Rarin' to go... back to the couch

I'm a wimp. On Sunday, I went on the Tour de Parks bike ride. A simple, easy-paced friggin' ride around town.

A couple of years ago, I would have sneered at such a paltry ride. Indeed, as this blog proves, a couple years ago, I did a ride over twice that long without preparation or perturbation.

Sunday, I was pretty much the last person finishing.

Well, not quite. A man and his little daughter latched on behind me, and no matter how slow I went, they went a leeeetle bit slower. One of them had a bicycle pedal that squeaked every time they pressed down on it. So for the last few miles of the ride I was hot, tired, and had to listen to
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak --

-- what's that? Oh, you got the idea. Well, now you know how it felt.

The real problem, of course, is that not only am I a wimp, I was an idiot. Didn't even occur to me to bring the inhaler. At one point, about four miles into the ride, we went down a dusty trail and then up a mulch-covered trail. It wasn't a steep hill, but I only made it 2/3 of the way up before the wheezing got to the point where I had to stop. And after that, I had to go slow or I'd start going into wheeze mode again. It's a sad state of affairs when your leg muscles are rarin' to go and your damn lungs won't get with the program.

In case anyone connected with the ride Googles this, I should mention that the volunteers were fantastic and the party after the ride was quite nice. Gotta love a band that includes a cello, and it was fun to sit on the steps by the fountain listening to the music and watching the children playing bicycle games that tested their balance and reflexes. My exercise friend was astonished that the whole ride was free. I think she was also impressed with the friendly spirit around the event.

Exercise du jour: Walking: morning, noon, and night. Plan to walk to a Max station that's a couple miles (2.5) from my house, instead of the one that's a half-mile away. That way, I'll get nearly half my walking requirement done before I even get to to work. Then a walk at lunch, and walk/Max home.
Today was doomed from the start. Got some walking in, but not much. Woke up at 3 a.m., didn't get back to sleep until 6, so I started the day late, which meant I had to rush to work and work through lunch, which meant ... anyway, ended up with a measly 2 miles walking and a headache. Going to go to bed early and Try This Again tomorrow.