learn to ride a bicycle

Back on the bike. I took a shot at this in 2006, but wound up learning to ride stoker on the tandem instead, which is a thousand times easier. A bunch of things got in my way, not the least of which was a hip injury. Now I’m starting all over again.

I think my big mistake in 2006 was not going out on the bike every day. Instead, I was trying to balance bike riding with all the other physical things I was doing, which meant that I got out on it more like once a week. This allowed the dread to build up to levels that were unrealistically difficult to conquer.

I had my first wipeout yesterday! Out on the tandem a block and a half from home, we hit a patch of ice and went down. My thought on the way down: “Oh, man, I really don’t want to have to tell the physical therapist about this.” Because, really, being out on that road was pretty stupid.

But I’m glad to have that over with. I’d been fairly afraid of falling on the bike. Especially since it’s a tandem—I imagined the combined force of bike, pavement, and captain all working together to snap my femur. But no, I just jarred a few joints.

So damn tired of this ice now.

Josh and I had a bicycle adventure for our anniversary. We biked out north for a picnic and back, for a total of 23.75 miles. That’s about 18.5 miles further than I’ve ever ridden before. So sore now!

I cranked my heart rate monitor’s limit down to 132 bpm and was able to manage the heart rate pretty carefully, so the CFS wasn’t as much of a problem as one might think. I am, for instance, still awake. :) Pretty cool. I want to do it again next year. I bet it’ll seem easy then.

People love to see tandems. A little kid shouted after us, “That is so cool!!”

Josh and I are starting to use the tandem for small errands around the neighborhood. I’m having a little trouble not freaking out at yellow lights; my estimate of how quickly we can get across an intersection is way, way off.

Tandems are great for learning to ride in traffic because, if I’m not mistaken, cars are giving us a lot more room than they’d give a single rider. I think it’s the cute factor.

I haven’t been on my own single bike for about a month. Time to get back on the saddle.

Hooray! Today we rode on actual streets and tackled some moderate hills. We probably went about a mile, all told. I was very tired when we got home; the adrenaline took it right out of me. (Stupid CFIDS.) It’ll be interesting to see how far we can go when I’m more confident. Which won’t be long; Josh and I are both gaining confidence quickly.

This was the first time I’ve gone downhill on a bike. I hope the skills transfer to riding solo. I think they will; it’s an interesting way to get a feel for how an experienced bicyclist like Josh handles the bike. I’m hoping that I will gain nerve and instinct. But even if I don’t, it’s fun for its own sake.

Josh and I stumbled onto a great deal on a used tandem, and have been learning to ride it. Soon we’ll brave a hill. After that, traffic. And then the world.

Today I took my second crack at the bike. As I wrote to a friend, “Continued improvement: I can shift now, kind of, and sort of get a little more weight into the pedals. I am less likely to just stop dead out of sheer adrenaline overwhelm. I can go up and down very small slopes without hollering. And it turns out that going over pebbles does not actually kill me; who knew?”

I think the Pilates training is helping my balance a lot.