Were you athletic as a kid?

[five one]

5'1" I was going to meet and marry him too! what did that Patti know anyway?!
we also stayed out everyday to play, but not just in the summer. It's raining?
wear a raincoat!

Yeah...Patti Boyd. She was so...I don't know...blonde. I was so...not blonde. I did copy her hair and make up though. Just in case George came to his senses .

We got sent out into the snow in snowsuits and "idiot" mittens. The kind with the string that went up one sleeve and down the other so you'd never lose them. Whenever I smell wet wool, it takes me back to Colorado in the 50s.

[mimitabby]

Yeah...Patti Boyd. She was so...I don't know...blonde. I was so...not blonde. I did copy her hair and make up though. Just in case George came to his senses .

We got sent out into the snow in snowsuits and "idiot" mittens. The kind with the string that went up one sleeve and down the other so you'd never lose them. Whenever I smell wet wool, it takes me back to Colorado in the 50s.

Colorado! In the winter the limiting factor was our feet. those little rubber boots didn't keep the feet very warm.. and when the snow was deep, it always went down inside our shoes. I grew up in Newark NJ vicinity, before children were raised with so much fear.

I was not blonde nor did i wear makeup back then. (or now for that matter)

[Pax]

I was a hard core athlete growing up, I played tennis, softball, track, and swimming in high school. When I got to college I added rugby, racquetball, and fencing to the mix. I stayed an active athlete until I had enough surgery that playing any sport got too painful. My SO is a long-term athlete who was a cyclist and a runner when we got together (17 years ago), she got me interesting cycling and I found the transition to a bike to be effortless in terms of comfort with the actual bike...I can't say the same was true for my butt.

[maillotpois]

They put me into remedial PE when I was in elementary school. That's back when they had funding for that sort of thing.

Eye-hand coordination, ball sports, not my thing. I'd ride my horse all day and hike through the woods. But because they put me in a "special" program I always believed I wasn't an athlete.

Until I bought a bike 6 years ago.

[li10up]

I loved reading all your stories (and keep them coming) but I'm really interested in seeing if there is a correlation between being and athlete and being able to start riding without difficulty. Does being an "athlete" translate into picking up sports, i.e. cycling, easier?

[Pax]

I loved reading all your stories (and keep them coming) but I'm really interested in seeing if there is a correlation between being and athlete and being able to start riding without difficulty. Does being an "athlete" translate into picking up sports, i.e. cycling, easier?

I read a couple of studies about that (sorry I can't remember the source), the gist was the people who learn a skill as a child actually form specific neural pathways that people who learn the same skill as adults don't. Anecdotally I have found this to be true, my friends and I (all old athletes) seem to be able to pick up new skills much easier than our non-athletic friends.

[Bikingmomof3]

I danced ballet until I was 18, was a down hill skier, and on the swim team yet I never really considered myslef athletic.

[Eden]

They put me into remedial PE when I was in elementary school. That's back when they had funding for that sort of thing.

Eye-hand coordination, ball sports, not my thing. I'd ride my horse all day and hike through the woods. But because they put me in a "special" program I always believed I wasn't an athlete.

Until I bought a bike 6 years ago.

Can't really say I was in remedial PE - but I've always been the smallest - so as far as school and organized sports go I certainly was never the one picked first (or second or third...) and ball sports have never exactly been my forte. I was always the one who could climb all of the way up the rope, do the most chin ups and I could always impress the bigger girls by leg pressing the whole weight stack.... (to tell the truth I don't think I could do that anymore). Cycling has always been ideal for me since endurance is my strong suit, but few teen sports are based around it, except perhaps swimming and cross country. By the time I was in high school I was doing long rides - I had a favorite 70 mile loop, but most other teenagers don't exactly have an understanding or much of an appreciation for it. Mostly I got asked what's wrong with your hands because I had bike glove tan lines. I certainly never though of myself as an athelete until very recently when I took up racing and found that I'm not half bad.

[SouthernBelle]

I've always been around sports and was one of the few girls in my neighborhood. When we played football in the backyard, I was q'back and developed a nice tight spiral. Can't throw that anymore. Played a little basketball, swam team.

Learned to ride a bike when I was 4. But cycling was not on the horizon as a sport in my life. By jr. high, none of us had bikes. Had one in college which was promptly stolen.

But when I came back to cycling, riding itself was not difficult. I could jump on a bike and ride away, even after 30+ years. And the changes in equipment are a boon once mastered. Still not queen of the hills though.

And Paul was mine.

[HappyAnika]

If there is a positive correlation to being an athelete growing up and taking to cycling easily, I may be the exception to the rule. I rode my bike around my neighborhood as a kid, then to and from school in Jr. high. Otherwise I was a lazy couch potato. I abhored PE, I used my asthma as an excuse to get out of doing as much as I could. I hated team sports because I sucked, was always last to be picked, and was frequently ridiculed for my ineptness. In college I used my same old 10 speed bike to get to and from far apart classes. I took an occasional aerobics class. Then my first year out of college I had a skiing accident and tore up my knee. After recovering from surgery I really liked my PT, it made my knee feel so much better. When I was discharged from PT I got a gym membership and have been working out ever since (aerobics, weight lifting, jogging, some stationary bike). I took up hiking and golf. The hiking became an obsession and in order to improve my cardio capacity I thought I’d take up cycling. I took to the bike quickly and easily. The only thing that I thought was hard (other than going up big hills) was reaching for the water bottle, but I got that with some practice. I think I rode about 3 or 4 weeks before going clipless. I was terrified at the thought, but I practiced on the trainer, then took off and have never looked back. Did I mention I like going downhill, FAST! I hit 35 mph within 2 weeks of getting my bike. Right now my record is 42.5, I hope to break that this summer.

So while I was definitely NOT athletic as a kid, I did ride a bike off and on, and I think riding the 10 speed made the road bike feel natural instead of foreign. I absolutely LOVED the lightness and speed of the bikes when I started test riding. So once I got my own bike last year I totally fell in love with riding. I rode every single weekend in addition to my weekday rides, whereas I only went hiking 2 or 3 times. I know I still have a lot to learn in terms of bike handling and descending techniques, among other things, but I would say (and others would agree) that I picked it up quickly.

[indysteel]

I wasn't much of an athelete as a young kid, at least not in an organized way. I was crazy about my bike, horses, roller skating and swimming, but I didn't pursue anything competitively. My parents were way too self involved to shuttle me from thing to thing and I wasn't attracted to any of the competitive sports offered at my Catholic grade school (does anybody really like kickball?).

Then, for some unknown reason, I became a crazed runner. I joined the track team as a freshman in H.S. and went a little nuts. There was one spot on the Varsity distance team, and I decided that I just had to have it. I desperately wanted to ultimately be a four-year letterman (a big deal at my H.S).

So, I started to training and competing like crazy. I think I ran in at least three meets a week through the season, despite injuries, vomiting (from the exertion of a full-on 800 meters), sleeplessness (I became an insomniac because of my training in the evening). I made it, though, and set some school records in the 800 meters. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but I did it all the same.

My sophomore year, I joined the cross country team and again ran through some injuries but set some school records in the process. Unbeknownst to me, I had a stress fracture in my foot. Instead of sending me to the doctor, my coach would just tape my foot up really tight and send me on my way. After the run, he'd then make me stand in a bucket of ice to deaden the pain. I walked on the side of my foot for a good three months before finally going to the doctor. I wish I could say that this was in the dark ages of training or something, but it was 1985.

I spent the off season on crutches. By the following spring, my body started to really give out and I was going to physical therapy for one thing after another, until my doctor told me that I was essentially running myself into the ground. Burnt out and terribly unhappy with what seemed like a monumental failure, I quit the team and never returned. I've always kind of regretted it, especially since I still don't enjoy running. It did help me recognize that I have a somewhat obsessive personality about certain things that I have to reign in from time to time so that I don't ruin something that I love. With cycling, I've remained motivated but not crazed about it. It helps that it's not as hard on my body.

[aicabsolut]

My sophomore year, I joined the cross country team and again ran through some injuries but set some school records in the process. Unbeknownst to me, I had a stress fracture in my foot. Instead of sending me to the doctor, my coach would just tape my foot up really tight and send me on my way. After the run, he'd then make me stand in a bucket of ice to deaden the pain. I walked on the side of my foot for a good three months before finally going to the doctor. I wish I could say that this was in the dark ages of training or something, but it was 1985.

Well in 1995 I had a stress fracture in my left tibia from horrendous shin spints (MTSS) and was on my way to trashing my right. Got it Xrayed too soon (didn't show up), and my doctor was clueless as to why I continued to be in pain weeks later. My coach had me get taped up and I also had to stand in ice buckets and take massive amounts of ibuprofin. It got so bad my ankles started to give out. I couldn't walk up or down stairs--couldn't put all of my weight on one leg at a time. I have nice scarring and the tibia have remapped themselves from that stress such that parts look porous like I have osteoperosis.

My Xrays now look pretty crappy. And running, though not competitively since then, has trashed one of my ankles which may or may not be good as new if I feel like getting a cartilage transplant (from my knee), which I don't want to do. So yep, my running days are over too.

So I had to start doing stuff with no weight bearing or impact. I started cycling indoors on spin bikes. I eventually got bored and wanted to do something competitive again. So I got the road bike. And it's fun! Though i'm going to be far from competitive come spring. That's the hardest thing for me to get used to after being an athlete. I'm not used to sucking so much at a sport I enjoy.

[hellosunshine]

chubby,teased,self conscious outsider!athletic?no,dreaded sports.country bumpkin living in the yorkshire dales,we just walked and walked.lycra clad cyclists were scoffed at!



35,slim,hit civilisation,knocked about by life experiences-took to the bike like duck to water!

after my first stop at some traffic lights when i went over like a domino,being clipless is second nature,it comes like breathing.

[DirtDiva]

I was a wannabe tomboy when I was a kid. I was adventurous, loved exploring and just generally being outdoors getting dirty, but no athlete - I was far too uncoordinated (couldn't throw or catch at all really until I was about nine) and not nearly fast enough to keep up with the boys. I didn't struggle with getting on a bike as more than a means of transport because I'd always had a bike since the day I turned four and I have that natural tendency to want to give thngs a go.

The interest in being fit and active has always been there, but when I was younger my idea of what "athletic" meant was quite different. I always thought that "athletes" were the kinds of people who really excelled at one or two sports and could pick up any sport and play it well. I thought an "athlete" was something you either were or weren't, rather than something you worked to become, but how can you not call someone who rides a century or does a triathlon athletic? I still don't think of myself as athletic (or even sporty), but of course I often ride with people who put in a lot more miles each week than I do and that influences my opinion considerably as I can't help but compare myself to them. I suspect your average couch potato would think I was obsessed...

I certainly wasn't athletic as a kid (much more the nerdy, musical type), but I was actually involved in quite a few different things over the course of my time at school, just none of it was competitive and most of it was stuff I simply gave a go for a year or so. I don't think I understood that organized sports were something you could just do for fun until I was about seventeen. Even now, I only enjoy playing team sports when going out for a beer after the game is more important than the scoreline. It's not that I'm non-competitive, I just need to be competing with myself first in order to enjoy competing against others. How hard can I push myself? How smart can I be? (Yes, it's all about me, girls! ) I think the reason I get so much out of cycling (on and off road) is that it can be as social or not as you wish whilst really testing your limits, be they phisical or mental, at the same time.

[IFjane]

Five-One & mimi - I'm sooooo glad I didn't have to compete with you two as a child - I was going to marry Paul!

I, too, was very active as a child. Outside all the time. Rarely played with dolls or girly things - preferred instead to dress up the family dog & drag her around the neighborhood. I have been riding bikes since I was 5. We lived exactly one mile from the neighborhood elementary school & all the kids rode their bikes to and from school every day. (Kindergarten through 6th grade.) Got my first 10-speed at the age of 20 but quit riding regularly a couple years later. In the summers I swam and water skied (does "skied" have two i's?). In addition to riding my bike, we had horses & I rode/showed them. I never participated in organized sports.

To my mom's credit, she tried to make me more girly by enrolling me in ballet lessons as a child - I think I lasted two sessions.

I took up riding (bikes) regularly again at about age 43 with a mountain bike, then switched to primarily road biking about 5 years ago. No, it was not difficult for me to ride again. That said, I do carry a scar from chain ring bite from my early attempts at clipless pedals!