For those of you who miss the old-style blog updates where I ramble about my life, welcome back!
I think I’ve put about 20 miles total on the bike so far…did a 5.5 mile ride just now. Some observations:
- Riding in a major city, even here on the edges, is very different from PA riding, or even Syracuse riding. You learn to be grateful for things like bike lanes very quickly.
- I miss having bar ends on my handlebars–those upturned bullhorn-looking bits some mountain bikers use. They give you some added hand positions so your hands don’t get as tired, and provide more leverage when climbing. I intentionally didn’t add any yet because I want to figure out if I’m actually putting too much weight forward on my arms and hands when I should be focusing on my legs.
- Good motorcyclists don’t trust just their mirrors; they do head checks. In fact, I do that when I drive my car. But I do miss having a mirror to give me some greater sense of what’s around me.
- You feel a lot more exposed at 20 mph on a bike than on a motorcycle, on account of the complete lack of padding.
- A local woman in her 20s was just killed on a bike not far from here–she wasn’t wearing a helmet and zoomed out into an intersection, I believe. Safety gear doesn’t protect against every accident, but when I hear things like that, it makes me really really sad. 80/20 rule: seatbelts, helmets, motorcycle jackets, and life preservers work 80% of the time, and the 20% of the time they don’t, there wasn’t anything you could have done anyway.
- When I started today’s ride, I kept glancing at my cycle computer, checking how far I had gone. I realized I was treating the ride like a workout, a visit to the gym, instead of a fun respite from the computer. I switched the computer to show max speed instead.
- The difference between gravel and pavement is really significant on rolling resistance.
- The aforementioned gravel is a path/trail that runs along the local reservoir, next to Boston College. I used to run out there sometimes. I saw a lot of runners today, and they all looked miserable and in severe pain. That’s because running (other than possibly trail running in the woods or on some backroad somewhere) is not fun.
- I am finding that I’m more relaxed, more upbeat and on more of an even keel this week as a result of getting the bike–well, specifically, as a result of starting to get exercise again. This is not a surprise. The difficulty is in overcoming the inertia of laziness. Finding a fun way to get my blood moving is really the secret here; before I know it, I’ll accidentally be in shape.
- If I went for a half-mile run, I’d be soaked in sweat. I can go for a short ride, though, and be pretty ok as far as dampness goes.
- Buying a bike, for me, is like buying pants that fit: you might not be happy with the size, but they fit, which makes you feel better about yourself, which allows you to do all the other things that help you improve your life. Yeah, I would have burned more calories running for 30 minutes today, but at least I did something other than sitting on the couch. Life is all about putting on your pants.
- Some of the anti-running is definitely due to being enamored with rediscovering an old sport that I had all but forgotten.
- Speaking of rediscovering old whatever, I now again own an acoustic guitar, a bicycle, various toy guns, a Nintendo, and I am regularly playing with (the high-tech electronic equivalent of) Legos. All I need are some G.I. Joes and a fort in the woods, and my elaborate idealized childhood simulation will be complete.
- Some of the anti-running is due to being so out of shape that I can’t do the easy, light 3-mile jogs I used to do. My goal is to eventually be able to mix things up for variety: the odd run and 5K, some longer bike rides, and plenty of errands.
- Speaking of errands: you can, in fact, easily bungee-cord a full case of Coors Lite cans to a cargo rack. Silver Bullets, meet Silver Bullet.