Form One Lane

spinning wheels

So the attempt to return to regular 'blogging was fairly successful, but short-lived. It may be because I am amazingly boring.

I mentioned back in May that I was just one repaired inner tube away from finding out if I could still ride a bicycle with the same gay abandon I did as a little tacker (incidentally, I love that post; I'll likely never make it as a writer, but I can at least make myself chuckle). The variables are actually quite well-controlled here, since the bike is the same one I rode as an 11-year-old.

It was only on Tuesday that I finally got around to repairing the bike, and I discovered that in the meantime I had managed to lose my bike lock, which fact may not prevent me from going anywhere, but which certainly keeps me from staying there once I arrive. I rode down to Phillip to get myself a new bike lock, figuring that I could just carry the bike around with me inside the bike shop. Phillip's a little over 2km away. Should be easy.

Well, I thought it would be easy. Turns out I'm less fit than I thought. I rolled into the shop on legs that weren't entirely sure what dimension they ought to occupy, but which were sure they were still meant to be peddling. This was pretty much the point the nice young men (and nice and hot young lady) pointed out that my bike seat hadn't been adjusted in, like, ever, and that this probably explained why my knees met my ears with every revolution. I had been pondering that very problem.

The ride home was much easier — easier like whoa, as the young'uns do say. Nonetheless, my legs were on fire, and remained on fire until about five minutes ago. One thing that really struck me is that, unlike other punishing activities like hiking and jogging, I don't actually enjoy cycling that much. Maybe my opinion will change as I get better at it. Maybe I need to try riding a real road bicycle instead of a kid's mountain bike.

My time hiking (which, I believe, I've never 'blogged about) introduced me to the concept that, with enough patience and preparation I can go anywhere. This is an incredibly empowering and liberating thought, and something I'll probably expand on later if I ever regain any semblance of my former self-discipline. But it does require patience, and since any round trip over 10km will take more time than I usually have to spare, I need to find some way to get around faster — some way that still affords me a spot of exercise. I think cycling regularly is the single most effective thing I could do to push me down to my weight-loss goal ... so I'd better bloody get to it.