EMoonTX
12-17-2012, 08:33 PM
It's been a week or so since I posted--right after getting the bike computer and rear-view mirror--and it's amazing how motivating that bike computer can be. Apparently I'm a sucker for numbers turning over. So the distances are creeping up, interrupted by a day of massive leg cramps, another day of bad weather (not confident at all on wet roads), and yet another day of the handlebars rotating in a very alarming way (in fact, a "get off the bike and walk it home" way. But a day in the bike shop (for a complete tune-up, the repair, and raising the seat a little) got me back on the road, the cramps eased off with a day's rest, and so on. And the daily rides can now be measured in multiple miles. Not many multiple miles, but "'more than one' is an infinite number." One session is at two miles and the other is creeping its way up (today, with a strong gusty headwind on the up-slope segments, the last ride was just over a half mile. Boy, do I hate headwind when going up a slope!) Some of the dogs along the route have gotten used to me (usually no barking, sometimes one woof) but some of them use me as an excuse for exercise, yapping frantically as they run back and forth in their yards. SO glad they're all behind fences.
As encouraging as the increasing distance on the street is increasing confidence on both the street and on the land. I managed almost the whole trail through the dry woods--winding, with a climb over a hump, then a sharper drop-off followed by a (for me) sharp turn, and more winding between cactus and then brush. (I still can't get up the drop-off, going the other way, with enough oomph to make it the rest of the way over the high point of the trail. But I will.) Picking up speed on the down-slope direction of the street brings back the feeling I had on my first "real" bike (the one that had never had training wheels) with the wind in my hair. (No, none of us had helmets in those days. I'm not even sure bike helmets existed.) The bike computer tells me how fast I'm going, which is, like the distance readout, an incentive. If I can do 7.9 up-slope, why not 8? (Shut up, legs.)
The old mountain bike is gone from the place, handed over to the bike shop to check over for possible donation to a person in need--though they expressed concern about its age and the long-term viability of the frame. "We might hang it up to show what a really good mountain bike looked like that long ago." I refrained from pointing out that I was more than five times as old as that mountain bike and nobody's going to hang me from a ceiling (I hope!) any time soon.
As encouraging as the increasing distance on the street is increasing confidence on both the street and on the land. I managed almost the whole trail through the dry woods--winding, with a climb over a hump, then a sharper drop-off followed by a (for me) sharp turn, and more winding between cactus and then brush. (I still can't get up the drop-off, going the other way, with enough oomph to make it the rest of the way over the high point of the trail. But I will.) Picking up speed on the down-slope direction of the street brings back the feeling I had on my first "real" bike (the one that had never had training wheels) with the wind in my hair. (No, none of us had helmets in those days. I'm not even sure bike helmets existed.) The bike computer tells me how fast I'm going, which is, like the distance readout, an incentive. If I can do 7.9 up-slope, why not 8? (Shut up, legs.)
The old mountain bike is gone from the place, handed over to the bike shop to check over for possible donation to a person in need--though they expressed concern about its age and the long-term viability of the frame. "We might hang it up to show what a really good mountain bike looked like that long ago." I refrained from pointing out that I was more than five times as old as that mountain bike and nobody's going to hang me from a ceiling (I hope!) any time soon.