Day #330 Slowpoke

Millenium Trail,
near Wellington, ON,
spring 2006


Although I started this cycling because of a new job which had a gym room as I mentioned earlier, I haven't used the gym since then, four years ago. I rarely keep in shape in the winter. Laziness is my reason, I guess, or winter depression. Excercise definitely lifts depression, but I also have so much to do.
So, I am just your regular weak 64 year old who gets on a bike in the first warm, windless day of spring, and goes a few miles up the trail, and around the village. What I have found is that with each succeeding cycling day, every spring, I just automatically start to get stronger again, and am thus able to do longer rides.
When I was a pre-teen, I was one of the few kids at Slemon Park in the 1950's who had a 3-speed. In fact, my friend, Sandie Gallant had no bike, so she rode on my seat, and I stood up to pedal for the 5 miles into Summerside, PEI, and back. My legs must have been VERY strong back then. In fact, back then I used to win running races. Now I don't even run.
By the time we were 14, we no longer used the bike. As Alice Monroe points out in her new book, 'The View from Castle Rock', girls were snickered and gossiped about if they rode bikes after reaching teenhood. So we stopped.
I hope the bike found a good home, but I never thought of it again and I never biked again until my 2 daughters, Josie and Mary Esta, were tots, in the late 70's, and baby seats for bikes were starting to become popular. I had been given a 2nd hand bike, and had the seat installed by the hardware store - bike shops not being around Picton then.
I would take one of them at a time for a ride down Wil-O-Lea Lane, and/or Morrison Point Road, Milford, ON.
The bike was then forgotten again, when they got too big, and got their own, until I was 59/60 and got this job I mentioned.
I cycled for one summer, always with doing the Trans Canada Trail in the back of my mind.
When the opportunity for doing the Confederation Trail in PEI came up in the fall of 2003, I went for it. I was not strong nor ready - I just went.
The first day I could do only 17 km. The 2nd day more. The 3rd more again, and I got stronger daily. It just happens naturally, so don't worry about being a slowpoke.
The more you cycle, the more you know you can cycle, the more you do cycle.
A self-fullfilling prophecy. Cycling begets cycling.
Don't be afraid of not looking the part or of not being good enough. No one else pays any attention to you. In fact, the truth is, most people spend their time wondering what everyone else is thinking of them.
Cycle your little heart out, and your heart gets stronger, too.
Karen