Sports Bike/City Bike

At the moment I feel very sluggish. For every step forward there are two back; for every fresh start a new stop.

Having my jaw excavated did not really affect my exercise programme, as it was only one day off and my target is five sessions a week. However this week has been far worse, far, far worse: only one measly session. Pathetic!

The cause was my own carelessness. I was bending over in an awkward position, trying to undo a nut, when I twisted to stop something falling. There was a twinge and my back went. Although the pull itself was not serious the result was an inevitable seizing-up of all back and shoulder muscles to compensate and protect. I could walk stiffly but running was impossible and I did not fancy the crouched riding position on my bike. All that was left was a bit of gentle moving about. Sometimes it is hard not to feel that I am falling to pieces.

I know one of the preoccupations of runners (every runner?) is injury but it can become tiresome to dwell too much on the problems. I hate the thought of becoming someone who is constantly checking their state of health, as it is only a short step from that to becoming the sort of person who answers the question 'How do you feel?' in detail rather than with a simple 'Good!' Being one of the worried-well would be more than my self image could take.

So I tell myself, yet again, that sometimes you just have to ride with things and accept that "is is is and ain't is ain't". What ain't at the moment is me as a finely tuned athlete; what is, is the need to build back slowly and rediscover the fun. That is all.

This video is from an
Australian blog which promotes Dutch style city bikes as a way of encouraging urban cycling> It tells me something about my current situation. I should not worry about trying to be sporty (or pretend I am faster than I am). I should just get out there and tootle around. As the video says riding a sit up and beg is still riding a bike.