Why I ride a bicycle

Ah, the late 70’s. Here I am astride my trusty 10 speed while hanging with my buddy Andrew. Looks like an outtake from the movie “Breaking Away”.

   I love bicycling.  It is the one form of exercise that I don’t regard as exercise.  I also enjoy strength training and taking the doggies for a walk, but I can’t say I love those activities.  But I do love cycling.  I love the sense of motion as my legs churn… the hiss of my tires as they roll along the ground… taking in the beauty of the passing surroundings.

     I learned to ride a bike when I was five years old, and for the next 20 years I practically lived on my bike.  I rode everywhere, either alone or with my friends.  My two wheels took me to the swimming pool, school,  the mall, the library and sometimes to nowhere in particular.  Just somewhere far away.  My bicycle gave me freedom.

     When I started closing in on my third decade, for reasons I still do not fully understand, I put my bicycle away and rarely ever got it back out.  I sometimes took the Vintage daughters on family cycling outings to the local park, but then the bike went back to collecting dust.

     Maybe I thought that bicycling was child’s play.  Perhaps I just got lazy.  What I do know is that I spent the next twenty-five years engaged in an activity that I despised.

     Once I stopped riding, I began to put on weight.  Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that the best way to lose weight was by jogging/running.  After all, running burns more calories than most other forms of exercise.   So I replaced cycling with running.

     Of course, if you are not consistent with exercise you won’t reap the benefits, and if you don’t like the type of exercise you are doing you will never be consistent.   And I hate running!

     I am not built like a runner (of course, I’m not exactly built like a bicyclist either but that’s another story).  With broad shoulders and short, muscular legs I am built more like a shot-putter.  Running for  speed or endurance is not my forte.  But I stuck with jogging for years, even though I actually gained weight during this time.

     I had to spend months building up my running endurance.  I’d run for a minute and walk for five minutes.  Slowly I would increase the running time and decrease the walking portion.  I would set little goals for myself: “I just have to run to that street sign/tree/ telephone pole and then I can stop running and walk for awhile”.  

     With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I realize now that the whole time I was trying to forge myself into a runner, I spent most of my time trying to get to a point where I could finally STOP RUNNING!

Photo taken during an autumn ride in Cherry Creek State Park (click to enlarge).

     And the whole time I hurt all over and inevitably injured myself or developed plantar fasciitis or iliotibial band syndrome.  Good times.

     Shortly after I retired from federal and military service, I pulled my bicycle out of mothballs and started to ride again.  I rediscovered the joy I used to feel when I rode as a boy.  A side effect of my return to cycling is that I have lost 35 lbs without really trying.

     I don’t ride to set personal speed records or log endless miles in the saddle to “build base endurance”.  I ride because it brings me joy.  There is just something life affirming about bicycling for a couple of hours on a warm day and then ending the ride by cracking open and downing a cold brewski.

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Joyeux Noel!

Just a pretty picture. Not my house. Have a Merry Christmas.

From MrVintageMan’s Household to yours:  Have a Very Merry Christmas!

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Weekend Bookshelf – Dec 22, 2018

    “I find television very educating.  Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book”.

                                                                                                    Groucho Marx

     With the Hollerdayz upon us, this week’s Weekend Bookshelf is going to be a little abbreviated.

Libraries of famous authors:

     I’m adding a new occasional feature to the Weekend Bookshelf:  libraries of famous authors and other personages.  I find personal libraries fascinating.  They revel so much about the owner, both in the books on their shelves and the ways they add personal touches to make their library distinctive.

     The first featured library belonged to one of my favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway’s library in Cuba

     Hemingway’s library is a lot like his writing style: spartan and to the point.  Very few extraneous features. It’s well known that Hemingway was a sportsman, and he made sure to include certain items that emphasis that in his library.  I am curious at how he managed to get to the books on the top shelves of the taller case.  A ladder?  Stepstool?  A big ‘ol stick?  The bookcase looks impressive but seems a bit impractical.

     Hemingway was a voracious reader, and his various libraries were stocked with thousands and thousands of books.  Here is a link to the complete inventory of Hemingway’s libraries if you are interested:

http://jfklibrary.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=38785340

Book Review:  “On My Own Two Wheels: Back in the Saddle at 60″ by Malachi O’Doherty

Mr. O’Doherty’s “On My Own Two Wheels” is an interesting look at a man getting back into bicycling after several decades away.  Mr. O’Doherty was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes shortly before his 60th birthday.  He lost close to 30lbs by dieting and walking.  Whereupon he decided that with less weight to lug around, perhaps he could start bicycling again, a activity than he enjoyed in his youth.

     One thing Mr. O’Doherty makes clear, to himself and us, that living a healthier life doesn’t turn back the clock.  He’s still an old(ish) man on a bike, no matter what the weigh scale reads.

     Overall, I found parts of the book enjoyable.  The chapters where he describes some of his rides was a bit of slog, primarily because I’ve never been to Northern Ireland and had a hard time picturing his journeys.

     The sections where he gets into his riding philophy I found very good, because it’s a philosophy close to my own.  Mr. O’Doherty is not interested in setting personal records, or trying to whip himself into a world class athlete.  He rides because he enjoys it, and he goes as fast and as far as he wants without worrying about a heartrate monitor.  He calls his style of riding as “tootling”, and it’s one I subscribe to as well.

     Short but enjoyable read.  I give it 3 thumbs up.

Epilogue:

     Let me close out by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa fills your stockings with all the books you have on your Christmas list.

     Or a flamethrower.  Whatever floats your boat.

     That’s it for this week.  Comments, suggestions, tips and recommendations are always welcome.  If you don’t wish to post comments on this site, feel free to email me at:  Mrvintageman2@gmail.com.

  

 

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