Xinhua News Agency, Guiyang, June 7th: She is 55 years old and dreams of riding far away
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Minghong
In Wang Xia's QQ space, there are more than 12,000 photos of her participating in outdoor sports, including cycling, hiking, marathon, and cross-country running.
In May of this year, she spent 24 days, starting from Dali, Yunnan, and cycling to Lhasa, with a total of 1,800 kilometers.
The 55-year-old Wang Xia is from Bijie, Guizhou, and started participating in outdoor sports in 2013.
"After my daughter went to college, the burden was light, so she thought about exercising." Wang Xia said that she mainly participated in hiking at first, and would go out for a walk every holiday and weekend.
Wang Xia likes the feeling of walking in nature.
From 2013 to 2015, she went to many places on foot in Guizhou.
In 2015, Wang Xia started running.
In August of the same year, the 2015 Liangdu Liupanshui Summer International Marathon opened. She signed up for the 10-kilometer run and finished the race in more than 50 minutes.
It was her first time participating in an official competition, and "it felt good".
In 2016, Wang Xia ran the full marathon for the first time.
Later, as long as there is a suitable competition, she will sign up to participate, and has been to Yunnan, Chongqing, Henan and Beijing to participate in the competition.
In order to adapt to the intensity of the competition, she urged herself to train, running 10 kilometers to 15 kilometers every day.
At present, her best marathon time is about 5 hours, which is not very good in "running laps", but she doesn't really care about it.
"Every time I go out to participate in the competition is a trip, to see the scenery of various places and experience the local customs." Wang Xia said that participating in the competition is not for winning prizes.
In 2017, Wang Xia retired and had more time to participate in outdoor sports. Cycling became her "new favorite".
"I got into cycling because of my friends, and since I've retired, I just want to go out with them," she said.
In May 2018, Wang Xia teamed up with fellow riders to cycle from Chengdu, Sichuan to Dunhuang, Gansu, completing her first long-distance ride.
Previously, she had no contact with cycling training.
"Before I set off, I was really at a loss. I didn't know anything, so I could only learn slowly." Wang Xia said that the goal she set for herself was to keep riding the planned mileage every day.
Since then, Wang Xia will team up with fellow riders to ride a long line every May.
Before each departure, she will perform physical training for about two months. The training content includes 2 sets of squats per week, each set of 600, 2 times of rope skipping, 1,000 each time, running more than 2,000 steps and running 10 kilometers a day. .
"Sweat drips down the ground like rain during training. But if you don't train hard, you will suffer on the road."
At present, she mainly takes her grandchildren at home on weekdays.
But every time she is ready to go out for a ride, her daughter and son-in-law will give firm support and help her prepare supplies.
This year, in order to make her ride with peace of mind, her daughter and son-in-law even sent their children to the nursery.
"They said that I like this sport and I can still ride, so let me go out and see more." Wang Xia said.
Food and lodging is the biggest problem in cycling. Sometimes, Wang Xia only has two packs of instant noodles a day.
"Eat one packet in the morning, and eat another packet in the afternoon." She said that the beautiful scenery along the way often made her forget these hardships, and the warm and kind deeds of strangers often moved her, "Humanity is very kind and very kind. warmth".
Having participated in outdoor sports for 9 years, Wang Xia feels that her physical fitness and mental outlook have improved a lot.
She suffers from severe bronchitis. She used to catch colds easily every winter, but now she rarely catches colds.
"I'm in good spirits now, and it's okay to do some important physical work," she said with a smile.
Regarding the future, Wang Xia's plan is to live well, live healthily, and do what she likes.
When conditions permit, she will ride to more places and see more great mountains and rivers of the motherland.