On your bike, son!

Beautiful morning. Nice run, although I pulled up lame. Not keeping up my training in any way. Blasted around the hills of town with Hannah last night, then went out and ran an errand on my bike, marking the first time I’ve run a bike errand in at least 16 years. Had a couple of bad accidents, one on the road, way back when I was actually, and by necessity, a bike commuter, and after years of a love affair with bicycling, I lost my enthusiasm for being among cars. Of course, this was back in the days before helmets, and a couple of concussions really made me start to think that being in a car was safer. Plus, I didn’t have anyone else to bike with. Now the girls are into it and I’ve fixed up an old Raleigh 10-speed (I’d like to think it’s retro-cool, like my friends’ dad’s old 1950s black Schwinn was when we were growing up in the ’70s). Got the brakes to stop squeaking, put on a new seat and some new cushions on the handlebars, the derailleur still works fine. If I stick with it, I’ll look at a real bike next year, though what real bikes cost amazes me, and I don’t believe in going cheap. And this bike is from the age of light bikes, it weighs virtually nothing. When I bought it, it seemed like a behemoth compared to what you could get for $500 or $700, but nowadays, it’s a featherweight among SUV’s. I want a bike to be comfortable, too (or at least I assume I do, I’ve never tried that kind), but I don’t want to have to pedal an extra 30 or 40 pounds around. Anyway, I rode up ALL the hills, and when I was done I was barely having a heart attack. Progress!