she stands...she pedals...the crowd goes wild!!

Physical feats I "used to could" do but haven't been able to manage in many a long year:

• climb over/cross a woven-wire fence with 2 strands of barbed wire at the top, at a fencepost or even between posts
• toss many bales of hay up from the ground to the rack
• easily stick my foot in the stirrup and swing myself up onto a horse, even if the horse was moving
• swing myself up onto a horse without a saddle, from the ground, without standing on anything
• ride a high-strung horse bareback at a full-out run, letting my feet hang without touching the horse's sides
• perform in a pom-squad kick-line, swinging my foot repeatedly in a controlled way all the way up to face-level
• bounce while going up and down stairs

Yeah, you could say once upon a time I kinda had it goin' on.  Didn't really matter, though, in some ways, because even then I thought I was so appallingly enormous that I owed the world an apology for having to look at me, all because I didn't match the models in the slick magazines and those dumb charts in the doctor's office said I was WAY overweight.  But I digress.

Meet Lulu, the object of my middle-age affection.  I don't think I've introduced her before on this blog, though she's been kind of a rock star on my other one.  Pink swirlys all up and down her sides, her name so pretty for all to see, comfortable, durable, knockout whitewalls that make ya wanna whistle...yeah, she's the shizzle.  


Today I accomplished something on Lulu that I hadn't been able to do since I was a kid:  I stood up while pedaling her.  If that sounds like no biggie to you, then you really have no concept at all of the level of lack of fitness I'm fighting my way out of.  I have tried periodically ever since I got her to stand up on the pedals, and just couldn't manage it...the best I could do was a kind of shifting on the seat.  


Today, though, I not only stood on the pedals, I PEDALED from a standing position.  This is a big fat deal.  It's a mark of progress in my strength, my agility, and my confidence.  It surprised me.  It made me jubilant...so much so that when I got to the bike path, I ran her harder and faster than ever before.  We set new speed records for us, though we still are not doing anything like keeping up with all those bike-short clad skinny people rolling by us, hardly seeming to try at all.  We took some much-sharper-than-usual turns, and didn't tip over.  We cut through a grassy section just to see if I could maneuver her in a kind of tight spot between signs and poles, and it wasn't even hard.  

Tonight I'm feeling accomplished and hopeful.  Fitness is within my grasp.  Fitness is a way to choose to love my body.  Me choosing is just a part of the equation - the stuff God is doing in me is WAY more exciting - but tonight, I'm kinda bubbling over on this front.  

Just for kicks, here are some other views from today's ride.