It's like riding a bike...

You know how they say you never forget how to ride a bike? Well, let me tell you, that's not true. If you wait too long, it's difficult to start riding a bike again. Don't get me wrong, the balance part comes back right away. You don't forget that. There's something to be said for muscle memory after all! You won't need training wheels again.


No, the part that you forget is your hiney.


J and I purchased bikes a year ago February. We ended up with matching bikes, but it was not intentional. When we were in the bike shop looking, the guy told us that the bike we liked was on sale, and if we bought two of them, he'd knock another $120 off the total cost. We took him up on his offer, and brought our bikes and bike rack home that night. We waited a few days before we went for a bike ride - it was winter in the desert after all! One Saturday we finally took the bikes down to the park for a ride. But we only went on a short 2.4 mile ride. All the bike riding skills came back pretty quickly, but goodness gracious, how my hiney hurt!!


The fresh memory of my sore backside was enough to allow me to be lazy and stay off my bike for a long time. About a year and two months, to be exact. But recently, J and I went on another bike ride. This one was about 5 miles! We had a blast, but again our behinds were very sore. So we headed off to REI and I looked for the biggest, widest, squishiest seats I could find. This, I am convinced, is the secret to happy bike riding. I am happy to report that my hindparts feel fine, now, when we bike, and we've been averaging 6-8 miles a ride.

In addition to the squishy bike seat, J bought me an odometer for my bike. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen! He surprised me with it one day. I came home from work and it was on my bike! Before you get to thinking how sweet he is, keep in mind that though it was sweet, it was also a partially selfish gift. He was tired of having to get in the truck as soon as we finished a ride and driving our route to find out how far we went. He figured that as soon as we were done he should be allowed to go inside and rest, so he got the odometer and now I know. I can also tell you how long we ride for, our lowest average speed, and our highest average. I can even tell you how many calories we burned (in theory).

I am still not on a regular bike riding schedule, but I'm working on it. Even though it has been hellaciously hot here this week I have been on three bike rides of at least 5 miles, and one short one this morning for 2.5 miles. We were spoiled with a very mild and very long spring. But now it's summer. On Sunday when J and I went on a 5 mile ride, it was in the upper 90s - when we left the house it was 103. My friend Lynn and I went on a 7 mile ride Tuesday afternoon and it was in the low 90s. I thought that I would be smart and get up and go for a ride in the morning and beat the heat. No such luck. I got up at 6:15 this morning and was out the door by 6:32. It was 82 degrees at 6:30 a.m.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!