“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”  – Woodrow Wilson

“Though the road you’re walking may be well-traveled, that does not necessarily mean it is leading to your destination.”

– unknown

“You make a living with what you get, you make a life with what you give.” - Winston Churchill

“A woman is like a tea bag – you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Reason No. 7 to ride is that you are an inspiration to others.

I was stopped at a light, wearing my very impressive 100 miles for Hope cycling jersey when someone congratulated me on my efforts and said that if I could do it (aging, overweight and grandma, remember?) there was no reason they shouldn’t get going in the same way.

I agree, time for all of us to get out there and help someone else – after all, cycling a 100 miles is a whole lot easier than chemotherapy!

I am life.

I am emotion.

I am curiosity.

I am energy.

I am determined.

I am introspective and extroverted.

I am, at times, two wheels and the road.

I AM INCREDIBLE.

Recently, I was tooling around the web and found a blog (Fat Girl On a Bike) that is very much what most of ours are — a diary of sorts. Here is what I am doing, here is what others are saying, here is a bit of advice, etc.

What really caught my eye was her triathalon schedule. This listed her goal events and completed events. I was floored, she was doing one tri a month! At first, I was impressed because she was heavy and not letting that stand in her way. But it only took me a few seconds to realize that most athletes have a lesser schedule. Again, I was floored.

I could not stop talking about it, for 3 days I told everyone I knew that there was a woman out there doing one tri a month. I couldn’t stay away, I had to to look at her schedule and see if I could do something similar with my century ride goals. So back to her site I went. I have to admit, I was wrong. Sarah is not doing one tri a month, she has periods during the season where it appears that she is doing one a week!

She has all the same life, work, personal demands that we all do and continues to fit this into her schedule. Admittedly, she is somewhat of an overachiever, like this fat girl on a bike, but that only made it clearer to me that I can certainly do this. I’ve been wanting to up my centuries, or at least metrics (100K) to more than a once a year TNT thing but didn’t know if I could handle it. Now I have even more resolve to do so.

Why do I want to do this to myself? A few reasons, the most important of which is directly tied into the cause I am riding for. I read that 3.8 hours of exercise a week cuts your risk of breast cancer by 40%. 40% is huge! I don’t have the numbers but I do know that a reasonable increase in exercise cuts your risk of heart attacks, diabetes and other cancer related illnesses. So I got on the bike and started pedaling,

I also decided that this was a terrific path towards being a fabulous 50. I have feared each and every birthday for years. Once I made the decision to start working towards being a fabulous 50 (which is only 4 years away) this most recent birthday came without the usual baggage and was even embraced. Go me!

I find that I have great clarity when I am cycling. I can really clear my head and be centered. I know that sounds very Californian, but it is true. Now while I am in Mexico each week, I am missing that time and it really shows in my attitudes and moods. So in addition to my physical health, cycling keeps me in good mental health.