Celebrate health and sweat! June 28, 2007

Some of us on two pedal-driven wheels have been around the track a few times, but speed still rules. For me AARP stands for Animal-Aggressive Racing Position.

I ride the American River Parkway in Sacramento, California, and life is grand. Profession, family-raising and Germanic (or is it Scottish?) work-ethic guilt got in the way of maintaining my healthy body, something I enjoyed in my twenties and thirties. Then I got old, or so it felt – where’d that come from? With 55 staring me in the face, sweet, red Bianchi Campione beckoned, and off we went. I just have to do this! It was work! Then about six weeks into my “work,” my hour-long workouts on the parkway ushered me into endorphin bliss, as if someone threw a switch. Awesome. Now, just try to keep me away.

People my age are all over the place zipping around on fast, usually vintage, bikes. We should all be on faster, new bikes, hunkered down, eatin’ bugs, racing each other with grins on our faces. I see a lot of my baby-boomer age mates out there huffin’ & puffin’, making it all look like work. Hang in there! There is gold on that there trail, and it’s not just the gift of longevity, it’s sweet, sweet aerobic-endorphin bliss awaiting you, just around the conditioning corner.

This blog is for those of us of a certain age to share our secrets and discoveries about getting fit and having a blast on fast bikes. Biking is for everybody, but the joy of speed on a light, human-powered machine is a taste acquired and pleasure earned by the few (million?!) willing to pull on the padded pants, tuck in and take off.