My Life In Cycling

2009 September 8

by Jackie

Over the long holiday weekend I was looking back over my life, where and how fitness and cycling has fit in and I thought I’d share it with you today ~ at least part of it. I was really inspired by taking my longest ride thus far ~ 28 miles over the weekend. I got to wondering if I had ever ridden that far before, which got me thinking back to other times in my life when I was riding.

I don’t remember just how old I was when I got my first bike, but I do remember the bike itself. It was a blue bike with a great big blue banana seat. I called it the “Blue Bomber”. As much as I liked my bike I really really really wanted a pink Huffy!! (I guess that’s where my bike upgrade obsession started)

I must have been about 6 or 7 I think. I remember having training wheels on it, and one day deciding I’d had enough and taking them off at the tennis courts of our apartment building, and just riding and riding and riding. My mom found out and as I recall she was pretty pissed. (Again ~ not the last time I will get that reaction from some of my cycling antics)

I road that bike everywhere, with friends around the neighborhood even to piano lessons. It was on my way to piano lessons I had my first encounter with a dog, gravel and my first crash. (I think as I recall they all happened at the same time). Luckily for me the dog was behind a fence, and I was able to pull myself up off the ground and my bike out of the road fast enough to save us all. (although remembering that now brings my current gravel fear a little closer into focus lol)

As much as I loved that bike I was so excited to get a “real bike” which at the time was 10 speed!! My parents told me I couldn’t get a 10 speed until I was 13. Not sure what was so magical about 13, but quite a few new activities hinged on that age. When I was 13 I got a blue 10 speed which I had well into adulthood. One of my first dates was a bike ride, on that very bike. As I got older though new sports started taking my interest. I started swimming. I swam for many years on community teams, even into high school. Once I got a car ~ most of my biking was history.

College ~ not a very fitness oriented time of life. I didn’t bring a bike to college, and I was not very focused on my health and fitness. The only reason I stayed in relatively good shape was because my college was literally carved into a mountain side. Getting to classes or anywhere on campus meant climbing up or down the mountain. You could always tell the freshman from the seniors simply by looking at their calf musculature. If you wanted to go to town ~ which I did just about every night you had to walk to the bottom of the mountain. Of course to get home you had to hike back up. That hike was particularly difficult at 3 in the morning in a not so sober state. My car conked out a year or so into college, so my feet were my only option, and I used them a lot.

After college I ended up moving to New York City. NYC is not very car friendly, really there’s no point in even having a car, you have to fight traffic, search for parking, pay for it many times, public transportation is excellent and you’re feet rarely fail you.

In NYC I ended up meeting a bike rider. He rode his bike just about everywhere. I was able to get a bike, my first mountain bike, and we did a lot of riding. In fact, I have ridden from Manhattan to Coney Island and just about everywhere in between. One of our favorite Sunday morning activities was riding from Sunset Park, Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge to have coffee in Manhattan. It was a nice ride, and a great way to spend a Sunday. At the time I was working as a social working for an Assertive Community Treatment team. This meant I was out in the community walking to and from my office and client’s homes. I walked a LOT during those years.

After about 4 years in NYC, I decided my time was up. I ended up moving to Kansas, which is where all my family was living. The thing about Kansas is this: it’s wide open ~ you can’t walk anywhere. I got a car, and a job as a case manager. I still went out in the community to see clients, but I drove to their front door, and only walked a few feet. From there I took a job managing a group home, where all I had to do was pull up in the driveway and walk in the door.

My level of motion decreased immensely and right with it went my fitness. It was during that time I got pregnant and gained weight. That was over 3 years ago. The last three years, since my daughter was born have been pretty sedentary, and not all that healthy, and the weight from my pregnancy never really left.

It was only about a month ago things changed.

Read part 2 of my life in cycling and how I decided to Bike Across Kansas