Saturday, May 24, 2008

Owie

Miles Ridden: 2
Money spent: too much
Lessons learned about bike seats: 1, Owie.
# of 'Pain in the ass' jokes: 47

Rather than being stuck at home all the time because gas prices are just too high for luxury driving, I opted to invest a few bucks into something that I hope will pay me back two fold.

Yesterday, I went out to the store and picked up the cheapest bike possible as a means to hopefully save a few bucks in gas and, more importantly, get more exercise into my weekly schedule. The bike was only $70 dollars but once you factor in the other little bits that are needed to do any kind of riding, it did start to add up.

Bike Lock, $10.
Air Pump, $10
Seat Cover $15

Speaking of the seat cover, let's just go back to how I enjoyed my first, two-mile ride yesterday.

When we got the bikes, both Josh and I got locks but I picked up the air pump, figuring that the tires would need to be pumped up before we could ride, and he got a gel seat. At the time, I didn't think that the cover was necessary.

Riding after almost twenty years was a lesson in just how much I'm out of shape as well as how the construction of something as forgetful as a bike seat can cause you more than a little pain. Josh and I immediately wanted to ride over to the cemetery and back; approximately a two mile round trip. I realized about half way into the trip that my ass was hurting more than my legs. I assumed that my legs would burn because I haven't used them for that kind of work out in a while. This was a different kind of pain.

Now, not to get weird but I think that this pain stemmed from the fact that I don't have much of an ass; well, at least not now. After sitting on the bike seat for a quarter mile, I realized that somehow my pelvis (specifically, the ischia are your sitting bones. They carry all your weight when you sit down.) was not cushioned at all and I was actually getting bruises. By the time we got to the cemetery, I was almost standing up on the pedals to avoid from sitting on the seat.

So when we got home yesterday, I was in more than a little pain and my legs were alternately going numb because of the shooting pains down from my ass. We got into the house and I immediately crashed on the couch in a drip of sweat.

Riding is going to be a fun activity, but the seat is a joke. If I wanted to have a pain in my ass all summer... (yea, you can take it from there).

So now I'm nursing my bruises and waiting to wake up a little more before I head back up to Walmart.

Owie.

-T

1 comment:

Emeleth said...

I especially like how you included the graphic on ass mechanics. I'm still laughing!