Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I'm BAAAAAACK!

Just a couple posts ago, I was thinking my bike commuting days where through. My commute got more than twice as long and my knee was giving me trouble. Then my wife flummoxed me by buying me a new, unexpected and totally impractical single speed bike for Christmas.

I've used my break between Christmas and New Years to get to know the bike and take a few shortish rides on it. Being a single speed, I have to pedal at different tempos according to what kind of incline or decline I'm on, plus I need to get my butt out of the saddle occasionally to pound up a hill or accelerate from a stop. I think this was giving me a good workout and perhaps the varied pace helped my knee toughen up. But still, it was sore when I got home.

Until tonight. Tonight's ride was still shortish, about 10 miles, but when I pulled into the driveway my knee was totally pain-free. In fact the way it felt, I think I could have done another 5 miles without a problem. I was getting pretty discouraged about riding, but this single speed is curing me of that. Riding is fun again.

7 comments:

Steve A said...

Knees can be that way. Sometimes mine hurts and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe you got lucky and something popped back into place.

Dwayne said...

You're making me want a bike like that.

Doohickie said...

There's no earthly reason why this bike should be half as fun as it is.

But it is. :D

Dottie said...

Great to hear. Your wife is obviously a genius :) Happy new year!

Velouria said...

Told you so!
Glad to hear that your gift had such a great effect on you.
Happy riding!

Craig said...

I'm 40 and have had some kneee pain crop up. A buddy of mine suggested trying Shiff Glucosamine tablets. They really do make a difference.

Doohickie said...

My wife drinks some kinda glucosamine drink. Maybe I should try some.