Weather-permitting, I’ll ride my bike today. Climbing is definitely on my list, first and foremost, though. As far as the weather goes, we had a long winter and it flipped straight over into summer for a week in early May, and now we’ve been having a rash of spring weather later in May – the temperamental thunderstorm-dry-thunderstorm-dry-rainy day(s)-cloudy-dry pattern. When summer finally does get here, I fear it will be a real roast for us!!! Today is forecasted to be one of those potentially temperamental days with clouds/sun/thunderstorms. If I’m going to ride my bike, I’m going to have to do it early, and since Mom is in town watching Squiggle Bug today, that means we’ll have to take him for his 60-minute or so OUTSIDE walk earlier, which means I’ll either have to climb alpine-start-earlier, or later, after the rest of my exercise for the day. That’d mean I’ll be tired for climbing, and we still have to watch Squiggle Bug tonight. I definitely need the exercise, whatever order it comes in, but often, when climbing gets left until last and all that other activity has come before it, I succumb to a nap instead of going to the climbing gym or out into the wild blue yonder to climb.
I got up at 0300 hrs this morning (nightmares), and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I’m writing this at 0400 hrs in the morning. By 0600 hrs, I’ll be tired again, but that’s too late. Squiggle Bug will be here and occupying my side of the bed! My ankles are swollen this morning for some reason. That’s not a good sign. That doesn’t mean that my climbing shoes won’t fit, but it means they’ll be tighter than normal. I did have a lot of sodium yesterday, though, and sleep deprivation doesn’t help that sort of thing, either. It’s 0420 hrs and the birds are singing. Just a side note. The birds get up early, too! The alpine start could happen if my husband didn’t mind me going climbing while Squiggle Bug is here. I don’t want to just ditch him, though. I have GOT to get my CLIMBING in somehow, on the other hand!!! The MyClimb Genesis Spring Challenge 2018 starts tomorrow!!! I’ve gotta get in shape to climb with Lou and Leon in Bozeman when they come, too!!! In addition, I need some plain old, good, full-body workout exercise and stress relief. Climbing does that for me. You can complete the whole checklist with just climbing in my case! So I need to climb!!!
Biking, well, I’m still learning. I figure that, if I take my bike out for a little while each day and practice the basics (starting, stopping, turning on both sides), I’ll be good to go very soon. Once I get my bike rack for my truck fitted, which I haven’t done yet, I’ll be able to go outside town a little way and ride where it isn’t so busy and I’m less likely to get killed, hopefully! At least while I’m relearning how to ride, I’d like to be able to concentrate on just riding and not all of the traffic concerns of the city. I can get some experience shifting gears and such up and down hills outside town first, before trying it in town, too, if I can drive out there with my bike on the bike rack attached to my truck. Then, if I wreck, it might not be as dangerous or embarrassing. I just have to think of a place outside town to do all of this where I’m not going to immediately and imminently get a puncture in my tire! My doctor has extra thick-walled tires and goop in his inner tubes so that he doesn’t get flat tires. I need to invest in that kind of a set-up (the goop if nothing else!). I hate flat tires!!!
As far as Squiggle Bug’s walk, that’s an absolute MUST!!! He enjoys it outside so much!!! It’s healthy for him and I’m glad he likes it outside, so Mom and I are making sure that we expose him to being outside as much as possible so that he gets his outside time every day (except when it’s raining). He’s always so excited to go outside! He knows about what time I come up to go for a walk every day and Mom says he crawls into the kitchen and looks for me, waiting. Mom will come and get him and bring him back into the living room, but he’ll crawl back out into the kitchen in anticipation of Aunt Chris coming so we can go for a walk, haha! Love that little guy!
The trick is to get all of this exercise into one day, scheduling and all, before either the heat or the thunderstorms every day without being so tired I can’t see straight and so sore that I can’t move!!! This is a logistical puzzle. It really depends on how I’m feeling and how the weather is behaving. And whether or not my husband and I are watching Squiggle Bug on a given day… Gotta get this figured out!!! For sanity’s sake!!!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 