signals

Since coming to the realization that my relationship with bicycling has had to change, my body has felt creakier. Most mornings, I now wake up with knees and sometimes hands feeling stiff and achy. The barometer has been a little up and down but mostly the days are slowly getting warmer, but mostly I just notice everything more.

Last night after Stompy went away perched atop a friend's car rack, I treated myself to a hot bath with Epsom salts. It was lovely.

This morning, my hands are stiff and sore as I type. My knees ache every time I get up from a seated position, or when I climb stairs. Is the admission of my body's aging process the signal for my body to sudden;y feel older? Or does my body's aging process provide the impetus for my decision to quit racing? It feels like a psychic chicken-and-egg question.

I'm doing all the right things: riding in easier, lower gears; taking Glucosamine fr my joints (been doing this for several years now); and trying to do less with my hands at the bike shop (though the transition now won't really kick in until the fall -- I hope my hands can hang on that long!). And still, my body feels suddenly, radically, noticably creakier and older than it did at this time last year. What the hell is going on?

I've been reading up on electric-assist cargo bikes. I am especially taken with a massive speciment built by Bill Stites:

This baby would easily transport all my gear -- guitar, amp, stool, cables and everything else -- to and from local gigs. I wouldn't need a license or insurance for it (though I would need a larger garage-space to store it in). It fits in the bike lane. I am totally in love with it. But the several-thousand-dollar price tag makes it more expensive than a decent used car. It's a "someday" thing.

Meanwhile, I'm dreaming of really serious, big-ass cargo bikes. And so are my knees.