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Jul. 8th, 2008 00:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursamajorMy love affair with my bike continues. Yesterday evening, I went up the Minuteman Trail to Arlington Center, and my world grew again a little. A cygnet, grooming its stubs of future wings; its parents nearby, majestic, wary. One man on a pyramidal frame with small wheels, upright, shifting side-to-side and propelling himself somehow forward. Watching the sun set over Spy Pond, then a model airplane looping over Thorndike Field in the last pinks and deep blues of dusklight.
Of course, there was also the panicked part where my chain came off the front derailleur(?) in the middle of a wide intersection - and the bike store at that intersection had closed half an hour earlier. But I eventually fixed it all by myself :) then decided I still wanted to keep going, so I stopped by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
noghri's to refill my water bottle and degrease my hands with real soap. ;P
Fundamental change is one of the hardest processes anyone undertakes. It's the whole "'diet' vs. lifestyle" thing. It's why it takes dozens, if not hundreds, of iterations to develop a habit. It's why it is going to take a long time for me to truly grow into and live a healthier lifestyle after a couple of decades of, well, not. (Fulfilling my high school's 12-trimester sports requirement for graduation was probably one of the hardest things I'd done at that point, and it was only possible because it was structured, scheduled, and did I mention a graduation requirement? ;P )
I can't tell you how many times I started - and then dropped, usually within a couple of weeks - an exercise program since starting college. Being dragged to the gym by friends who mean well and adore it? Didn't stick; their infectious love of exercise managed to utterly pass me by. Even going running with a partner wasn't enough to keep me motivated, because all I could think about while running was how gross I felt, and how out of breath I was, and how my knee was starting to twinge, and I'd better stop and turn around before I couldn't walk home. Even running with MUSIC wasn't enough. (And I powerwalk with Pollyanna, my upbeat little shuffle, as a commuting rule.)
I haven't yet developed a cycling routine or plan per se. I wasn't consciously investing in my bike as a "get your lazy ass off the couch" thing; rather, it was a "The goddamned 83 doesn't come often enough, and I'm sick of dealing with bus pseudo-schedules" thing, and an "It takes too long to walk to friends' houses, and people on bikes go faster" thing.
But it's been strangely empowering over the last month and a half. I'll cross the 100-mile mark this week. I know there's an entire culture out there that ride centuries in a single *day*, but making it to 100 miles in six weeks has inspired me to see if I can make it to 250 in 12. Baby steps, but slowly ratcheting up the commitment.
I know that exercise is only one significant part of the story in getting healthy; nutrition/diet is the other. And I'm not ready to *really* modify my food consumption habits yet, if ever. (Though summer with its fresh local fruit makes it a lot easier. I need to stop by the Harvard market tomorrow, or the Davis market Wednesday, as we ate the last of the most recent batch of strawberries last night!) I love my chocolate and cheese deliciousness too much.
Heck, I'm surprised I'm talking about this quite so much when it's still fairly embryonic. But I've had my bike six weeks as of yesterday, and the lifestyle changes it's enabled? The things it's let me do, the places I've gotten to under my own power? (The amount I've consequently spent at this year's farmers' markets? I'm not sorry for that. :) ) It's making me wonder why the hell I didn't do this eight years ago when I first moved to Boston. And it's making me hope that this is something I will succeed in maintaining for the sheer love of it.
*
I think I'm the only person who isn't exactly a fan of the Discovery Channel commercial that's been going around (and been XKCDed).
A lot of it is that everyone I've talked to about it has never sat around a campfire singing THE ORIGINAL VERSION in one of their favorite places in the world. Eleven summers spent there, helping me through the worst years of elementary and middle school, knowing that for three or four precious weeks every summer, there was some place I belonged, where I had true friends and good conversations, hills to climb and a river to swim in and a campfire with camp songs every night.
So now, instead, people are being introduced to this song by a commercial. And not even introduced to the proper lyrics, introduced to a bastardized version. Sigh. Damn kids get off my lawn, and have the original lyrics for posterity:
And you sing it in a round.
(On the other hand, this camping XKCD makes me laugh and laugh. Though it was poison oak we had to worry about as kids. And we were kids.)
Of course, there was also the panicked part where my chain came off the front derailleur(?) in the middle of a wide intersection - and the bike store at that intersection had closed half an hour earlier. But I eventually fixed it all by myself :) then decided I still wanted to keep going, so I stopped by
noghri's to refill my water bottle and degrease my hands with real soap. ;PFundamental change is one of the hardest processes anyone undertakes. It's the whole "'diet' vs. lifestyle" thing. It's why it takes dozens, if not hundreds, of iterations to develop a habit. It's why it is going to take a long time for me to truly grow into and live a healthier lifestyle after a couple of decades of, well, not. (Fulfilling my high school's 12-trimester sports requirement for graduation was probably one of the hardest things I'd done at that point, and it was only possible because it was structured, scheduled, and did I mention a graduation requirement? ;P )
I can't tell you how many times I started - and then dropped, usually within a couple of weeks - an exercise program since starting college. Being dragged to the gym by friends who mean well and adore it? Didn't stick; their infectious love of exercise managed to utterly pass me by. Even going running with a partner wasn't enough to keep me motivated, because all I could think about while running was how gross I felt, and how out of breath I was, and how my knee was starting to twinge, and I'd better stop and turn around before I couldn't walk home. Even running with MUSIC wasn't enough. (And I powerwalk with Pollyanna, my upbeat little shuffle, as a commuting rule.)
I haven't yet developed a cycling routine or plan per se. I wasn't consciously investing in my bike as a "get your lazy ass off the couch" thing; rather, it was a "The goddamned 83 doesn't come often enough, and I'm sick of dealing with bus pseudo-schedules" thing, and an "It takes too long to walk to friends' houses, and people on bikes go faster" thing.
But it's been strangely empowering over the last month and a half. I'll cross the 100-mile mark this week. I know there's an entire culture out there that ride centuries in a single *day*, but making it to 100 miles in six weeks has inspired me to see if I can make it to 250 in 12. Baby steps, but slowly ratcheting up the commitment.
I know that exercise is only one significant part of the story in getting healthy; nutrition/diet is the other. And I'm not ready to *really* modify my food consumption habits yet, if ever. (Though summer with its fresh local fruit makes it a lot easier. I need to stop by the Harvard market tomorrow, or the Davis market Wednesday, as we ate the last of the most recent batch of strawberries last night!) I love my chocolate and cheese deliciousness too much.
Heck, I'm surprised I'm talking about this quite so much when it's still fairly embryonic. But I've had my bike six weeks as of yesterday, and the lifestyle changes it's enabled? The things it's let me do, the places I've gotten to under my own power? (The amount I've consequently spent at this year's farmers' markets? I'm not sorry for that. :) ) It's making me wonder why the hell I didn't do this eight years ago when I first moved to Boston. And it's making me hope that this is something I will succeed in maintaining for the sheer love of it.
*
I think I'm the only person who isn't exactly a fan of the Discovery Channel commercial that's been going around (and been XKCDed).
A lot of it is that everyone I've talked to about it has never sat around a campfire singing THE ORIGINAL VERSION in one of their favorite places in the world. Eleven summers spent there, helping me through the worst years of elementary and middle school, knowing that for three or four precious weeks every summer, there was some place I belonged, where I had true friends and good conversations, hills to climb and a river to swim in and a campfire with camp songs every night.
So now, instead, people are being introduced to this song by a commercial. And not even introduced to the proper lyrics, introduced to a bastardized version. Sigh. Damn kids get off my lawn, and have the original lyrics for posterity:
I love the mountains
I love the rolling hills
I love the flowers
I love the daffodils
I love the fire's glow
When all the lights are low
Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada
And you sing it in a round.
(On the other hand, this camping XKCD makes me laugh and laugh. Though it was poison oak we had to worry about as kids. And we were kids.)
