“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.” -Herbert Otto ”

Stagnation is my enemy. From the time I was a little girl, I was a go-getter: I begged my mom to teach me to read; would cry if I got anything less than 100% on homework; would get up early before school to go for a run while everyone else was sleeping. I purposely put myself in situations where I knew I would be weak in an effort to get stronger and better. This quality has aided me in my education, my workouts, my professional life, and even my personal life. I’m motivated to keep pushing myself, even when I don’t want to or feel I can. While this seems like it would be a good thing, it has also hindered me. As Christopher tells me on an almost nearly daily basis, I need to lighten up and be easier on myself. As funny as it sounds, relaxing and not pushing myself so hard was actually my most recent goal, at which I’ve failed miserably! Not working towards a goal just doesn’t seem to work for me…maybe the fact that I had to set a goal to not set a goal doomed me from the start.

I’ve given up on being moderate and even-keel; I’ll stick with my extremes. It’s served me well in the past and keeps me moving forward. I can’t stand still; I have to keep moving, pushing forward, looking ahead to the next thing. Stagnation throws off my equilibrium and makes me feel like everything is closing in. Movement and chaos calm me. I like to switch things up and change gears fairly often. Now that marathon training is over, I’m back to lifting heavy and contemplating my goals for the winter months. Gaining weight and setting lofty power lifting goals seems like a fun 180 degree turn. I have a single gear bike. I’m itching to convert to a fixed gear and learn how to ride (and I’m determined to learn how to ride backwards!). We have several projects for our house we’re slowly making our way through, and I’m just five classes short of attaining my Bachelors in Liberal Studies/English. There are so many goals on the horizon, and it comforts me to know that I have so many things to look forward to and work towards! This is my life…our life…and we have the power to create it the way we want it.

Mandy

This is a song that reminds me to keep moving when life gets difficult and obstacles block the path…just keep swimming.

If you had told me 5 years ago that one day I would be loving and riding bicycles, I would have probably laughed. I admit, I saw cyclist as skinny stick thin people who always wore lycra, which by all means, does not leave much for the imagination and making them looking even skinnier. I love my weightlifting with the results of building huge muscles. Bicycling? No, thanks.

A few years ago, I needed something to change-up my workouts. I was getting stagnant and I felt less than excited about being at the gym. So I decided to ask a friend at the gym if he had any ideas on how to break this lull I was in. He suggested that I take his spin class. Needless to say, I was pretty resistant to his suggestion. The thought of skinny cyclist ran through my mind again. That was not really the direction I wanted to go. A few weeks had passed and I was still in the lull, so I finally decided to take his class and it was the change I needed. I was only taking it once a week, but I found myself looking forward to the class. After about a year of taking the class, the thought of owning a bicycle was more appealing. I thought maybe if I just get a beach cruiser, I could at least get the feel of it and plus, it would be a little cheaper.

It wasn’t until I got on the cruiser is when I realized how much I missed riding a bicycle. I think the last time that I owned a bicycle was when I was a 15. Three years later, I now have a small fleet of bicycles in the garage between Mandy and I.

These days, I can not imagine not being on a bicycle and I blame temporary insanity for giving it up decades ago. Being on a bicycle is a stress reliever and has a calming sense to it. I do feel a car is necessary in some occasions, but if you can do it without a car, why wouldn’t you? It cuts down traffic, better for the air, no gas to buy and most importantly, it keeps you healthy. Or at least healthier than you were. In a world where obesity is a serious problem; it seems to be a no brainer. Why do I ride a bicycle? Because it just makes sense.

Recently, I discovered the fixed gear or “fixie”. Basically, there is no coasting with this bicycle. When the wheels are in motion, the pedals are in motion. I get a lot of people giving me the blank stare look when I try to explain this to them. All I can say is this, it’s as close as being a part of the bicycle as you can get. My bike was recently posted here at FixedGearGalery as submission #12,086 (Christopher’s Schwinn) If you are still interested and want to know more about these bicycles, follow this link. I could not explain it better than this:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/articles/scottlarkin1.htm

And here is a short video of a couple of guys on some fixies.

And just for the record, I still don’t wear lycra!!!

Christopher

1: a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path (i.e. an advertising juggernaut; a political juggernaut)

This definition seems to be a theme with us here lately. It started off as a joke that someone called me at one time but has permeated our lives. With a few unexpected material set backs, nothing is going to stop us from moving forward with our lives and making the best of it.

~Christopher

Below is a video of an example: