Procrastination and Workouts

It was a spectacular winter day here in Colorado, so my husband and I decided to take out the road bikes for a nice road ride. During the process of moving and rearranging our things several times, we seem to have misplaced our bicycle computers. We spent 2 hours searching for them, both of us swearing we thought we knew where they were. Finally, we decided to call off the search. I realized that we could spend all day searching for the computers rather than riding and began to wonder if our search was turning into a strange form of procrastination.

The ride we wanted to do was unfamiliar to us. We had no idea how long it was, how hilly or challenging it would be, how much traffic we'd encounter, how wide the shoulders would be, how much junk we'd find in the road, how polite drivers would be, etc.

So, after about 3 hours of getting ready, searching for the computers, etc. we were off. The ride was wonderful. Cool at first, but warm once we got moving. Spectacular mountain views kept both of us relaxed and awed. The route turned out to be a lot flatter than either of us expected, which was nice considering this was our first road ride in a while. We had a huge shoulder to ride on, so traffic wasn't an issue.

When we got back home, I thought about how we could have missed this ride by staying at home to look for the bicycle computers. That would have been a shame. The moral of the story is procrastination comes in all forms. Learning to recognize it will help you lead a happier, healthier life. In other words, stop procrastinating and get moving!

For those of you interested in our bike route. Here it is. We rode from Longmont, Colorado to Lyons, Colorado and back. Our route was as follows:

• West on 17th,
• North on Spencer
• West onto the bike path that's just across from the park (near 20th)
• The bike path goes under Hover. You can either ride the path along Hover or continue west.
• We continued west on the path until it ended at Hwy. 66
• West on Hwy 66 all the way to Lyons.
• Once in Lyons, we turned Lt. on 4th, had lunch in the park, then headed home by going east on 66 and retracing our route.

Total Mileage from Our House According to Google Maps (the directions listed begin a few miles from our house): 24.3

Route Rating: Easy because it's mostly flat. Nice wide shoulders most of the way. 17th does not have a designated bike lane/shoulder, but the road is wide enough for bikes and cars to share the lane and the drivers were polite. There's also a bumpy sidewalk that runs along 17th in case you hate traffic.