When you like me and thinking that “you never have the time to exercise”, you probably end up with a few extra pounds. That happened to me back in 2011. For years, I have neglected my body in the worst possible way. I did the worst possible thing to it, not using it as much as it is necessary. Of course, the results were soon visible as I had “love handles” on the sides and couldn’t run for more than 100 meters without getting all red in the face. I was really terrible and I knew it.
But you know, I wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I would exercise every morning and go out to ride my bike. But then, you know how it usually goes, you get married, get one kid, then another and by the time you can get yourself together, my bike was gathering dust in the garage and I was driving a car to buy a soda and a pack of cigarettes (yeah, I was really like that for a while).
But then, what happened changed my view of life. I didn’t have any near-death experiences, like a stroke, heart attack or anything like that, fortunately, but I was getting pretty close to it. At least that is what my doctor told me. And I had no reason not to believe him.
The next thing that I did was to start exercising again. Alone. Now that did;t go so well. Like I said, I couldn’t run for very long. But, I was determined to persist in this and to finally get my body in shape. So I kept going, first with jogging, but then I turned to my old love, bicycles. I got my old bike out of the garage and started riding it every morning and evening, all the time increasing the distance that I traveled.
However, all this time, there was something holding me down and not letting me to improve my performance more. at first, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I saw a group of cyclists one day, there were five of them, all talking and laughing as they rode their bikes, it finally hit me. Cycling is much better when it is done in a group! So when they stopped near my bench in the park, I approached one of them and ask them if they were from any local club. To this, the guy, who actually turned out to be an instructor (can you believe it, the rest of them were just beginners and they seemed to enjoy riding their bikes a lot more than I did!) told me that they are all from a local club called Pennyrille Area Cyclists. And gave me the address if I wanted to visit it.
Next day, I went there, signed up as the 362nd member, got my membership card and even a bike and gear of my own. Now, I ride with them every week.