Yea! I managed to do the bike ride from home to work in just 7,5 minutes! Amazing! How I made such an immense progress? Well – okay, I have to admit. I moved to another place.
I live at 1,9 km from work now, so a lot closer. It is still partly uphill and the hill is still tough to climb, but there is a lot less of it.
The challenge to cycle to will be way less interesting now, so I won’t keep on writing about it. I do want to tell you that I do see progress, even when it’s just a small ride. It’s amazing to see the difference from day to day!
The first day I took my bike to work from my new place it was hard. I never noticed how much the road was going uphill, but now I really felt it. There are two parts – or even three. I start going downhill, where I can enjoy sliding down the road with all of the ‘Route National’ traffic rushing around me. Then it starts uphill, slightly at first, moving up quick. That part already killed me. And then there is the last part, a very straight road uphill to work. I just couldn’t.. after the second part I got off my bike and started walking.
Stats: 9:18 minutes / 11,7 km/h
Second day it went better! I took the challenge to cycle the third part as well – and even though I wanted to quit, I challenged myself to take it a little further every time.
‘Just go until the next crossing street, than you can get off’.
‘Oh that went quite well, okay, then go to the roundabout and then you can get off’.
In the end I made it all the way up, sweating and breathing heavy – but proud of the accomplishment. And when I checked my stats I saw that I even went quicker than the day before! Even though sometimes it seemed as if I was cycling at the speed of 1 km/h, max.
Stats: 8:36 minutes / 13,4 km/h
Third day again it went a little better. I didn’t want to jump off my bike as many times as I wanted to the day before. And I saw that I already went 0,6 km/h faster than the day before!
Stats: 8:25 minutes / 14,0 km/h
Fourth day I didn’t feel very fit. I thought about quitting way too many times and I really felt as if I went slower than before. But stats showed me the opposite! I went 0,9 km/h faster.
Stats: 7:30 minutes / 14,9 km/h
What I would like to show you with this?
You will make progress, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Even when it seems impossible to ever finish your planned ride. You will! If it isn’t today, then maybe tomorrow. Or the day after. Just keep repeating, don’t get sad. Don’t get mad at yourself if it doesn’t feel as easy as you hoped for. Because one day it will!
One day you will probably laugh kindly at yourself for struggling that much with just a small challenge, because by that day you will be able to do so much more.
