Betsy Bailey

Wow, my first blog entry in over a year. I sure have fallen out of the habit. Well, no promises that this is a reversal of the trend. I’m just in the mood for blogging today. We’ll see where it goes from here, if anywhere.

Without further fanfare…

So speaking of habits I’ve fallen out of: Working out. This lack of working out has been stressing me out. My job and life is soooo sedentary, I really need to be making a more concentrated effort for the sake of my heart and longevity. Plus, I know I need to be setting a better example. Rather than endure this burden of guilt and obligation, it really would be less stressful to just get off my duff already.

Mira (now age 10) has really been pushing me to go on bike rides with her – she even took the initiative and pumped up my bicycle tires and washed down my bike! Sweetie. How could I procrastinate in the wake of that effort?

So last week we started regularly biking. Ouch, my butt. I knew I’d have to suffer through that a few times (right?) before it would get better. But it’s not been getting ANY better. We stopped by REI in Tempe last weekend for the express purpose of purchasing me a pair of padded bicycle shorts. Nope, no improvement.

Today I googled (<< it’s time for spellcheck to consider this a real word already – oh, and “spellcheck,” too) to see how long it would be before I’m, erm, toughed up. Two weeks, one person said – apparently it takes about two weeks to get used to it. Maybe.

But then I found some suggestions about angling the seat so it’s tilting slightly down in front. I thought about that and the physics make sense… that way more pressure is put on your actual BUTT (instead of the pointy sit-bones and other tender tissue I’m euphemistically calling “butt” in the title of this post but you know that’s not really what I mean).

Tonight Scott dug out his Allen wrench and adjusted the tilt on my bike seat. The difference? It felt like MAGIC on my little test run – no uncomfortable pressure at all! We’ll see how it holds up on my next real bike ride, hopefully tomorrow. No promises that this is the reversal of a trend, or anything. I’m just in the mood for bike riding right now.