The Rock and Roll Lifestyle Is Going To Kill Me - Part 1

I've missed blogging.

Since 1996, I've been pretty consistent with it. It is an actual "web log" for me, a journal online, where I can go back and see what I was doing two years ago, or what the weather was like a year ago, or whatever. Not so much for the past year.

So, this is the first of a few "catch-up" posts I'll be making, periodically. They are going to ramble, and they may be deadly dull, but I need to document some things for my own sake. So, bear with me.

The title of the post is something I've been saying a lot, over the past year or so. I find that the band has taken over most of what I used to think of as my "free time", although there really is no such thing. Before the band, I drew comic books, rode my bicycle almost daily, and got a lot of reading done, amongst other things. Now, not so much.

Granted, I had slowed down my cycling due to the fact that I had developed Achilles Tendinitis in my right ankle, five or six years ago. But, that just meant I was riding to work 3 days out of five, rather than 5 out of five. Once the band started ramping up, my frequency of bicycling began a slow but steady decline. Getting up at 4:15, riding to work, then riding home and getting cleaned up for band practice is a bit of a hassle. So, I started making the commute on the motorbike on band practice days.

Then, as I was getting out of the routine of bike commuting, I began to feel like the hassle of changing clothes 3 or 4 times a day was a bit too much, and I started leaning toward the motorcycle even on non-practice days.

Right now, I can only think of one bicycle commute within the last three months!

Along with the inactivity, of course, has come a decrease in fitness and an increase in weight. I'm not particularly happy about that. I am back up to the weight/fitness level I was at when I moved to Colorado, 26 years ago. I had always told myself I would never let myself go like that again. Yet, here I am.

So, after my upcoming vacation trip to see family in PA, I am going to have to figure out how to get back in the groove. It doesn't help that I really love riding the motorbike to work. I may have to forego the commute and focus on getting some mountain biking in, or riding for my errands more. I'm not sure.

Plus, right before Christmas, I fell off of my bike on some ice and whacked my knee to the point that I could barely walk for a week, and limped for a month and a half...

I don't know that I would be in the particular spot I am in now if that had not happened, but I had slowed down quite a bit compared to years past, already.

All I am sure of is that I don't want to turn into that old fat guy who "used to do a lot of bike riding".

Sadly, I have some really nice bikes sitting idle:

And those are only three of 7 or 8 I have sitting around gathering dust.

More later...

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