What did you start over again?

I have owned a total of three exercise bikes in the past eight years and I have sold or gotten rid of a total of three exercise bikes in the past eight years.

In my mind I am a capable athlete able to run effortlessly, swim lengths of the pool easily, walk for an hour a day and return home invigorated.

In reality I am none of these things and no matter how much effort I put in I know that I will never achieve more than a mediocre level of fitness.

My first exercise bike was bought in 2002 after a visit to the surgeon who advised me to build up my fitness by cycling before having a hip replacement operation. I rode this bike dutifully for some months until the operation was due. The continuing ache in my knees and feet and buttocks was becoming too much to bear and I gratefully stopped before sheer exhaustion overcame me. That bike came with me to Wendy’s in 2007 but it was relegated to the back veranda, was never used again and soon found its way to the tip.

The second bike had been my mother’s and it sat in our lounge room for about six months, unused except for the occasional draping of nearly dry washing that needed airing. I don't remember whether I sold it or gave it away, such was my lack of dedication to that bike.

I bought my third bike from a friend in a fit of fitness frenzy as I approached my 60^th birthday and vowed yet again that I would ride every day and build up my fitness, as well as numerous other impossible goals. This time I rode dutifully for some four weeks, noting each day’s distance and time taken as my fitness record. 

Then I turned 60, went to Tasmania and became a grandmother and of course my fitness regime went out the window. I never really settled back into the routine and yet again my aching legs and general exhaustion gave me a handy excuse to not start again. After a couple of years of attempting to ignore the bike trying to tempt me back onto its seat, I finally advertised it and turned this failed project into some ready cash.

30.10.13