My Personal Trainer Gave Me a Choice of Fitness Activities

Caption: 1. Jim and Maria Conzemius at a bar on a bike ride. I'm wearing my Skunk Ride cap from a Colfax, Iowa bike ride long ago. 2. Jim and the nice guy who took our photo in photo 1. Wish I'd gotten his name!

Years ago it was my idea to start bicycling. I wanted to go on the first KGAN Ride on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from Hiawatha to Waterloo (52 miles each way). We took the kids, who were two and seven-and-a half years old. Sarah was cheerful and happy in the Burley trailer with her books and bunny the first day but was a disaster the second day because she'd missed her nap the first day, so Jim rode with her in the baggage truck. Jesse did fine the second day until he gulped a hotdog and a Pepsi before the last 15 miles back to Hiawatha. That made him sick in the heat.

A soccer player from Chicago carried Jesse's bike on his shoulder while I carried Jesse in the child seat on the back of my bike. The child seat had a weight limit of 40 pounds. He weighed a muscular 65 pounds. Carrying him was particularly tricky on a stretch of big gravel. The big gravel, on which I felt very unstable, was the result of a farmer's decision not to sell a piece of his land for the trail. As a result, there was an alternate route of gravel around his farm.

We started bicycling a lot as a family after that. Sarah stayed at daycare ("Kitty Ketter" or Kiddy Konnection) for Jesse's and my first leg of our first RAGBRAI in 1991 between Solon and Anamosa (very hilly). Jesse wore a helmet, fortunately, because he and another little boy ran into each other and Jesse fell on his head. A nurse bicycling behind me said, "I saw that, and I'd park him for about five minutes."

I parked him on the side of the road, but he seemed to be fine. He kept saying, "Come on, Mom! Let's go, Mom!" He loved RAGBRAI, even the steep, steep hills on the way to Anamosa!

Eventually, Jesse at 14 or 15 could ride 110 miles at a time and push his sister for the last 10 miles. He was a strong rider, even winning a race against older, more experienced riders at Hawkeye Downs. Whenever I felt his strong hand in the middle of my back, pushing me uphill, I was grateful. Sarah got strong, too. She loved beating men up the hills. She had a great strength-to-weight ratio as a teen.

Both kids bailed on RAGBRAI when they were 16. Sarah ran off to stay with her best friend in the country. Jesse just plain refused to go. Do they know how much fun we had? Will they ever come back to RAGBRAI?

Now that they're grown and gone, I'm happy that they're self-sufficient. I miss them though and see them as often as possible without interfering in their lives. Sarah's married and Jesse has a live-in girlfriend.

Have I grown stronger as a bicyclist in the meantime? For a while I did. But then, during the summer of 2017, my right knee got really sore. We quit our gym membership because we weren't going. I applied Diclofenac gel to my knee until weeks later, it got better. Then my right foot got really painful. I have an extra bone in each foot, a not-so-rare genetic anomaly.

When the pain got to be almost unbearable, I did what any sensible person in the last stages of desperation would do, I followed all of my doctor's advice. I started wearing my clumsy, Velcroed, stiff night splint on my right leg and foot again. It makes my foot form a right angle with my ankle and leg. The splint really helps.

Jim is somewhat sympathetic, but fitness training must prevail. After biking to work at least twice this week, he asked me if I wanted to go on a walk, bike our 15.34-mile loop, or bike all the way up Scott Boulevard to Dodge Street and back (a steep, hilly route).

Walking seemed too tame. We've done that. I need bike training to be ready for RAGBRAI. I thought about our loop, but remembered the guy who got hit, kicked, and shot at after he confronted six men who blocked his car with their bodies on Lakeside Drive near Amber in broad daylight, no less. That's right near the pillared entrance to a nice nature trail in Iowa City and also right in front of Grant Wood Elementary School. It makes me mad that Thugs R Us are making me think twice about accessing public trails south of Highway 6. There should be more of a police presence down there.

Jim reminded me that I'd biked 16 or 17 miles or so on the Shamrock Ride on St. Patrick's Day March 17th. He reminded me of the hills between Dyersville and Farley, which I remember, but somehow Scott Boulevard's hills seemed more daunting. I wasn't sure I could do those hills, but I said yes, I'd do those hills if we stopped at Blackstone's on the way out north. Accustomed to compromising if I'll just train with him, Jim reluctantly agreed.

I surprised myself. I can't say I kept up with him as well as I would have liked (I used to be faster than he is), but I acquitted myself better than I thought I would.

And I talked Jim into stopping again at Blackstone's on the way back. I had a second gin-and-tonic, and he advised me to have something light to eat to "soak it up." He put away another beer. I had French onion soup.

Jim's virtues are persistence, discipline, and the ability to rise early (4:10 a.m.) and exercise before he goes to work, bike to work when the weather is above, say, 35 degrees, exercise some more when he gets to work in the workout room, and ride home when he's off work. He has fitness goals and reaches them.

He's an excellent role model. I, on the other hand, rarely rise before 7:00 a.m., do not exercise first thing in the morning. I drink lots of coffee and read several newspapers before doing anything else unless someone (like our kitty, Chloe, or hungry birds and squirrels) is in urgent need of water or food.

Family history of heart disease and stroke on both sides of the family forces me to rise to the occasion, however stiff and sore I may feel. The main thing, as my hairstylist Patty said, is "to get out the door." It's so much easier after you just get out the door to walk, bike, skate, skateboard, or do whatever it is you do once you get out the door. The more often I put on my bike shorts, reflective tights, warm top, balaclava, bike cap with a visor, and helmet, the easier getting out the door becomes. I fill up my water bottles last, strap my fanny pack around my waist, and I'm ready to go! Then muscle memory takes over.