Thursday, January 31, 2013
The winter wears on
Since my first ride, on Jan. 19, about which I blogged, I have longed to get back out there and ride again. But our temperatures immediately plunged back to typical wintry levels, so that I was unable to. Then, this week, it has been milder, but because of my work schedule I couldn't ride - and now, with the weekend coming up, the bone-chilling cold has returned! Oh well, I guess I just need to be patient, and trust that when the time is right, I'll be able to get out there again.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
First ride
As I've said previously, my good friend Doug Tidd has been trying for years to convert me to bicycling, as he is a very avid cyclist. Now, due to arthritis in my knees and back, I've decided to make the move, which the doctor has approved. So, since Doug last night provided me with a bike (which he had wanted to get to me several weeks ago) -- "It's nothing elegant," he explained, "but at least it's wheels" -- I took advantage of our unseasonably mild weather (46 degrees this afternoon) to get started. (I had bought a helmet last spring, at a time when I was hoping to begin.)
I deliberately chose a route that I figured would be non-challenging for this first outing -- going down the Lohr-Textile Greenway, a paved path 8-10 feet wide that runs along the east side of Lohr Road from Ellsworth down to Textile -- and the route itself was fairly non-challenging, but it was all I wanted for today. I'm sure I'll build up stamina, but this ride, of a mere 5.6 miles in a poky time of 35 minutes, pushed me. The challenges for this novice included (1) finding my equilibrium as I experienced my wobbly arms and legs; (2) learning how the gears worked -- this was important because, even though it's a relatively flat stretch, there are a few mild hills where I needed to shift, and some experimentation taught me how to do that; (3) locating and learning how to use the brakes -- an important bit of the learning curve that I experienced when just starting out, as I crossed Ellsworth and set off on the Greenway, but almost collided with a pole. I did manage to turn and slide by it, though.
So, next time at least I'll have a little bit of experience under my belt. I hope by summer to be doing relatively lengthy rides. I have in mind routes of 15 miles or so which I had wanted to run, but never got to before the arthritis caught me.
I deliberately chose a route that I figured would be non-challenging for this first outing -- going down the Lohr-Textile Greenway, a paved path 8-10 feet wide that runs along the east side of Lohr Road from Ellsworth down to Textile -- and the route itself was fairly non-challenging, but it was all I wanted for today. I'm sure I'll build up stamina, but this ride, of a mere 5.6 miles in a poky time of 35 minutes, pushed me. The challenges for this novice included (1) finding my equilibrium as I experienced my wobbly arms and legs; (2) learning how the gears worked -- this was important because, even though it's a relatively flat stretch, there are a few mild hills where I needed to shift, and some experimentation taught me how to do that; (3) locating and learning how to use the brakes -- an important bit of the learning curve that I experienced when just starting out, as I crossed Ellsworth and set off on the Greenway, but almost collided with a pole. I did manage to turn and slide by it, though.
So, next time at least I'll have a little bit of experience under my belt. I hope by summer to be doing relatively lengthy rides. I have in mind routes of 15 miles or so which I had wanted to run, but never got to before the arthritis caught me.
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