(Editor’s note: I am doing some minor housecleaning to my blog. Mostly I am updating the focus on several of the pages that you see at the top of the blog. My writing has improved a bit since I started MrVintageMan and I felt that there needed to be some improvements. However, I don’t want to lose my older writing, so I am converting these pages to posts for posterity. Be sure to check out the new Bicycling page!)

The Joy of Cycling

A few years ago I destroyed one of the ligaments in my left knee. I don’t know it for a fact, but it is my belief that those years I spent jogging in a vain effort to lose weight, as well as training for the Air Force fitness test is what ground my meniscus into dust. Sadly, I will have to have a partial knee replacement someday, which sucks balls. Ah well, c’est la vie. Since I cannot go back in time and tell my younger self to knock it off, I am instead learning to adapt and overcome the damage.

Since I plan to have an active lifestyle into my old age, I have taken up swimming, walking and, most importantly, bicycling to strengthen my cardiovascular system. I find riding a bicycle gives me the greatest joy out of all them. Perhaps it’s because it reminds me of the sense of freedom that riding gave me when I was a child. There is just something about flying along on two wheels, taking in all the scenery as you go, that makes me feel alive. Plus, unlike when I jogged, I never feel all beat to hell when I finish my ride.

A Bicycling Success Story:

Cycling has strengthened and conditioned my legs to the point that I rarely ever notice my bad knee. Oh, it twinges now and then, and it does tend to ache when a storm moves in. But it doesn’t hurt all the time like it used to.

For the longest time, I thought that running was the best and most efficient way to lose weight. So I kept running and jogging for years, slowly destroying my knees, and for all my efforts I gained weight. Since I’ve started cycling, swimming, walking and strength training I’ve lost close to 40lbs. I plan on losing even more. I think the biggest reason for my success so far is that I actually enjoy bicycling, something I could never say about jogging. So instead of dreading exercise, I revel in it now.

Some of the topics I will be writing about on my blog will be bicycling and general fitness for the older active man. I certainly no expert on the subject, but I do have a few nuggets of wisdom I can pass along to men (and women) of any age.

I want to make it clear that I’m not one of those Lance Armstrong wannabe’s that go blasting by you on the bike paths. No, I ride until I feel I’ve had enough and then I turn around. I like to stop and scope things out as I go along: maybe get a banana at a coffee shop, or tour a nature center or take pictures of an amazing view. In other words, instead of killing myself trying to get into shape, I stop to smell the roses.

Here are my wheels:

This is my primary bike, a Trek 7.3fx

It’s light and very responsive, and when I am on it I feel like I am in the cockpit of one of these:

This is my Schwinn Sierra hybrid bike

It is studier than the Trek and I use it when I do soft-core off-road riding on gravel or dirt trails. However, when I ride this bike I feel like I’m behind the wheel of this:

The Family Truckster

The Schwinn is heavy and stiff, but hey, at least it’s slow. I kid. It’s actually a good bike, but it is the red-headed stepchild. I definitely get a helluva workout whenever I ride the beast.

As I mentioned earlier, I am riding so I can have an active life going forward. That statement is not really specific enough to be an effective goal. So here are a couple of very specific long term goals I have made for myself:

Ride my bike at least 3 times a week from March to October, weather permitting, for the rest of my life.
Do not turn into one of those arrogant, inconsiderate Lycra-clad douche nozzles who act like they own the bike path and the rest of us should just get out of their way.

I have some short to medium goals as well. One of them is to ride in as many of the bike rides I’ve got listed below as is humanly possible. I should warn you that a couple of these are charity rides, so I’ll probably be hitting up friends and family for donations when I enter one.