They laugh at me.
My children laugh when I sincerely tell them I put in time on the elliptical trainer just to keep up with them.
My couch potatoes grew up and changed – dramatically so this past summer.
While I stitched up a quilt with the visiting granddaughter, the three younger sons and son-in-law and one daughter-in-law tied on sneakers, hopped on bikes and exercised.
The Michigan son actually lives physical fitness. He walks a lot and effortlessly stays at the lowest recommended weight for his height.
He offered the others advice, but they insisted on taking their own route.
Pennsylvania son pulled out his bike and pedaled 20 and 30 mile circuits around his neighborhood. This year he had one goal in mind — to join the nearly 20,000 cyclists participating in the 37th anniversary of the RAGBRAI – a week long bicycle ride across Iowa. After playing with the idea for a couple of years, he shed the couch potato/computer programmer weight, packed up his bike and went to the RAGBRAI and cycled three days or 210 miles over the back roads of Iowa.
He said averaging 70 miles a day was “fun.”
And it does sound fun. All the little towns along the way have something to offer the riders. Churches serve pies, roving trucks geared up to serve barbecue, pasta or smoothies; kids set up lemonade stands along the way. “It’s like a rolling county fair,” he said.
He has slacked off since the ride. Now he puts in a mere 15 to 20 miles a day on his bike.
“It takes a while to do it,” he says, but figures it takes about the same amount of time as it would for him to drive to and from the gym to exercise.
In St. Louis, his little brother and wife – after years of college classes, papers and exams – declared themselves ready to shed the results of coffee shop study groups and midnight cram sessions.
In April, as my son worked hard to win a weight contest at the Y, his wife found the Tour de Kirkwood –≠a triathlon sprint: Eight laps of the swimming pool, 12 miles on bike and 3.3 miles of jogging. She wanted to enter it – with someone.
My son volunteered to be her partner.
“The only reason I did the triathlon was because Joy did it. I said ‘if you’re going to do it, then I’ll do it,’” he told me. She found a schedule of suggested activities to get in shape.
He exercised before work. She went during the day when the Y offered child care.
They cycled. They ran. They swam. They did all the things that defied their personality as a couple when they married eight years ago.
On the day of the triathlon, they still did not consider themselves athletic. They signed up for the last heat of swimmers and trailed near the end. But, they walked away looking slimmer and fitter than I have ever seen them.
“We are still exercising, but not in the same way and not as frequently,” my son said last week. They both get in a couple days a week, but already know they will not participate in the triathlon sprint next summer. That about the time they anticipate the arrival of child number two.
A week after they swam, rode and jogged, our only son-in-love tackled his first triathlon sprint in Arkansas: 500-yard swim, 5K run and 15-mile bike ride. For weeks, he prepared with 5 a.m. runs or a bike rides and swam after work.
The day of the event, he plunged in with the first group of swimmers and struggled to finish with the last group. With one arm, his swimming time may be slower, but he definitely can run and cycle quickly – he finished first of the six or seven men from his church who participated in the event with him.
I am astounded. I have not done much swimming since my childhood – and even less cycling. My bi-pedal activity primarily consists of walking fast and a few rounds on the elliptical.
We still are not an particularly athletic family. They’ve all slacked off a bit since the summer events, but with a new year looming, that could quickly change.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)