There has definitely been progress but will it be enough? Here’s the fitness tracker from the beginning of November:
Freak out!
And here’s the one from today:
It seems to be saying I might make it. When I came up with this crazy idea ( no other way of putting it – definitely out of touch with reality) I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I was thinking, “Ah! Here’s a challenge. Why don’t you add this to your busy life? On top of raising two kids (barely), holding down a full-time job, mentoring a couple of people, preparing for a PhD, writing up a few papers, giving one or two talks, going to Washington, working on exciting but tiring global collaborations, forgetting to feed the dogs, supporting my partner to support an ill father-in-law, keeping up with friends and family, holding lots of sick patients in mind… why don’t you just add in a ridiculously hard cycle race? And while you’re at it, Jennifer, why don’t you do it really publicly so when you fall on your butt, lots of people know about it?”
I have been having sleepless nights about this race, which does nothing for the training schedule. The stats freaked me out at the beginning of November and now they’re getting reassuring again. Maybe I can do it.
So many wonderful people have contributed to this cause (raising money for childhood cancer research) and I do not want to let them down. My knees are killing me, inside and out – I fell off my bike spectacularly and stupidly on the weekend and sustained some pretty serious injuries. The first injury was to my pride: I had just directed someone else around the bike park like a pro, then I cycled into a patch of sand, causing my bike to come to a dead stop and me to fall off sideways. In front of her. I hit my head quite hard but I couldn’t get away fast enough. The second injury was to my knees – not serious at all. Grazes. But my pride is still hurting. The insides of my knees feel as though there is a serious shortage of cartilage and lubrication, but hey, isn’t that what knee transplants are for?
If we can make a difference and save just one more child’s life a year, it will all have been worth it. If I have to face-plant for each kid we save, I’ll do it.
