Climbing the Third Stair

Since setting up my bike I have virtually ridden 37 miles. Yay! According to the Walk Across Nebraska site I am now in a position to explore the abandoned chalk mine near Cotesfield, which is the only one of its kind in North America. Before today I had no idea that chalk mines ever existed in Nebraska, though I must admit that having once been the bottom of an ocean does up your odds for that sort of thing.

I had Monday off from work (comp day for Easter!) and so I did a lot of cleaning. Not enough to please me, but I'm slowly becoming used to the idea that I can never do enough housework to make me happy and I just need to cross things off of my list and move on. In the afternoon I went to the downtown library to return some things and discovered that they have the Avatar series DVDs, so I put in a request for the first one. I also checked out three different translations of Dante's Inferno and put in a request for a fourth. I have a reason for this, but it will have to wait because I don't feel like typing it all out right now.

Tuesday I was very busy at work, as we were trying to recover from the pre-Easter madness and being closed for a day. Today I felt like I really didn't get anything done even though I kept doing stuff. It is quite annoying. I think I'll be able to get stuff done tomorrow, though. In other news, I had yet another co-worker tell me that I look ten years younger than my age. Clearly my policies of staying away from tanning beds and eating lots of vegetables are paying off for me.

This morning I girded my loins (not easy I tell you, as I was still in my nightgown) and got to work putting the exercise bike together. I am now quite charmed with the Schwin company, because not only were the instructions clear and easy-to-follow, they had thoughtfully included all the tools I needed to do the assembly. Which was REALLY NICE--I probably could have used my pliers as an improvised wrench, but there is no improvising a hex key.

My next step is to make nice with the computer, and this might take a while. It probably doesn't have all the bells and whistles possible, given that is is a lower-end machine, but it still has them. I just decided I'd learn best by doing: This evening I turned it on, set it to manual, and started biking. It seemed to go well, so I grabbed a book (I set it up in my office/library, so I didn't even have to stop pedaling for this) and read a bit. I went five miles and decided that this was a good start; I didn't want to strain anything and not be able to bike tomorrow.

To help keep track of how I do I've signed up for the Walk Across Nebraska site. Ok, I'll be biking instead of walking but the website won't care. I'm doing the Central Trail first, because it is the shortest. As you put your milage in, the website tells you "are" and give some helpful commentary of a touristy and health-conscious nature. Like this:

Make a stop at the produce stands near St. Libory and find an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer months. Did you know that people who eat 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily have half the risk of developing cancer as those who only eat one or two servings a day?

It's not riveting stuff, but it is nice to be patted on the back for my veggie-eating ways. I wonder how far I can travel in a month? I guess I'll know in a few weeks.

I bought an exercise bike today. It was a little never-wracking, because it was much more money than I am used to spending on myself. I mean, it was less than my rent payment, but rent etc are 'necessities'. An exercise bike is a discretionary purchase, something that I choose to buy. Deciding that I am worth spending that much money on is an unnatural act.

It's not a decision that I rushed into; I'd been thinking about getting one for several months. About five years ago I lost a lot of weight, and I had good success at keeping it off. This past year I was seeing pounds try to creep back, and it worried me. As the bakery gets bigger and bigger I am going to be spending more and more time sitting at my desk, which means I will lack the exercise that baking gives me. (Believe it or not, I usually lose weight over Thanksgiving.) So I started to think about what my options were, and what kinds of things I like to do. An exercise bike soon emerged as the best solution--it was good aerobic exercise, some of them are compact enough to keep in an apartment, and you can read while using it. (I suspect the last point was the deal-maker.)

Then I had to figure out what kind of bike to buy, as I know nothing about how to judge the quality of such things. Happily, the fine people at Consumer Reports had an article and product review on their website, and one of their top picks was within my budget. Oh, glorious day. After making sure I really had the money to budget and then hemming and hawing a bit I finally did it. It should show up in a bit over a week, which gives me plenty of time to decide in what room to put it and make the necessary arrangements. Then I have to come up with a plan for how to use it, set some goals, tear those goals up and set some realistic goals, and I'll be off. Or on, as the case may be.