase the frequency of my biking, and then I want to go back and ride Lake Camanche again (maybe adding on another 10-mile part) to see if I made any improvements.

Our reward was a detour to In-N-Out. Oh, and this: