When You Are The Motor

You need something with a motor a man commented as I loaded my bike. I told him that my legs are the motor and when you are the motor, you certainly think about mileage differently. I bicycled for about 16.5 miles. I wanted to go for longer but the to-do list awaits.

I had more stamina than last week. Brandi, a former trainer at the YMCA, said as much one day when the weights that I was trying to lift seemed so much heavier than the last time I was in class. She said that your body is capable of different things on different days. Of course, that makes perfect sense but...

I maintained a steady pace although I got passed up by the serious bikers with their padded biking shorts and jerseys but slow and steady works for me.

It does irk me when I have to get off the bike to walk up hills or if I lose my grip when I rock climb or come up short while doing the front crawl. In due time... I was actually able to make it up one hill that I had to walk the bike up before.

Here are a few of my favorite things from today's stint on the STL Riverfront Trail.



On a side note, I took some Propel in addition to water. Propel is made by Gatorade and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. What it does have is sucrose syrup and sucralose which made for a super sweet drink. I only drank about a fourth of it and couldn't stomach the rest.

Retro Exertion

The reason I retro walk and retro pedal on the elliptical and adaptive motion trainers -- to use different muscles.

I saw some women in the park kicking tennis balls and I think that I'll try that at some point, just to do something different.

Just read a solid article,Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin, in Time.

The author says that people tend to overeat after exercise and indulge in stuff like Gatorade which made me think about my bicycle ride on Sunday. I was actually thinking how nice and sweet my fruit punch Gatorade tasted and that I need to cease and desist and just drink plain old water. Was I bicycling enough, at 18 miles, to justify my consumption of Gatorade? I had water as well but did I really need to switch back and forth between the two?

The Time author infers that we all need to move more. I agree wholeheartedly and I always appreciate a good reminder.

Going The Extra Mile

As soon as I got on my bike, I realized that I had left my MP3 player at home which was a bit deflating.

After the first mile, I hardly noticed the lack of music and, on the way back, I provided my own soundtrack. My apologies to the other riders because I was definitely off-key.

I decided that I want to work my way up to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. Last week, I was able to do 14 miles and, today, I was able to bicycle for a total of 16.


I probably forgot my MP3 player because I was so busy packing my Gatorade, water, apple and camera. Oh well, I enjoyed myself on what is fast becoming my favorite place to bicycle, The St. Louis Riverfront Trail.