Want To Transform Your Outdoor Space into a Calming, Boho-Chic Escape (Um, Yes)?
In the evenings, wed run around, our long little shadows stretching across our lawns.
We were always rolling around in the grass, or starfishing our limbs in the mud.
Southern Ohio has a lot of paved bike paths that stretch for miles along the Ohio river.
They slope along the riverbanks, keeping in the trees like a ribbon around a bouquet of flowers.
And yet, Id always spend more than half of these bikes rides in tears.
…
I dont really know when I became aware that I was a bigger kid, stockier, not skinny.
She had fallen back to stick with me while all the other kids went zooming ahead.
Hotter than that were my red cheeks, wet with salty tears.
I was both angry and embarrassed that I couldnt keep up.
But even when I eventually figured out how to shift gears in my favor, I still struggled.
Being slow was so frustratingly familiar for me.
And I didnt make it easy for people to encourage me.
I told myself then and tell myself now: Just gofaster.
The faster you pedal, the firmer and stiffer your thighs get.
…
Now, Im no Earthbender fromAvatar the Last Airbender, so I cant change the geography around me.
If I want to enjoy a bike ride, I need to accept the routehills and all.
Thats long made the challenge just… not appealing.
I thought to myself,What the heck, I should try new things!
But soon I felt like a witch on her broomstick gliding so freaking fast down my block.
I made it to new parts of Brooklyn in minutes.
She waved at me, Are you a hologram?
She touched my shoulder and said, Hm, thought so, real person sitting here.
I licked my ice cream cone, looked at the water.Touche.
I did bike there, wind flying through my helmet, wicking away the sweat that was clinging beneath.
And when I was taking out a CitiBike, sometimes Id choose ane-bike, sometimes not.
Going back and forth really helped me increase my stamina.
Still, in many ways, it did, in fact, feel like cheating.
It felt like it didnt count because I wasnt pushing myself to the absolute limit.
I started to think about ways I had this philosophy ingrained in me.
In my daily life, I love finding hacks.
So why couldnt I accept something like this in my exercise life?
Heck, its the sport that gave us the universal training wheels metaphor.
I think, now, we have the right to expand on the concept of training wheels though.
Pelotoning your heart out in your house counts.
The ice cream is sweet, all the same, no matter howor how quicklyyou got there.
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