"I can, I will, I shall, Be Great"

I have always been into fitness and working out but something happened when I got on a bike this last spring. I suddenly wanted to go farther and harder, it's no longer enough to just casually ride and run for excercise. I must have something to push myself with, a goal, a plan.

I went Salmon Fishing for 6 weeks and pretty much had no excercise besides the strenous work of fishing. I missed it so much! When I got back, one of the first things I wanted to do was jump on my bike and go for a ride. I worked 3 weeks of camp and every weekend I came home and jumped on the bike. I started planning longer and more challenging rides. I somehow got the brilliant idea to go climb mt. constitution in the san juan islands. I had been there before and remembered the extreme steepness of the road and thought it would be a nice challenge. I had never talked to anyone about riding it, and I had never rode anything like it. I went into it with no idea whatsoever. All I did know was that I had to prepare. My earlier attempts at ignorant bike trips had not ended so well. I tried to ride 100 miles of trail of Couer d' Alenes just a few weeks after starting riding for the spring, and bonked around mile 85. I got lucky and found some nice people to give me a ride but it was still embarrassing to not be prepared and have to ask for help. So I began riding hills and riding longer and harder. I wanted to push myself hard enough so that when I got to the mountain I wouldn't have a problem.

When it came time to ride, I felt nervous in that I could fail and not make it to the summit like I had planned. I tentatively took off down the road. The climb gradually got steeper and steeper and my effort got harder and harder. The grade at its peak was 15% and the average was around 8% this lasted for just over 5 miles. I just battled through it, it wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast but I made the summit in just under 40 minutes. As I was climbing a phrase, one of the coaches at NBC inspired the kids with, ran through my head, "I can, I will, I shall, Be Great" It drove me, that desire to not give up and put forth my best effort possible. A car came up behind me about a mile from the summit and cheered me on for a few hundred yards. The guy in the front seat had an accordion and attempted to play chariots of fire complete with sound effects to motivate me. It was pretty funny and took my mind of the difficulty of the ride.

Climbing Mt. Constitution gave me more of a desire to find bigger and tougher challenges to conqueor. Triathlons and Ironman are the next step I believe; hopefully by next spring. I am not an amazing swimmer, and I am not a dedicated runner but "I can, I will, I shall, Be Great" is pushing me to become those things.