Even a Slow Start is a Start

Way back in January I set a biking milage goal for the year - 1,407 miles. Why the odd number? Well, my friend from high school, Kate, wanted to keep bicycling this year so decided to set a goal for herself to bike enough miles to equal riding from her current home town of Poulsbo, Washington to our childhood home town of Richfield, Minnesota. I saw her post her goal on Facebook and made a comment. Kate encouraged me to do the same challenge - except I would "bike" from Richfield to Poulsbo so we could virtually meet somewhere about half way.

Well the year has gotten off to a slow start for me. I rode my fat bike through the winter but fat bike miles are slow to add up, especially fat bike miles on the icy snow! I got in a good number of miles during April for 30 Days of Biking. And then it snowed. And rained. And rained. And rained. And I really didn't get out on my bike much. So here I am almost to mid-June with only 241 miles logged and am virtually just over the Minnesota border into South Dakota whereas Kate has logged about 450 miles at is virtually in Montana. Kate is making decent progress but I have had a pretty slow start on our bike mileage challenge. But you know what? Even a slow start is a start!

Here's our map showing our progress on our virtual bike ride across the country. Kate's points on the map are green. She's starting in Washington and "riding" east. My points are blue. I'm starting in Minnesota and "riding" west. 

Kate, by the way, is no stranger to biking a lot of miles. Back in 2006 she, her husband, Ron, and their daughter, Elizabeth who was then just six years old, biked 4,401 miles in 102 days on a triplet bike (that's a three person bike). You can read about their incredible biking journey from Jacksonville, Florida to Poulsbo, Washington at "You Can Do Anything."

Such a ride doesn't seem possible to me at this point in my life. But, then again, riding even 5 miles in one day didn't seem possible to me when I first started bicycling less than four years ago. Now, however,  I can get on my bike and ride 20, 30 or 50 miles in a day without much trouble and five miles is pretty easy (most of the time).

Do you have a goal that seems impossible? Well, get out there and give it a go! Worried you can't reach your goal? Start anyway. My theory is even if you start on your way to a goal and don't quite make it it's better than not starting at all!

Vacation State - Look Up

Look Up - beautiful balloons in my back yard

It's been three months since I wrote about my Vacation State of Mind project - a project in which I decided I would pretend I was on vacation for at least a moment each day and look at the things around me as though I'm a visitor instead of a person anxious to go somewhere else.

I meant to post pictures and updates of my Vacation State project several times but, well, I haven't. But I am posting something now!

Here's something that has put me in a Vacation State of Mind many, many times since I started my project - I can always get a Vacation State moment when I Look Up.

Look Up at the ceiling of the Pantages Theatre in Minnapolis

Let me explain...
I spent a January Term in England back in 1996 and one of the things I remember most about that trip was something a tour guide said. I was on a group tour of Oxford. As we were walking around Oxford our tour guide said that one thing we should remember to do as we walked through Oxford is to look up. When you look up, he said, you see all sorts of great things in the architecture of the buildings. You might notice paintings on a ceiling. Gargoyles looking at you from above. All sorts of cool things that you would not have noticed if you kept looking at the things at eye level.

Look Up really hit home for me while walking through one of the buildings. I looked up and saw a bust of author J.R.R. Tolkien. Our tour guide mentioned Tolkien studied at and later was a professor at Oxford and I realized that I was standing right where Tolkien may have walked. The realization gave me the chills and is one of my favorite memories of my month-long trip to England.

Since then, I've made a point to look up and see what wonderful things I can discover in building architecture. I haven't found any busts of Tolkien but I have discovered amazing details in buildings - dates and names above doors, gothic creatures carved of marble, fancy filigree trim at the top of buildings - wherever I travel now. It's pretty easy for me to imagine I'm on vacation to some exotic location when I look up and see wonderful architectural details on old buildings.

But what about when I'm not in a great town with historical buildings?  When I'm in a town where the architecture is new like my home town of Richfield? I find that if I take a moment to look up I see the sky, the clouds, maybe the sun shining through trees and those views also remind me that wonderful vacation like moments can be had right at home.

Take a moment to enjoy a Vacation State of Mind - Look up!

Sculpture Garden at Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN

Double Rainbow - another Vacation State wonder in my own back yard

Signs of Spring

We've had such wet weather lately that I haven't been out on the bike much. Last Sunday was gloomy again so I decided I was going to ride my Beargrease in the rain because my need to move exceeded my desire to stay dry. I had a few changes to make to my bike before the ride (Switching out a stem, putting ergo handle grips on and adding a front fender). That all took some time and by the time I was done the rain had stopped. Bonus!

Bear and I headed out on tar to a short, somewhat hilly gravel loop near home. With my lack of serious riding I am out of shape so was glad I had my iPhone along as it have me a perfect excuse to stop and take pictures (and rest) along the way.

I had a great ride, albeit short with a few stops. But really, isn't the ride more about stopping and enjoying the scenery than going fast sometimes? Actually, I think going slow is under appreciated when it comes to biking. When it comes to life. So slow I went. And often I stopped to take pictures to remind me that spring is on the way.

On Not Checking Email

In late April my family and I headed to Florida to attend a wedding and to get some time away from the  long, long, winter we were having in Minnesota. We all needed a break from school, work and weather. And I was told by my family that I needed to take a break from checking email, especially my work email.

I gather most people can step away from their computers during vacation. But the thought of not checking email for not just a day but five days just boggled my mind. It didn't seem possible. It didn't seem like a smart thing to do because, you know, someone might NEED to reach me. Someone might have a problem that only I could solve. Something on the website I maintain might break. Something might go wrong...

But my husband, Owen, reminded me that people go on vacation all the time and don't check email. That it's actually okay, even healthy, to step away from work once in awhile. And, Owen gently mentioned, I had been in such a stressed out state over work that it would be better for the family if I stepped away from my email for a few days and just relaxed.

"I'm not that stressed out, am I?" I asked Owen.
If Owen was an eye rolling type of person, he would have rolled his eyes. Instead he said, "Yes" followed by a list of examples of how stressed I've been.

I will spare you the details. It was a long list.

So I set up an "out of office" message on my work email and arranged for other people to keep an eye on the website I maintain while I was gone.

Guess what? I did it. I didn't check my email one time on vacation. In fact, I didn't check it until the day after I got home.

And guess what else? Everyone survived. Nothing broke. The world did not end. And I learned that I can really step away from my email, from work, and it's okay. In fact, my email break wasn't just okay it was great - great for me and for my family.

With the knowledge that, yes, I can survive without checking email constantly,  I got home from vacation I started something new - I set some boundaries around my email.

Now instead of checking email at all hours I check my work email once a day, maybe twice. I am working to set office hours and making progress in telling myself, "I'll deal with that when I'm in my office."

I still get worried that someone HAS to reach me, that the website I maintain is falling apart and someone will be upset with me for not replying right away. But, oh well. I guess I'll deal with that when I'm back in my office :-)