Stage One of “whup Friend at the pool” is complete: I have conquered Bike Butt and can now cycle to work/begin taking longer bike rides.
I mean, by the time I actually manage to get fit enough to swim AFTER biking to the gym, Friend is going to be swimming two miles a day and it’ll take me months to catch him, but dammit, at least I’ve gotten started!
I’ve also put the front and tail lights on the bike, found the biking gloves and the bike lock, and put those things into the panniard for ease of use. This is not nothing, because failing to do it could easily be a reason to not bike at all. Whittling away at my excuses, that’s what I’m doing…
Although lemme tell you what, I DID cycle to work a couple times this week and ::wheeze:: I may have to revise my personal timeline for catching up with Friend. It’s a VERY SHORT bike ride and I was still like “oh hi so i’ve rediscovered i have quads and they’d like a word with the management…”
The bike, which is cheap and has never shifted gears properly – it won’t go into 3rd gear at all, and the chain tends to fall off shifting between 1st and 2nd – is currently at the bike shop for a tuneup, where I hope it will come out able to shift gears. This is the third time I’ve brought it in for such a purpose, though, so I’m not confident. And if it doesn’t, I mean, that’s a bother, but 1st and 2nd gear do the trick for most cycling, particularly on the low grade hills and flats around here; I’m certainly not doing anything more exciting than road cycling right now.
But my deal with myself is that if I actually do the biking over the winter, I can get a new, better bike next year for my birthday. This was also my deal with myself last year, and I didn’t do it, but I now have the extra incentive of NEEDING TO CRUSH FRIEND, and because I’m a small petty competitive person, it might work. :)