I haven't ridden a bike in a long time. So long, that I have no idea when I last rode one. Not a clue. Last night my husband suggested we go for a bike ride. Why not. You don't forget how to ride one, right? And it's true, it all came back.
I was a bit cautious overall as I could easily overcorrect while I got used to the bike. We weren't racing, but we weren't out for a stroll. This was for exercise. We stayed on larger paved paths and ended up going about 7.5 miles.
I'd been doing a lot of walking and some running, but I wasn't ready for just how fast you make progress on a bike. Woosh, a mile goes by in no time. You're working as hard as you would running or walking that same mile, but talk about fun. Except for the seat. Today I'm sore in the bike seat areas.
When I got on the bike, I didn't see the gear changers. I knew it was a multi-speed bike but I didn't see the gear-changing handles I remembered. It turns out I'm decades behind the times. You twist part of the handle on each side to change gears. So smooth, so cool. So high-tech.
My high-tech bike had a basket on the front too. And a little bell. The kind of bell you remember from kids bikes that go bling-bling-bling. Very "quaint" as my husband said. It felt so modern and old-timey at the same time.
We used the bells a lot as we went through a windy path lit only by path lights. We didn't want to bowl walkers over; and I was still looking for the brakes. It sounded almost horror-movieish with the bike bells going off in the dark on the path in the marsh.
I discovered it was uncomfortable for me to ride a bike. The angle I needed to hold my head at in order to see forward is the perfectly wrong angle for my neck. Pain. Then, I realized if I took my glasses off, I could adjust the angle and everything would be fine. I worried for the rest of the ride that my glasses would fly off my head and I'd lose them. But they made it saftely home. Next ride, no glasses.
The most unusual thing of all was the incline. We rode downhill on a very minor slope for a long long time at first. Wait, we're almost at sea level. I've been monitoring the elevation with the app I use on walks. We couldn't be going downhill for that long. It was a strange, nighttime, haven't biked in twenty years, optical ilusion, Thankfully, we didn't have to bike uphill all the way home. As it turns out, going back was all downhill too.
The Big Boy Update: We specialize in fat feet. That's what the lady said at the Crocs store today, which is good, because that's why I took him there. He has three pair of new shoes, one of them sandals, that look fantastic on him, and most importantly, he's got shoes that fit his fat feet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: White or Blonde? Her hair is growing now. She is the utmost pale and has the whitest of white hair. But she's out in the sun now (with sunscreen, of course) but is her hair coming in a wee bit blonde? It could be the sunscreen caked on her hair that I haven't gotten all out. It could be that her scalp is getting a little color. Or she could be growing in blonde. Time will tell.
Right-size Countdown: 3.6 Pounds to go
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