Another anniversary! (and my new toy)

Two years ago today, I met Flaminia ("Fla") after joining Total Woman, my gym.  As all gyms do with new clients, they assigned Fla, one of their trainers, to discuss with me the benefits of paying for training sessions, not to mention getting my measurements, weight, Body Mass Index ("BMI"), body fat percentage, and discussing goals.  Blah, blah, blah.  I've always found all of this really tedious and annoying.  I mean, after I stop going to the gym in a month or two, all of this becomes moot anyway, right? 

On this particular day, two years ago, as Fla droned on about all of this nonsense, I subsequently hired her just to "shut her up."  Plus I figured it'd get me started going to the gym.  I initially hired her for 6 training sessions (30 minutes once a week for 6 weeks) which was the cheapest package offered and I never anticipated seeing Fla ever again after these sessions were over.  Who knew where that fateful meeting would eventually lead me!  I often wonder if I would have believed it had I known.  Most assuredly not.  I describe in detail our initial meeting and how our budding connection (she began to call me her personal project) progressed under my post titled "The omens and the blue-haired tormentor."

So here we are, 2 years later.  Two years is a long time; however, so much has changed for me that in some ways it's hard to believe it's "only" been two years since we met.  Fla lives in New York now and to wish her a happy anniversary, I made up a poster board as a large greeting card and texted her this photo:

By the way, I'm standing by my new toy:  a hybrid bicycle I bought a couple of months ago.  With all the spinning I've been doing for the past year and a half (thanks to Fla!), I started thinking maybe I should get a real bicycle.  I expected to get bored with spinning eventually but it's been the reverse:  I actually enjoy it now!   More than anything, I enjoy challenging myself.  

I had thought about getting a bicycle for several months, but hesitated making the purchase because I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for me.  In spin class, I'm on a stationary bike in an air conditioned studio and at any point in time I can get off said bike and walk to my car that's parked a few feet away and leave.  A real bicycle though, that's entirely a new ball game.  If you're 5 miles away from home and you can't go on, you gotta figure out how to get back.  There's no car parked outside to take you home.  Would I even be able to ride the thing for 5 miles in the first place?  I had no idea.  I hadn't been on a real bicycle for over 20 years.

If I spent the money on this thing, would I ride it or would it become an expensive dust collector - as my previous bicycles from years past ultimately became?  The dust collector thing is always a concern for me, particularly with exercise equipment because I tend to have grand ideas of what I will do with the item I want to purchase, only to forget about it quickly enough once I buy it.  I always became discouraged quickly because exercise is hard work, particularly when you're starting out.  For someone who hated ALL forms of exercise, the bicycle in particular, I never stayed with anything for long to see any improvement.   After all, it's much easier to give up than to keep trying something that's hard to do.

So for several months I contemplated getting a bicycle, trying to talk myself out of it.  But then a friend and I talked about biking by the beach and we even set a date.  The most surprising thing of all is that I was the one who suggested biking for our monthly get together.  Me, the person who hated all exercise her entire life, the person who hated bikes above all, me asking for a cycling date.  This particular friend calls me "Vilma 2.0" because I've changed so much.  Originally I was going to rent a bike (my friend has her own) but after much thought, I decided to stop by the cycling shop where I got my beloved cycling shoes to see what they had.  More importantly, I figured I should practice on my own before our biking date.  I kept telling her, "Don't be surprised if you have to carry me and my bike back to the car!"  She kept assuring me that with all the spinning I've been doing, that I would be just fine.  I wasn't so sure.

I know nothing - and I mean nothing - about bicycles other than they have two wheels, two pedals, and a chain that makes it move.  My friend who's been riding for awhile told me she has a hybrid and explained that with this type of bike, you can take it on different terrains, within reason, meaning that it's not just for street riding but not quite made for rocky mountains either.  I decided that's what I wanted since I anticipated riding it in different terrains, not just on streets - assuming I ever dusted it off and actually used it, of course.

I must say, visiting certain businesses that are male oriented (tools, plumbing, cycling shops, etc.) is an otherworldly experience.  The guys who work there usually seem to have NO sense of humor WHATSOEVER.  I always feel like I'm intruding in a man's world where women are not even remotely allowed through the door and that they're just humoring me by not throwing me out the door.  It's quite intimidating, particularly when I'm not familiar with the product I'm there to buy so I know I ask stupid questions from their perspective.  The old me would've found this too daunting to go into such an establishment to ask for a bike (particularly when I was morbidly obese), but nowadays I go anywhere I like and it doesn't faze me anymore.  It helps, of course, that I've lost so much weight and now look/feel fairly "normal."  But during my journey, I stopped caring what people might think of me and proceeded to do whatever it was I thought I should do.  My new motto is:  let people think what they might, I'm having fun doing what I want to do.  I no longer let other people stop me from doing what I think I need to do.  And in any case, my money is as good as a man's in the end.  Plus if I make a fool of myself (which I often tend to do), so what?!  At least I'm experienced at it.    

The guy at the cycle store assessed that because I'm tall, I would do better with a man's bicycle because he said as women's bicycle frames get bigger, they start having functioning problems.  I personally prefer a man's bike anyway.  He pulled a bike down for me that was on sale and told me to try it to see if I liked it.  I really wanted a red bike and was disappointed when the one he pulled down was dark blue with black and gray on it.  I didn't see any red hybrid bikes so I grudgingly agreed to try it.  Besides, what difference would color make with a dust collector sitting in the corner somewhere in my house, forever to be ignored?  It would collect dust just the same whether it was red or not.

When he adjusted the seat for my height and told me to ride it outside, I realized at that moment that I had not been on a real bicycle for over 20 years.  I suddenly questioned whether I could ride it at all.  A stationary bike doesn't move.  You can practically do a handstand on it and it won't move.  But a real bike?  How do I get it going while balancing myself on it?  What if I fall on my butt in front of these serious guys who have NO sense of humor, who are younger than me and very fit and are just humoring this old lady who came in asking for a bike?  What if I fell in front of their store that's located on a very, very busy boulevard?  I figured I was just about to be humiliated but I had to start somewhere.  I took a deep breath, and although I was quite wobbly at first, I didn't fall and I was able to ride it just fine within a few seconds.  I guess it's true what they say about never forgetting how to ride a bike (whew!).  I rode it around the block and found a big parking lot and played with the gears which I had no clue how to use.  Once back at the store, I walked out with a helmet, a pump, a tire repair kit (which I still don't know how to use), and my new bike!  The whole caboodle?  Almost $800!  OUCH!  I already had my cycling shoes and cycling gloves that I use for spinning so I was set.  I'm not kidding when I say that I felt a little sick to my stomach after spending so much money on a big dust collector!

I've always hated the bicycle, even when I was a kid.  I just never enjoyed them.  Those horrible bicycle seats that hurt like crazy was a huge deterrent.  When I was a kid, I used to wonder if my butt was different than anyone else's.  No one ever talked about the seats hurting them, was it just me?  I didn't know that it would take a few weeks of regular riding for my butt to become acclimated to the seats.  It took Fla to explain that to me once she started forcing me (yes, I dare say it, forcing me!) to attend her spin classes.  Sure enough, after four weeks of excruciating pain on the spin bike, my butt stopped hurting and I never had a problem with the seat (or "saddle" as they call it) again.  I can now ride any bike I want without any pain at all. 

In the olden days, bicycles were really heavy.  So not only did you have to pedal your own weight, you had to pedal the bike's weight, too.  These days bikes are much lighter because the frames are made of aluminum.  My bike looks heavy but it's so light that I can lift it with just one hand.  It's not feather light, of course, but its weight isn't too bad.

So here I am with a brand new bike.  Now what?  I had no idea how the gears worked.  The only question I asked the salesman was, "How do you break?"  I always want to know how to stop something that moves before anything else.  When I asked him about the gears, he said, "It'll only confuse you."  Of course, I'm just a woman after all.  I figured the manual would tell me what this guy wasn't willing to explain to me, but I was wrong because the manual was pretty useless.  

For my very first ride, I took my new bike to a park and found a big, empty parking lot where I could ride in circles and practice using the gears without fear of traffic or pedestrians.  No matter how much I tried though, I just couldn't understand how the gears worked.  What made the huge difference to me was when a few days later a couple of guys at the gym where I train with Tunde, my current trainer, came out to look at my bike and explained the gears to me and it all suddenly made sense to me.  It was smooth riding after that.  I could kick the salesman now for not explaining the gears to me like I asked him to do.  It only took a few sentences for me to get it and he would've saved me some grief.

Before my first ride, I told a friend, "Gee, I hope this bicycle isn't too boring for me now.  I mean, after spinning, it may not be challenging enough for me."  Boy, was I wrong!  Five minutes into riding my new bicycle and my legs started to burn and scream in pain.  Then I started thinking, "What the hell  was I thinking getting a bicycle!?!!"   I immediately began to regret spending so much money on what would obviously soon become a dust collector because this was just too much work!  The old me would've given up right then and there.  The old me didn't try when things got hard.  The new me, however, said, "Okay, I need to practice more so I can get better at it."  The new me doesn't give up.  The new me understands that everything starts with baby steps, slow and steady, until improvement can be seen.  That's been my entire journey so far:  baby steps, trial and error.

I've now had the bike for about 2 months and I have to say I just LOVE that thing!  Just love it!  As it turned out, not only did it NOT become a dust collector, I actually ride it every single day when weather allows.  And by that I mean that it's not too hot to be outside.  Right after I bought the bike, we had several days in the upper 90s to mid 100s so being outside was out of the question and I had to wait until it was "cooler," in the 80s which is still hot but not terrible.  Despite summer heat, I've been riding it often.

Initially, I started only riding a couple of miles each time because my legs burned so much I couldn't go on farther and I had to make sure I'd make it home.  Forget doing any inclines which are all around my house.  I was actually surprised that spinning for so long had not helped me master the bicycle immediately, but it's a different work out.  It's much like using a treadmill versus walking outside.  The treadmill is easier for some reason.  However, with that said, I need to emphasize that had I not done spinning for a year and a half, I probably would not have been able to ride a real bicycle very far at all.  Also, because of all the spinning I've done, I've been able to increase the mileage on the bicycle quickly because my legs are much stronger nowadays.  

Within two weeks of riding my new toy, I was running all my local errands on the bike and clocking about 10 to 15 miles a day.  Whereas before I walked everywhere to run my errands, now I ride my bike everywhere:  the gym, the post office, the bank, local stores, the pharmacy, etc.  As long as what I need fits into my backpack, I ride my bike.  Inclines are still a bear for me, but I've been working on these and getting better every day.  When I first started taking inclines, I'd have to pull over and take a few breaks before I reached the top particularly if the incline lasted more than a block.  And I'm not talking about anything really steep either, just a slight incline and it kills me.  Each time I do one, it's a little better.  That's okay, the new me challenges herself.  The old me would have been embarrassed to keep taking breaks before reaching the top of an incline, worried someone was watching me and thinking, "What the hell is she thinking, she can't ride a bike!"  The new me doesn't care what anyone thinks.  The only important thing is that I'm doing this for me and my goal is to reach the top.  Who cares if I have to take breaks and it takes me forever to get there?  The only thing that matters is getting to the top.

Initially I stayed on side streets and alleys, away from traffic.  I still prefer to be away from traffic for safety's sake, but I don't shy away from busy streets anymore.  In fact, I'm there among traffic on major boulevards making left turns, right turns, etc. along with the rest of traffic.  I told a couple of friends, "Man, you should see me on my bike, I'm like an old pro now!  Well, at least in my mind's eye I am.  I feel so sporty wearing my helmet, gloves, cycling shoes, too!  I feel pretty awesome.  I probably look totally ridiculous to everybody else though.  Ah, who cares!  I'm having a ball!"  And that's the thing about my journey:  I no longer let the fear of being embarrassed stop me from trying something and just doing it.  If people laugh at me, that's okay.  The goal is to do it for my personal best.  Accomplishing these tasks benefit me physically, medically, as well as emotionally and spiritually, too.  It's also given me confidence to keep trying new things.

My friend and I met for our biking date and I did fine.  Thank goodness though that I practiced beforehand because I wouldn't have done as well otherwise.  Here's a photo of us at the beach: