What a difference a commitment makes

Two weeks ago I was concerned that, like last year, I was ending my quest before it got started. I was concerned I wasn't on the bike enough, that the frequency needed to be increasing, not going down. Two weeks ago I believed that the path to fit was an ever-increasing number of rides,
on both distance and speed. That is probably true but not very likely for me. After all, look where I am starting from. It's like Ross Perot telling Clinton in '92, "Ya cain't fall out a hole, Guvner." I'm not really sure if that even applies here, but I thought of it just now, so I guess it means something to me. I'm 48 years old, 25 lbs overweight and I have arthritic knees. The rules I have assigned to my fit quest no longer apply. I can't drop 10 lbs in two weeks anymore, or recover from an injury in a week. I need a new plan. I need to get stronger after every outing, and I need to understand it's just going to take longer. And the first order of business is the willing suspension of pride.

The last ten days have seen a real change. In those ten days I have ridden on seven separate occasions. I've logged 125 miles averaging only 13 mph, and have no knee pain. 13 mph is pretty slow for an accomplished rider on a road bike. But I can no longer call myself an accomplished rider ( repeat mantra here)... I'm 48 years old, 25 lbs overweight and have arthritic knees. The new goal is I have to build quad strength without inflaming my knee. So I had a plan. Here I go with this "plan" shit again. The plan was not FOR ANY REASON to get into my large crank ring. Insert cartoon bubble... "Chris, the Pope is at Jimmy John's getting a sub, hurry up and ride over, he's letting people try on his mitre." (For my Lutheran friends that's his hat.) Sorry your Holiness, not gonna happen. That big crank ring is the reason I lost several weeks in the first place. It's the prerogative of the healthy. Since I don't fit into that category, I don't need to go there. I need to work into the large crank ring by slowly building strength. A novel approach first thought of by... me. That's right: no one before me has had the idea that if you build up to a higher level instead of trying to perform at the highest level first, you don't cause an injury. The world may need to know this golden nugget of wisdom. It was at that moment I thought of changing the name of the blog to "Fantasy Island." For the last ten days I've been Mr. High Cadence and my knee has been feeling strong. It's because I made a commitment to let old women in motorized chairs pass me as I ride like I'm in a spin class, huffing and puffing but going nowhere fast. Now that's letting go of pride, and that's what's going to keep me on plan.