Well I would bike 100 miles, and I will bike 100 more...

As you recall...


100 miles, BOOYAH! Had a couple down days this week, but today really had me fired up. I even put in an extra 5 miles to make up! (And also because I was fooling around with my new phone and missed the tick-over for five miles.)

Altogether that actually puts me at 105 miles, but that doesn't seem as impressive, for some reason. Here's the nameless farmland where I am:

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Here comes the sun... okay it's been up a while before me.

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I rode five miles THIS MORNING, which if you've ever seen me in the morning is a major accomplishment. It jazzed me up as much as a cup of coffee. I was lying in bed, and thought, "I could hit the snooze once or twice more, or I could get up and start moving, and holy crap, I actually got up and started moving! I never do that! Go me.

Whooosh...

View Larger Map Got to Guern today... Super busy the past couple days, no time for blog, Doctor Jones.

I've been biking, I just forgot to write about it!

View Larger Map Today I'm a little outside Locmalo, I found this charming bed and breakfast, but I am amused that a B&B in France feels the need to point out on of it's room is Frenchier than the others somehow.

So... Thursday was just crazy, and I didn't bike at all, I was just too tired.

Last night, I I didn't get home until late, and this morning, we're heading out for a while, so squeezing in five miles was a little tough- last night I actually did it in heels and stockings! Ooh la la. I felt very Parisian.

Anyway- so... Why I'm Doing This... I was reading Stephen King's book of short stories. I'll let Robert Busko tell you a little about the story from his book review: 
"Of all the stories included in Just After Sunset, my favorite is Stationary Bike. Richard Sifkitz has a belated physical and learns that his cholesterol is extremely high; dangerously so. Like so many of his generation he decides to get a stationary bike to exercise and hopefully ride off his health problems. Unlike many of his contempories, however, Richard rides his workout machine. He rides and he rides and he rides. He decides to paint a mural in the room he rides in to give him something to look at while he's working out. As in all of King's work, the simple mural turns out to be unique and Richard's bike takes him on trips he really doesn't want to make. This is a riveting story and is worth the cost of the book by itself. "

Part of the story has the character marking his progress along his childhood haunts on a map. Which I thought would be a cool way to 'see' another part of the world. Then, like a bolt from the blue, I thought, "The Tour de France." I knew absolutely nothing about the Tour de France except that it a) It was in France and b) Lance Armstrong something something.

So first I looked online to see if could buy a stationary bike. A little too expensive for a whim. Then, I called my mother-in-law and asked if she had a bike. She did, she had a knee replacement a while ago and got one for therapy. I asked my surprised husband if we could go pick it up now, that's right, I want to start right away. And I did.


I'd been feeling like I needed something to do, physically, recently I've been trying to walk a lot more, but sadly that often translated into shopping. I feel like I needed a little victory each day, and this is working. I also can feel myself getting a little fitter and standing up straighter- it's probably more mental than physical right now, but I don't care.

Another thing about that King book- at the end, he has an epilogue where the thanks you, the reader, and says something to the effect of, "It's better when you come with me." And that's the real reason I started doing this, I think- so I could make a journey, even if just a small one every day, and invite you along for the ride.

Five by Five

View Larger Map So today I went ten miles, in two 5 mile segments. (I had to hop off to give my little guy some ice cream and do some other stuff.)  


Which puts me at 71 miles, over halfway to the end of Stage one! By now I'm crusing along at 20mph, occasionally pushing it to 25 if I'm trying to finish before a commercial comes on or a show ends. My butt still hurts but if I stop focusing on it, I can usually ignore it.  


Today I realized I had some wrong measurements, though. The 2008 TdF, which is what I have maps for, is 2,211.8 mi, not 2,237. So... rounding that up a little, I would have to go six miles every day in order to finish in a year. That... doesn't seem like much of a challenge anymore; I went ten today not even breaking a real sweat! But then, I haven't gotten sick or lost a day I didn't plan for either, so maybe I shouldn't go changing bikes horses in the beginning of a race, either. IDK, when I first started, it seemed crazy, some kind of pipe dream... now I'm wondering if maybe I'm not setting the bar a little low. 


Well, I can always finish early, right?  


I also have another goal- I'm going to try to grow my hair out, which is actually my super-secret reason for taking vitiyums. So to kind of document where my hair is now... By the way- I don't need better lighting, I actually DO live in a dark and shadowy underworld populated only by night creatures and the occasional blogger. Honest.

View Larger Map Not much to say about where I am today- my back really hurts and I think I need to go lie down now.

56 miles! Almost halfway through stage one!

Yes, I took yesterday off, but I knew I was going to be busy yesterday, since I was helping my friend host a houselighting party for a house that can almost be seen from space, which is why I went 10 miles on Friday. 

Today I realized that the ten miles wasn't so bad (when I get on, my 'cruising speed' is now 20mph rather than 15) so I figured I'd try it again- I started off with five, sat down to watch the Alice miniseries, and hopped back on for commercials, and bam! Ten miles more.
View Larger Map Today I am near Hôtel Restaurant Les Bruyères. Under their dessert menu, I noticed they had something called, "Omelette Norvégienne." I'd never heard of a dessert omelette before, so I looked it up- turns out it's Baked Alaskan. 

Until today, I had a vague idea Baked Alaskan was a salmon dish of some sort... it's basically ice cream baked inside a cake and meringue. Which sounds delicious! (Not that salmon isn't good, but it's no baked ice cream!) So not only is this good for me, it's educational!  

At least, that's what I plan on telling my husband the next time he sighs and picks up the remote to turn up the volume over my whirring and squeaking.