Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Natures's gym

Ah, great outdoors. I really needed this weekend...beautiful warm weather, without humidity, and a chance to play outside...to feel human again.

Yesterday was the first time I've ridden a bike since last August when we were ar the beach. Last summer, I think I did one ride in July (inspired by le Tour) that left me crippled for a few days, and the tooling around while on vacation. That was it.

Yesterday's 12 miles were looping through a local park. Except that the loops get pretty boring (there are not quite five miles of road to work with), I like riding there because it is mercifully quiet...there are cars, yes, but usually they aren't zooming around like madmen. And unlike the trails, where I won't ride anymore, there is plenty of room to share with the walkers/joggers/rollerbladers.

VeloNews' Patrick O'Grady sums up the dangers of mixed use trails a bit coarsely, but not wholly inaccurately, in his "foaming rant" last week:

Motorists say bicyclists impede traffic. Bicyclists say they are traffic. Pedestrians think traffic was a Seventies rock band featuring Stevie Winwood. They're listening to "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" on their iPods as you ask them, over and over again, in a progressively louder tone of voice, if you can pass.

Cycling among a herd of pedestrians on a sunny spring day is like racing cyclo-cross in a feedlot. On the rare occasions when they actually see you coming, they either stand directly in your path with a blank stare, chewing their cuds, or scatter ponderously in all directions, bawling and shitting themselves.

Anyway, yesterday was my best "first ride back" in the last few years. I was winded on the hills, but not feeling like my lungs were on fire, and my knees didn't start crunching and aching 'til I'd been home for a few hours.

It's not only my knees that are sore, but that's not a fitness deficiency. I know there's a saddle out there somewhere with my butt's name on it, I just need to find it.

Given that soreness, I wasn't quite ready to ride again today, but I did need to get outside again. Victor and I took the dog up to another park (parks with lakes are one of my favorite things about living where I do) and did a little hike. We actually veered off the beaten path a little, got into the woods and had to use some different muscles to go up and down hills and over rocks...maybe a little too much work for a pudgy, middle-aged beagle with a heart condition. We cut it short when her tail stopped wagging, but once she got home to some food and the sofa she was perfectly fine again. (And she was completely ready for her after-dinner stroll tonight, so no need to worry that I gave her a heart attack.)

I definitely think the quickie gym and the walk aerobics have helped. I'm not in the shape I was when I was regularly riding 100, 120-mile weekends...but given the job and the pets and the house, I may not be able to do that again until I retire (assuming the knees hold up). The gym & video system is a maintenance plan so that when the good weather finally does come around I can ride and hike (and paddle, I hope, once the boat rentals open...I am going to try conquering my aquaphobia with a canoe) on the weekends and still be able to move on Monday.

Posted by Nic at April 18, 2004 06:13 PM