I’ll actually say this in public — I got on a bike today for the first time in over a year. Yes, that’s right, I haven’t sat on a bicycle seat since the summer before last and even then, it was a bit of an effort. And then a couple of months after that, I took my bike to get professionally fitted, brought it home, and haven’t touched it since. Except to vacuum around it.

It needs new tires now, it’s sat so long.

Admittedly, getting on a spin bike is not exactly the same as riding outside, but the fact that I wasn’t dreading  it is something I consider progress, so I’ll take what I can get. And the whole root of this total burn-out is this insane ride I trained for and did in France, back in 2007. A friend of mine had the same thing happen to her when she did PBP in 2003 (it’s only every 4 years) and she’s STILL not riding, 6 years later.

And then I thought had the insane idea that I might take up running, but that didn’t go quite so well — I haven’t yet gotten rid of the plantar fascitis that kept me from training for the Chicago marathon (no big loss, I thought, as the summer here had 68 days over 100 – the plantar fascitis was the PERFECT excuse to not run!). And really?  The truth is that I hate running; I can’t lie. OK, maybe not HATE, but definitely dislike intensely. That’s without question a result of my heart condition — riding is much more enjoyable. Usually.

One thing is, I never made myself feel badly about not riding. I didn’t beat myself up about it, I just waited. I waited until I finally missed it enough to consider trying it again. I have a suspicion that I might still have some waiting to go, and I might not ever go quite so full-bore again, but I’d like to think that I haven’t completely lost the thing I loved so much.

And considering we’re about to get some arctic cold front down here that’ll drop the temps into the teens (I had to FIGHT my way out of the soup and canned goods aisle today at the grocery store as people were panicking about what to eat when it’s so cold!) there’s probably no hurry about getting out on my road bike yet.

But I will take the step to buy some tires, just in case some nicely sunny, 60 degree temps show up at some point. Just, you know, in case it seems like a good idea.