Easy Riders Bicycle Club

• We are ashamed of our appearances: I hear that fear of wearing Spandex, shorts, and other revealing clothing is a significant reason why many non-featherweight riders avoid riding their bicycles. Spandex is a good synthetic layer to help keep you warm, and it doesn't have seams in painful places, but synthetic long johns and layering other clothing works just as well.
  
  I just opted out of those skin-clinging Spandex tops this summer and am wearing quick-drying button-up shirts instead. When it gets colder, my synthetic long johns and fleece will come out of the closet—and I refuse to go back in just because I'm big. (Layers of synthetic materials trap warm air and keep you warm even if they get wet from sweat or our pernicious rain.)

• We are embarrassed to be the slower riders on the trails and on the streets: I've even heard that faster riders have yelled at easy riders to get off the trails. 
  
  Know what? There are more of us slow riders than fast riders. We pay more taxes for those trails and for the streets than they do (since we outnumber them), so we have every right to be there.
  
  
  Besides, more of us are buying bikes because of gas prices. So we have more company now.
  
• Bicycle ride leaders are exceeding posted paces: Easy riders, who could have completed the ride at the posted pace, are humiliated by being kicked off the ride—sometimes scornfully.

• People (especially women) are conditioned to think that they we are not good enough: For example, when I decided to get back in the saddle, I had to promise myself that I would not let shame stop me regardless of sometimes having to:
  
• Ask for help even to get my bicycle out of the car.
•  
  Push my bicycle up hills. Even if I'm walking up a hill—hey, that's exercise, too.
• Ride slowly.
• Abort a ride if I'm ill.
• Stop a group ride for me if I'm ill.
•  
  Be satisfied with a very short ride even if I'm surrounded by racers and endurance cyclists (and deep inside, I feel like a bit of an idiot or like I should ride like them).
      
  
  I figure that anytime I'm outside and exercising—even for 10 minutes—I have won! Just got to keep chasing away that shame so that I can keep getting on that bicycle. 

7/8/08 update: Feeling better, getting faster, riding longer, conquering some hills. Keep at it, gang! Bicycling works.

10/1/08 update: I've been off my bike for several weeks and biking less since mid-August because of medical stuff. So I've been starting over again. The shoulds are resounding in my head: Should be able to ride that hill. Should be able to ride farther. Should be able to ride faster.

In August, I was riding much bigger and longer hills, riding much farther, and riding quite a bit faster. Yesterday I rode 4 miles with one 1/4-mile, not very steep incline. YAY, I'M BACK IN THE SADDLE! (I admit, it was tough to say that.)

I just have to remind myself that I should be riding at my current pace, trying steeper inclines gradually, and keeping my gears low enough to prevent zorching my knee out. The only things I should be doing are getting back in the saddle and taking care not to hurt my body.

I'll keep increasing my ride difficulty—if I can do it without hurting myself. That means splitting the difference between listening to my "I can'ts" and pushing myself until I injure something.

Anyone care to join me?

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