Personal Note: Sources Of Inspiration And Frustration

A Military Epic Pass Discount Special Became A Big Motivator To Get Back In Shape.

Last winter and spring, like many others, I watched the ski season melt away. For those who went before the big shut down, good on you. For, me, the only hopes I had of skiing was in late April or May or June at Mammoth.  And, poof, that was gone.

Slowly, I had been building back the stamina I had from a persistent infection I was fighting since the previous summer, but at 74 and more than a half, what was gone was gone, never to return.

Yet, I had hope.

Hope came from several sources. One was that medically I knew I was beating the bug. Another was from the emails from ski areas saying they just received X inches of new snow. Snow wasn’t going away. That was comforting.

Another inspiration came from an odd source. One morning, my inbox has an email from the people who run Epic Pass offering a steep discount for an unlimited pass assuming I could prove that I was a member—active, reserve or retired—of the U.S. military. I read the fine print, called and then had a long online chat with the online person before I plunked down my credit card data for an Epic Pass that cost about what I would spend for two days of skiing! The purchase was a no brainer.

So, with that in hand, so to speak, I was even more inspired to regain as much as I could the way of fitness for the season to come. At the end of June, I was finally off the medications and cleared to start exercising more “vigorously” than walking.  Since Covid had shut down all gyms and even when they re-opened, they were considered high-risk for a septuagenarian.

What was left? Summer in North Texas was here, and I pulled my bike down from the rack. The tires were flat and when I tried to pump them up, I popped both tubes. Since it hadn’t been ridden in a year, I took it to a bike shop which recommended that I replace the brake pads, (cracked and split and soon wouldn’t work) and the chain which was showing some signs of wear.

How long to fix? Six weeks! Egads! Everyone was rehabbing their bikes, it seems. So it was back to walking.

But, beginning in August, I was on the bike four or five times a week. The goal, get back to 20 miles a ride. Now, before you are impressed, the elevation change of the route I take is a whopping 94 feet. I’m averaging about 10.6 miles per hour so I am not riding like a bat out of hell. Eleven miles takes roughly an hour.

The most important thing is that I am riding and am, as of this writing, doing about 12 miles a ride. Still working on getting to 20. Next challenge is figuring out how to get to the slopes to make use of my Epic Pass.

Now that’s an inspiration.