I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike…

At the start of summer, I had intended to try riding my bicycle from where I live to where I work. Which, according to Google Maps, is about 10 miles. Mind you, I haven’t even ridden my bicycle in about three years, and I haven’t really worked out in a couple months. By, by golly, I was going to ride my bike 10 miles one way in a single morning!

Of course, part of me didn’t want to and was finding excuses not to do it. I needed a rack of some sort on my bike so that I could carry a change of clothes and other stuff with me, without having a heavy bag on my back, making me sweatier than I already undoubtedly would be. And I needed a new holder for a water bottle, as the one that came standard on my bike didn’t really hold a bottle well, and it would just fall out at the first bump.

So, after weeks of not riding my bike because I needed a rack and water bottle holder, I finally broke down and got them. My first attempt at a rack was disastrous as it didn’t fit and both my father and I tried to make it work. Wasn’t having’ it. But the water bottle holder was a snap. Safe, secure water was within my grasp (while riding!). For the rack, I had to go to a bicycle shop and buy a rack at their recommendation and pay some guy to put it on my bike for me.

NO MORE EXCUSES NOT TO RIDE NOW, ANG!

So the day after my rack was installed, I woke up an hour early, packed up a bag, tethered it to my new rack, and away I went.

A couple blocks away, I had a few thoughts like “maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…” and “perhaps I should have started with shorter, more leisurely rides to build up to this…” But no. I am Ang, and when I want to do something, I go balls-to-the-wall and facking DO IT.

It didn’t take long for my rear end to start to not feel right. At every mild incline (and thankfully, there are not many hills on my route) I hopped off my bike and walked it. Somewhere around the halfway point to work, my rear was really killing me, so I walked my bike for several blocks until I felt the crunch of time before I was suppose to be at my desk at work. So I toughed out riding some more. And then…

I made it to work! Hooray for me! Excitement, the feeling of victory. I had biked 10 miles (most likely for the first time in my entire life), survived, and made it to work on time. Besides jelly legs, I wasn’t really feeling much worse for the wear.

Then after sitting on my bottom for 9 hours at work, my bottom REALLY started to hurt. And I still had to bike home.

What was funny was how often this conversation happened with people all day:
Me: “Yeah I rode my bike to work today! 10 miles!”
Them: “You’re crazy! I can drive you home if you want.”

No, I do NOT want, thank you! I rode my bike because I wanted to ride my bike, not because I was destitute and had no other option. I appreciate your generosity, but I want to ride my bike.

Cut to going-home time. A part of me realized my rear end was not handling all this very well, and maybe being driven home would be a smart idea, this being my first day riding my bike so far and all… But then I thought, I will feel SO proud of myself if I can not only ride the 10 miles to work, but also the 10 miles back home that day. I knew it would be a long and painful journey, but I was determined to finish what I started.

First time I sat on my bike that evening, it was clear to me this was a bad idea. My bottom hurt the second it touched my seat. But I was going to do this! So I pedaled away. My morning ride had taken an hour. My evening ride took an hour and a half, as I needed to hop off and walk my bike quite a bit more often. I realized quickly that there’s no way to really change your position to get more comfortable on a bicycle seat (like you can with a chair). There are only 2 ways to sit on a bike: sitting up as straight as you can while still reaching the handlebars, and leaning as far forward as possible. And the part of my rear that was hurting so badly was still feeling all the pressure in either position.

And it’s not like a general rear end pain. Not much of your butt is on a bicycle seat, and the part that is, is very concentrated and centrally located. I like to call this “verybadplaces”.

By the time I made it home (an hour and a half, and 2 close calls with skunks later) I was experiencing monumental pain in “verybadplaces”.

But you know what? I MADE IT HOME. Twenty miles in a single day. And that feeling of victory outshone the pain radiating from verybadplaces.

Epilogue: I just ordered a new squishy bicycle seat with rave reviews on amazon.com. I will ride again, and soon! When the new seat arrives, and when my seat no longer screams every time I sit down or walk (there was even visible bruising!), I will be riding my bike 10 miles to work and 10 miles home!*

*Perhaps not every day…

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 09:50 am and is filed under Health and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.