Week Twenty-Four - Day One: Stamina

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 30 min.
TIME BACK: 30 min.
WEATHER: overcast, -7C (-13C with windchill), 17km/hr wind there; overcast, -6C (-13C with windchill), 19 km/hr wind back.
WHAT I WORE: fleece pants, turtleneck, fleece mid-layer jacket, lobster gloves, balaclava
NOTES:

Over the weekend, I went out dancing with my friends. Being a single parent, this is something I rarely do. The cost of babysitting can easily double the typical price of a night out, making it remarkably expensive for someone on a student budget. Even when I throw all caution to the wind and spend the money anyway (babysitting money is, after all, classified as "sanity fund" money because occasional babysitting helps prevent me from going insane), I'll still have to wake up when my daughter does the next morning - typically, at 6:30 am. It is rare that I'm prepared to spend money beyond my budget and get four hours of sleep all for the sake of one night on the town, but it's been long overdue. So on Saturday night, I gathered up a couple girlfriends, put on my knee-high dancin' boots, and hit the town.

The last time I went dancing was maybe a year or more ago. I went out in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt because I had no clothes that would: (a) be appropriate for dancing in, AND, (b) fit me when I was at my heaviest. I tired quickly. It didn't take long at all before my legs were sore and I was sweating and panting. Quite honestly, I was mortified. I couldn't believe how out of shape I had become. How did I - the girl who could spend a whole night on the dance floor back in the day - become this person who could hardly get through a few songs? For what was supposed to be a fun night out, it had turned into something pretty depressing.

This past Saturday, I was kind of scared that the same thing would happen. I put on my knee-high boots, a new curve-hugging skirt I bought post-weight-loss and the same long-sleeve black scoop-neck shirt I wore when I went out a year ago. I did my makeup as best as I could and straightened my hair. When we got to the venue, we checked our coats and headed straight to the dance floor before even ordering our first drinks. We began dancing and, I am proud to say, I didn't stop dancing until we left just before closing time. Even as my friends took turns sitting out certain songs, I kept dancing. And I'm not even talking step-touch, step-touch kind of shuffle dancing, I was going all out. I reveled in my new stamina - I could dance, jump around, sing along at the top of my lungs to all the songs, and scream my head off after each song ended, and I never ran out of steam. I was sweating like a filthy animal, mind you, and I probably looked like an absolute fool - but my thighs never got sore, I never got tired, and I felt good!

Sometimes when I bike I still feel like I'm ridiculously out of shape (I guess it can be hard to gauge progress in my fitness when I have to ride slowly out of caution on these slippery winter streets). Given this, the physical benefits of biking have never been more obvious to me than they were on Saturday night. Sure, I still have a whole lot of weight left to lose, but I'm feeling healthier than I have in a very long time. My stamina shocked me. My thigh strength made me proud. It's been too damn long since I so un-self-consciously had such a good time. And, dare I say, I have bike-commuting to thank for that!

Bike-commuting, you're the BEST!