Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Who knew?
Am without a car for a couple of days so got the sister's bike out, shined it off, kicked the tyres and rolled it out for a spin. Who knew that riding a bike was so hard?
I remember riding a bike, I used to ride one all the time when I was a kid. And I have gone on rides once or twice with friends over the years (admittedly not recently, but still). And I have been using the exercise bike at the gym so I thought my bike muscles were getting into shape a little. But it turns out that I am both really crap and incredibly unfit. And that riding a bike on the road bears only a passing resemblance to riding a stationary bike in the gym.
By the end of my laughably short journey, I was wheezing along in first gear like a total loser. My sister is a freakin midget so the poorly adjusted seat probably didn't help. I was riding on a perfectly good bike track so totally smooth sailing but my breezy confidence in fooling around with the gears (still can't figure out how they work properly) soon evaporated in the face of my ineptness.
I will be doing a bit more riding over the next couple of days so hopefully I will either get better at it, or at least be able to ride for 10 minutes without suffering a heart attack. I am a sucker for appearances and I am not keen on walking into the gym about to collapse before I have even started my workout.
I remember riding a bike, I used to ride one all the time when I was a kid. And I have gone on rides once or twice with friends over the years (admittedly not recently, but still). And I have been using the exercise bike at the gym so I thought my bike muscles were getting into shape a little. But it turns out that I am both really crap and incredibly unfit. And that riding a bike on the road bears only a passing resemblance to riding a stationary bike in the gym.
By the end of my laughably short journey, I was wheezing along in first gear like a total loser. My sister is a freakin midget so the poorly adjusted seat probably didn't help. I was riding on a perfectly good bike track so totally smooth sailing but my breezy confidence in fooling around with the gears (still can't figure out how they work properly) soon evaporated in the face of my ineptness.
I will be doing a bit more riding over the next couple of days so hopefully I will either get better at it, or at least be able to ride for 10 minutes without suffering a heart attack. I am a sucker for appearances and I am not keen on walking into the gym about to collapse before I have even started my workout.