Something You Never Forget

Everyone knows that saying, "It's like riding a bike, once you know how to do it, you'll never forget."

Well... I beg to differ.

I've had a bike in my garage since I moved to New Mexico. It had flat tires and took me four months to get around to fixing them. Since I had a rare weekend at home, I decided there was no time like the present to get back out there.

It's been at least twelve years since I've ridden a bike, with the exception of perhaps a bike ride in Europe with the fam and once in Boise on a calm quiet bike path (neither of which occurred yesterday). I reminded myself this was something I was supposed to just naturally remember how to do.

There's nothing worse than an unbalanced adult on a bike. Being a sunny Saturday, all my new neighbors, who I have yet to meet because I'm always gone, were out in full force. Some, it appeared were even teaching their children to ride a bike with training wheels (I should have enlisted their help). Little did the neighbors know the treat they were in to see, a 20 something woman wobbling by, not waving or looking up to acknowledge them for fear she would tip over or run into one of the many construction dumpsters (there are quite a few).

I ultimately felt like I got the hang of it enough to venture outside the neighborhood. I made the big mistake of leaving without a watch or water bottle.

Although I consider myself someone who is in relatively good shape (I run about 3x a week, logging in an average of 4-5 miles each time, do yoga, dance, and weight train), apparently biking is a whole new league for me. I was out of breath the entire flat non-hilly ride.

I also must have been gone much longer than I originally thought. An hour after returning home from this new experience my arms decided to turn chile pepper red (yep... that's a NM reference). Granted, I haven't been out in the sun at all yet this year, and my natural shade is translucent albino, I didn't think I'd be out long enough to be concerned. Luckily, my face was spared from turning crimson or collecting more premature wrinkles. I'm convinced it was my new bangs that saved the day there. They appear to not only be trendy but functional!

I'm looking forward to wearing long sleeves for the next week in 85 degree weather :S