I just got out of the shower. But thats not why I’m feeling refreshed. I had to take a shower after my bike ride. But I feel so good I wanted to talk about it.
I’ll set the stage. Some people feel really good when they work out at the gym. It’s never been that way for me. I only go begrudgingly. But riding a bike always makes me feel good. It seems I had forgotten that. These days I had been trying to ride my racing bike on the rollers. Trying to get everything dialed in and I was just getting increasingly frustrated. I’ve been getting really disappointed with my bike and my ability to ride over these last few months. But only taking out my city bike, which is also a track bike a few times.
Fast forward to July. I’m working 10-12 hours a day, so I’m pretty tired at the end of the day. I had the racing bike here and was trying to ride it in the evenings on the rollers in the hotel room, but I was discouraged, so more often than not I was just looking at it. Today I brought my city bike back with me, and before taking my shower rode 11.7km to the lake and back. It’s been cool these days in the evenings so its a perfect time to ride. In the middle of the ride it felt like a mistake, my legs were hurting I was getting tired, but when I saw the magnificent sunset on the lake, WOW….
As I was riding home, I felt refreshed. I realized what I had been missing since I left Japan. When I was there I was riding like this every day 10+km. And when I was in my hometown here it was a terrible place to ride. So it added to my discouragement. But this ride has turned my whole outlook around. I’m going to try to go back to riding every day. I feel like a new man with a new outlook on life. So I understand what those people who enjoy the gym get out of it every day. I remember how I felt riding the country roads in Nara…refreshment for the soul.
cajungaijin 