April 26th
Lately, I really am getting into biking. As a child and a teen, bikes were a part of everyday life (even in winter as long as there wasn’t a lot of snow). I would ride my bike (or one in a series of bikes I had — every couple of years I would graduate to a new and a bigger bike) all day and go everywhere. Never counted distances, was it 5 or 25 kilometers — it didn’t matter, I had the stamina and will to get where I needed to go. With other kids we would arrange bike races, sometimes there were like 20 of us racing along the sidewalks and streets causing havoc everywhere. When I lived in the USA I think I only rode a bike 5 times. There is no infrastructure, riding along the expressways or streets in New York City (or any city in the northeast of the USA) is like asking for an accident or worse.
Many times after I moved to Poland I promised myself that I will start riding a bike as a way to explore the local area or as a regular exercise. Every time after a furtive start I would give up, I would find some excuse not to do it any longer. Not this time — now riding my bike is a pleasure, I don’t consider that a chore or something that I NEED to do to get in shape. I want to do it and am having fun.
Since the beginning of April, I slowly started to build my stamina and muscles in my legs. Started with 8 km a ride, now I do 20 km easy, I am not even tired after that. There are so many bike paths in the city that I can slowly explore them all and not get bored by repetitiveness. I make plans for every day that there won’t be raining and the temperature is at least 10 C to plan another ride. I made some plans already for excursions out of the city (where there are plenty of bike paths as well). Another thing that I couldn’t do when I was drinking. I know it is a cliché but getting in shape, getting exercise, and working on my physical health does wonders for my mental health too (now — if only I could get rid of my beer belly faster I would be even happier).
