exercise your demons. err, your body.

Photo by photojunkie.

Last night after dinner, my mom was heading out for her nightly walk. It was a pretty nice night, so I thought I’d head out too, just for a short jaunt, since exercise and myself and really great friends. On our way out, Mom suggested I ride my bike instead in walking.

Let me give you an idea of how long it’s been since I rode my bike: I didn’t know I OWNED a bike.

But it apparently I do. One that my dad just put a new comfy bike seat on, which is pretty nonsensical, what with all the dust and cobwebs he had to wipe off to do so. There is often no rhyme or reason to the things my dad does, and I’ve become okay with that.

It started out a little wobbly. You know how they say once you know how to ride a bike you never forget? It’s only half true for me. My balance and steering was mediocre at best. I definitely came a little too close to a few telephone poles. And trees. Arguably, maybe a few cars.

But, before I knew it, I was flying down the street without a care in the world, and it felt great. I thought to myself, “I could do this all night, every night! This is great!” It was a wonderful feeling, using this body that’s been lounging around for the past few weeks doing nothing. I could feel my heartbeat, fresh air was coursing through my lungs, and the colors in the sky were mixing together in shades of orange and pink and purple to create a beautiful sunset. It was beautiful.

Then I got to a hill. And I stopped being beautiful and started actually being hard. It didn’t help that I forgot to change gears, so I was in the worst possible gear for riding up a hill. I got about halfway up before succumbing to the fact that I just was not in the shape to conquer the hill. I got off my bike and walked it the rest of the way up, embarrassed that the inhabitants of the cars driving by were thinking, “Poor girl. Must be the first time she’s exercised in her life. Couldn’t even ride her bike up that hill. What a loser.” They probably weren’t thinking this, but in my mind they were.

In the end, I ended up riding 3.5 miles, which is good considering it was my first time out in…years. The ride (mostly the hill) kicked my ass – literally. Despite the extra cushion-y goodness of the new bike seat, I woke up this morning feeling as if some ass-rapage had occurred. I was also grossly sweaty and had to jump into an incredibly cold shower to feel any semblance of the not-nasty.

But – it felt great! Seriously. Added to the fact that I haven’t done any serious drinking since I’ve been home, and I’ve been taking vitamins daily, I’m starting to feel a lot healthier and normal than I ever did in college. I think I could get used to this whole exercise thing. Who knows, it could be quite awhile before the old bicycle starts collecting cobwebs again.