All Hail The Power of Aleve

The bike trail that I ride on is a converted railroad. They're all the rage around the country, and they're so nice since they're flat. If you live in an area that's flat you probably don't appreciate them the way we do, but in these parts you can't go a half mile without going both up AND down a hill. Or several hills. Living right on the top of a mountain range is like that. So I bike the trail, because I am not nearly in shape enough to tackle a hill. Even a little one.

Because this was a railroad once, it connects little towns along the way. Ours runs from Pittsburgh to DC, and while I have zero desire to bike the entire length, I do enjoy connecting dots on my local map. I've biked to the left and I've biked to the right. But last summer I decided that I would head right, and keep heading until I reached that super fun place 30 miles down the trail where the kids like to play in the river.

But it never happened.

The good thing about goals is that if you don't reach them in your time frame, you can just keep striving to reach them until that day happens. That day was last weekend. In honor of Josh's 15th birthday, we biked. The plan was to start at Town C (because it starts with a C) and go on to town O (because it starts with an O). It's 12 miles distance. But then I had the grand idea that Josh and I would start in our own town, bike the 20 miles to Town C, meet up with Sam and Becky, and continue biking on to Town O.

So we did.

Bear in mind that the most I've biked this summer previous to this expedition was a whopping 4 miles. And know that I pulled a muscle in my calf while exercising earlier in the week. (Old age. It's awesome.) (I won't tell you that by "exercising" I really mean "stretching" because that's REALLY embarrassing.) So before I hopped on my bike, I took a 24 hour Aleve and hoped it would ward off any pain in the calf. How awful would it be to get somewhere around the 12 mile mark and be stuck?

But I underesitmated the power of Aleve. We met up with Sam and Becky at the 20 mile mark, had some ice cream, toured around the town, and headed on down the trail for the last 12 miles. And shockingly, I didn't hurt anywhere. Granted, there was no way I was up for biking back, not even back to Town C, but I did it. I BIKED 32 MILES. Pride in accomplishments. It's what I have.

Now I need to set a bigger goal. And stock up on Aleve.