I went on an outdoor bike ride this morning all by myself. How have I let a decade pass since doing more than just biking to the park with kids?! The joints and cartilage in my body don't seem to have much staying power so the kinds of exercise I have been reduced to doing is low impact, strengthening or stretching types of activities - all of which are convenient at my local recreation center, but I think I've sheltered myself for too long.
After spending an hour fixing inner tubes,
taking off old child seats, failing to fix training wheels, adjusting chains and helmet straps yesterday so that my children and I could go on a little bike ride - only to turn back after ten minutes - I felt like a need had been bottled and a large cork shoved into it. This same thing happened the day before when we took the kids up the mountain with my aunt, cousin and parents, only to turn back before getting very far. I felt fit to burst. Every effort to exert myself in the beautiful summer weather, among the trees and grass and flowers had been thwarted! It was a real feeling of pressure building inside me from this unsatisfied desire that was only growing stronger. So... I took off!
