Facing Your Fears, and Telling Them to get Stuffed

Sitting back and continually whining about being scared to do something will accomplish two things: You won't get anything accomplished, and you will annoy the hell out of everyone within earshot.

That is where I was earlier this week. As I mentioned last post, spring had sprung, and I was lamenting my fears of commuting to work.  My dear, sweet wife - whose patience with my complaining I'm sure was wearing thin - was beginning to ask when I was going to start riding with increasing frequency. She was even going as far as suggesting that I take a "practice ride" around the neighborhood to gauge my readiness for commuting by bike again.

Yesterday - along with commemorating the arrival of Christianity to Ireland by wearing an overabundance of green and drinking in some cases an obscene amount of green beer - was the opening day of Salt Lake City's bike share program for 2016 (Green bikes + St. Patrick's day = good marketing strategy). As an enthusiastic supporter of the bike share program, I had to take one of the bikes out for a lunchtime roll.

Partly because of the nagging (my own, from inside my head, not my wife's. She really doesn't nag me) I decided to go on a longer ride than up to the local 7-Eleven for a drink.

After work, when I recounted my exploits of the day, My wife - along with being happy for my accomplishment - asked me "does this mean that you are going to ride to work tomorrow?"

The answer to that question turned out to be yes.

So... this morning, I gathered up all of my cycling necessities (except for the keys to my lock - I had to turn around a half-mile down the road and go back for them), and rode away into familiar, yet uncertain territory.

My commute is normally not one that warrants long, drawn out stories, wrought with harrowing close-calls and edge-of-your seat action. Today was no different. I made it to work with no problems to report. my leg survived - in fact it did better than my left leg. I'm sure that is a by-product of the one-legged squats that my physical therapist had me doing to strengthen my right knee. No KOMs were threatened this morning. 

Monday, I'm sure that I'll be back on the bike. My wife texted me later in the day and asked if I enjoyed it. You know what? I did enjoy being back on the bike. Even though it was tougher than I remembered, and I'm more tired than I was last time I commuted, I am happy that I rode. 

I'll leave you with this short quote, as it is appropriate for this, and many other situations we face in life...

The road to confidence is paved by daily accomplishments.                                                 KEITH JOHNSON