feeling the burn, and stuff-- a day in the life

I like it, and I don't like it. My inner power-frau is into being mighty. My not as inner slacker doesn't want to exert herself. Who will win Battle Physio-Burn? I'll put my money on the stern mädchen with the big quads.

So this is how it needs to be. Pushing hard. Always building cardio or muscle. Or so I think. And maybe some of it's my always striving nature. I mean, maybe the hills are getting easier, but I'm also pushing harder, so I don't really notice the easy bit. Or something.

When I ride in to work at 6am or so, it's easy to get going really fast. Very few riders on the BG Trail, very few cars, and my energy is up. My heart rate gets up pretty quickly once I hit the flats and pedal briskly. 10 minutes (or so) in, I notice my breathing: it's not labored, but it's moving. 15 minutes in, I can feel my legs-- the cold mornings leave them feeling heavy, like cutting through the cold is labor in and of itself. It's just after this that I feel the first sense of a climb on the trail, and then after a few ups and downs, I blip off onto the route that climbs up to work. I work hard at spinning my way up, and I huff and puff and churn a bit, and arrive at the door invigorated and recovering.

Then I work. On my feet. Moving around a kitchen. It's not aerobic, but it has it's flustery brisk little moments and there be some haulage. And the resistance of snackage. Lots of that.

When I take the "tougher" route home, I'm basically on a slow climb for the first mile or so. I feel it in my legs and lungs about the time it peaks, as I muscle my way up the first significant hill. There's a very interesting sensation of it being an abrupt return to exercise. Some of it may be the time of day, the fact that I've just finished 8 hours of (manual) labor, but it just feels like an early climb. That's followed by a gradual descent down to Green Lake-- riddled with brisk pedaling and stopping and starting. And then the slow climb to Aurora, the out-of-the-saddle spin up 83rd and over Linden, and then the series of ascents and descents all the way out to 32nd Avenue. Call it Interval Training. All I know is that somedays I have it, and somedays it feels like a lot of work. At a very pretty job.

I guess I'm coming to terms with what exercise in my life looks like. Sure, there are other forms, but in terms of keeping weight off, this seems to be the level of intensity I need to meet. And I like meeting it. It's just, well, kind of weird that this is me.