Back on the Bicycle, Days 1 & 2
Last summer the family went back to Maine for a vacation. One of the highlights was renting bicycles in Acadia Nat'l Park and riding the carriage trails through the woods. I hadn't been on a bike since I think 1983, when I took a really scary fall. Getting back on a bike was an act of courage, but my body still remembered how to do it. It was a gorgeous, if arduous ride, and I felt I'd reclaimed a part of myself. When we got back to California I thought about it for a while, shopped around a lot, did lots of research and ended up with a men's Cannondale Quick 4 hybrid. The men's small is almost exactly the dimensions of the women's size, was on sale, and I really liked the red and black paint scheme.
I biked a lot for a while, and got up to six miles, but then got distracted by school and ended up only riding sporadically. Doug started riding it to work. Then a week ago Friday he took that flip and I bought him his own bike for his birthday. Now I had no excuse not to ride. I bought some Timbuk2 panniers at REI this weekend and am back on the road.
Day 1: So, I'm back on my bike after a long hiatus for a variety of reasons, sloth looming large among them. I have made a pact with myself to be better about exercising and I do like to cycle, so last week I bought myself a good set of panniers so I have no excuse for not riding my bike to Panera, an almost daily journey of 2.8 miles each way. It's a start. My friend Taryn Holvick is my inspiration and she knows why.
So of course, I waited until the hottest part of the day to pack up and head to my office away from home. All went well, as in I did not fall over or hit anything, and I call that a good ride. Apart from the pounding heart, dripping sweat, empurpled complextion, rubber legs and general wibbliness, I am quite pleased with myself. So long as I don't think too much about how much of the trip home is uphill. Somewhere, Taryn Holvick is laughing at me. And she knows why.
Day 2: This morning I mentioned to my son that while my book laden panniers do make the bike hard to balance when it's not rolling, but that once you are you don't really notice them. We'll come back to that. I rolled off for Panera much earlier than I did yesterday, with the temperatures in the 70s rather than the 90s. As you might expect, it was a much more pleasant ride and I arrived in much less of a sweat, not purple at all, and less wibbly, or so I thought. I rolled confidently up to the curb at Panera, braked to a stop and started to dismount. Only to experience a critical fail of the left knee. Remember how heavy panniers make it hard to balance the bike at full stop? I picked myself and bike up as an elderly couple came out and asked if I was hurt. "Only my pride" I bravely replied, hoping I hadn't shattered my left elbow, which seems to have taken most of the fall.
My elbow is not broken, just scuffed and sore. Being of a well padded build, I didn't suffer any other immediate injury, though I suspect I'll have a bruised hip tomorrow.
I biked a lot for a while, and got up to six miles, but then got distracted by school and ended up only riding sporadically. Doug started riding it to work. Then a week ago Friday he took that flip and I bought him his own bike for his birthday. Now I had no excuse not to ride. I bought some Timbuk2 panniers at REI this weekend and am back on the road.
Day 1: So, I'm back on my bike after a long hiatus for a variety of reasons, sloth looming large among them. I have made a pact with myself to be better about exercising and I do like to cycle, so last week I bought myself a good set of panniers so I have no excuse for not riding my bike to Panera, an almost daily journey of 2.8 miles each way. It's a start. My friend Taryn Holvick is my inspiration and she knows why.
So of course, I waited until the hottest part of the day to pack up and head to my office away from home. All went well, as in I did not fall over or hit anything, and I call that a good ride. Apart from the pounding heart, dripping sweat, empurpled complextion, rubber legs and general wibbliness, I am quite pleased with myself. So long as I don't think too much about how much of the trip home is uphill. Somewhere, Taryn Holvick is laughing at me. And she knows why.
Day 2: This morning I mentioned to my son that while my book laden panniers do make the bike hard to balance when it's not rolling, but that once you are you don't really notice them. We'll come back to that. I rolled off for Panera much earlier than I did yesterday, with the temperatures in the 70s rather than the 90s. As you might expect, it was a much more pleasant ride and I arrived in much less of a sweat, not purple at all, and less wibbly, or so I thought. I rolled confidently up to the curb at Panera, braked to a stop and started to dismount. Only to experience a critical fail of the left knee. Remember how heavy panniers make it hard to balance the bike at full stop? I picked myself and bike up as an elderly couple came out and asked if I was hurt. "Only my pride" I bravely replied, hoping I hadn't shattered my left elbow, which seems to have taken most of the fall.
My elbow is not broken, just scuffed and sore. Being of a well padded build, I didn't suffer any other immediate injury, though I suspect I'll have a bruised hip tomorrow.
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