My adventure into cycling has been an esteem lifting experience as well...I have always loved tooling around on a bike and was jealous of those screaming by me on the road or those gettin' all dirty (I have always loved mud-puddles)
For a while I was married to a very controlling, verbally abusive person (I do not say man cause he does not deserve that title...I use person with hesitancy *is that a word?) It took a year to crawl out from the hole I had allowed myself to bury myself in...I started riding a very old Diamond Back to the gym and to work, running, lifting weights, quit smoking, quit drinking...then he came into my life
We went on a MTBike ride and I was HOOOKED!!!! ....and after seeing me ride, he was too He went out and bought me a Santa Cruz Juliana after dating a month

A few months later and many, many rides one day on the way home I burst out in tears (and I mean BURST!) Poor Chris had NO idea what was going on....and neither did I... I did know that I was extremely happy and it all just came out at once...LOL!

I had fully gotten over the X, but I had not completely renewed myself. Cycling has been a constant reminder that there is always something different and you must adjust to stay upright. It has also been a great challenge...as if getting older wasn't enough!

Yesterday I experience a slue of emotions (being hormonal doesn't help) but I chose to walk down a few drops that I have made in the past and after chickening out on one I started to get upset that I was regressing in skill (I won't mention the sections were extremely washed out since last ride cause of rain) until we came upon a climb that I have NEVER made up...I made it with NO PROBLEM!!!! and Chris went at it twice with no luck , but boy did that make me feel good....all my worries about lacking was gone!!!! I rode the rest of the trail with great pride and even made it up a few more climbs I have never made before!!!! WEEEEEE!!!

Needless to say I have gained so much from just being out on a bicycle....