Free Ride, After $Hundreds

Last week I bought a road bike (as opposed to mountain bike), a Trek 1000, plus socks, shorts, gloves, helmet, patch kit, water bottle holder, mini-pump and stand-up pump for home (at least I meant to get that last one--not sure where it is). I had been meaning to do this for some time, and now that I have my money from my half of my ex-wife's house, I wanted to get something to encourage me to get in better shape.

So, after fifteen minutes getting myself into the gloves, the shorts (not the sheer bicyclist ones, at least not on the outside, but very padded and tight), and the helmet, I set out around 6:40.

And was back at 7:00! Sweaty and tired already. And my neighborhood isn't that hilly.

I enjoyed myself, and my abs already feel the strain from last night, but I realized that dusk is a bad time for a ride, since the tires are so thin and the bike moves so fast. I really had to ride the brakes making turns and coming downhill, to the extent it was more scary than thrilling. Hopefully that will change as I get used to it. I did ride straight to the gym and worked out a little more after this, so I'm not completely out of shape.