This morning I made my return to double digits. But, um… not running. I decided it was about time to get over my fear of riding a bike and just go for it. I set out on my bike but within a mile could tell the tire was rapidly flattening and I could not change gears. Oops! I ended up turning around the block and stopping back home to switch over to my sister’s twin bike that actually had air in it’s tires. After I finally got on my way, I covered 10 miles in about 48 minutes. I have no idea what “good” versus “bad” paces are for bike riding so I’m not really going to think too much about this currently! While on my ride this morning, I realized a few things about biking…
1) If I want to give myself a chance to actually LIKE biking, I am going to need to bike bite the bullet and actually buy a cheap end, but decent bike. There is no possible way I will ever really like biking on my $99 special from Wal-mart and the year 2000. Not to mention the leaky tire, lack of gear shifting abilities and very uncomfortable seat. So I think tomorrow I am going to do some shopping around for a reasonably priced riding bike. Not sure if I should go road bike or hybrid but I guess I’ll see what draws me in tomorrow.
Probably this one. It’s very much in my price range, your know about $500,000.
2) I LOVE that I can bike twice as fast as I can run. The sad thing is, people can still run faster than I can bike. Enough said.
3) Getting hit by bugs when you are biking actually hurts compared to having them “hit” you when you are running.
4) Biking is really hard. I was trying to get my heart rate up since you know, I have not been able to get it up running any time in the recent past and it was surprisingly hard to push and not just give up. I feel like this is very similar to how I felt when I started running. Fighting the urge to quite is the hardest battle at first.
5) I don’t really know much about the rules of the road in relation to biking. Must research this. Luckily, there is a relatively decent bike path near my house that I can use for the majority of my rides but some road riding is required to get there.
6) I think this is something I could really end up liking. It also would be a really good cross-train option for running. Or so I imagine anyways!
When I got back from my bike ride, I also did a 40 minute weight circuit that I made up and between the two, I feel wiped! And very, very hungry! I have not really been as hungry lately but man, add a little exercise and I’m STARVING!
I am excited to see where my interest in biking leads me. Maybe I will get bored in a week or maybe it will become a tied love with running? Who knows!
