Day 49: Back on Track

It’s been nearly 10 days since the last time I roused myself to walk over to IRB and make another negligible dent into my cross country tour which actually only takes place in my mind, on a virtual map, and seldom now in conversation. There are no cows staring at me. There are no beautiful sunsets. There is no hail to hide from. There are no parades and no musicals. So long as I’m under this roof, there is no sense of adventure; the elements have been conquered. My motivation is fleeting. There is only the cool, pleasant breeze of air conditioning I feel if I stretch out my neck and lean far enough back and to the left. The only thing that feels real in here is the tinge of pain just under the bone of my right knee. I feel it with every downward press but it doesn’t quite hurt enough not to ride.
I ran into Marek this morning on my way into the gym. Marek introduced himself to me about two weeks ago. If I were to stick with the Average Joe’s analogy, Marek would be the Vince Vaughn of IRB. He’s the man. He walks around like he owns the place (which he might). He’s rowed thousands of miles. He knows what it takes to succeed in the gym. He’s faced the mental and physical challenges head on. He’s the man for the job. I asked him how he had been since I hadn’t actually seen him since the day we met. He asked me how the slacking was going. There was a group of at least 20 kids in there on a field trip so I wasn’t sure I had heard him right.
“I’m sorry?”
“I said how’s the slacking been? You’re biking across America right?”
“Ok. Ok. You caught me.” I said as I lifted my hands as if I had been caught stealing cookies. “It’s been a busy week.”
He raised his eyebrows, unconvinced.
“But I’m back on track now.” I said as I continued on my way into the gym.
After biking for an hour I began to stretch out my back and sore knee near the rack of seven dumbbells which constitutes the majority of the free weights section. Marek walked by and said, “Alright, we’re back on track now. Gonna start riding a few extra miles a day. Good.” He said as he walked into the back room without waiting for my response.
“Yup.” I said, thinking to myself, “I’ll start tomorrow…or maybe the day after.”
It’s Day 49, I should be well over half way, but I still haven’t crossed the Texas border. Fatigue, pain, and worst of all, a lack of motivation are now becoming commonplace. I need a new plan. A new SMART goal. So here it is. I was originally planning to finish my ride at the same time as the Ride:Well Team but since they passed me over a week ago and I’ve been mostly at a stand still since then. I don’t think I will be able to catch up nor keep up with their pace. My new goal is to finish this trek before leaving London on August 23rd. I have a few holidays between here and there so excluding those I should have a total of 41 days left to ride approx. 2,980 km (1851.69 mi), that's approximately 73 km per day (45 mi/day) with no days off. So Marek, here’s my goal: 75-80 km per day: 35-40 in the morning and 40 in the evening. I’ll start on Saturday.