It all started in the doctor’s clinic. She looked grimly at my reports, murmured something that sounded like "oh dear, oh dear" under her breath and then pointed at my belly and suggested "we really need to do something about that". There it was again, that "we" thing. For some reason she made it sound like she was in as bad shape as I was. She would never say "you". It's always "we”, “we need to get a test done", "we need to increase the helpings of salad", "we need to be regular with our check-ups". Anyway it was clear that my regimen of morning walks was not doing me much good. Listening to the latest podcast of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.. or Mark Kermode’s movie rants while doing five laps of the Orchid Garden complex was not sufficient compensation for ‘our substantial calorific intake’ the doctor gently pointed.
My options were to shell out a fortune and once again join some fancy gym and then doing calculations that told me that everyday I didn’t go I wasted another 500 bucks, or do something I was likely to enjoy - like cycling. All the research suggested that if you managed to not get run over, or not crack your skull in a fall, it was the best form of exercise. This sounded reasonable and so I decided to buy a bike.
It was a difficult process. My mind said buy a road bike for short gentle rides, my ego said buy a mountain bike do something adventurous. The bike gurus on various web sites suggested a 19.5 inch frame would fit my size, I just liked the feeling of a slightly smaller 18 inch one. The shopkeeper said I should go for the new orange coloured frames, I thought I'd look a right Charlie on anything that looked like a kids cycle. So after much deliberation and research I was won over by the selling skills of one Mr Lance Armstrong who swears by Trek cycles.
I also explain this impluse as somewhat a response to mid-life crisis for the sedate. If had been a little more on edgy I'm sure I would have conviced myself to buy an Enfield Bullet and if I had the money I may have gone for the little red Porsche convertible.
Anyway it's been about a week since I got the bike and not one fall and a fair amount of fun. Stay tuned for more about the rides themselves...
