History is shaped by our hands.

In a dual attempt to be outside more and be more healthy, last night I went on my first bike ride in almost 10 years.  Don't laugh at me; I've been busy.  The ride was a complete success, despite a less-than-smart decision on my part.

But let's focus on a good decision first.  A smart decision that I made was choosing to take a shorter ride.  I only rode for about 20 or 25 minutes.  Despite some flirtations with a stationary bike in my basement, I haven't done much riding at all in the last 10 years.  I'm not necessarily out of shape, but I'm not in shape, either.  It would have been terrible for me to be out on the road and then realize that I had used all of the strength I had in me.  That situation would have made for a challenging walk home.

Bad decisions, however, are more exciting and drama-filled.  Even though I chose to take a short ride in regards to time, I still managed to take a long ride in regards to distance.  Remember how I said I hadn't ridden my bike in almost 10 years?  That means my bike has been in storage for 10 years.  There could have been many things wrong with my bike.  After I pulled it down from it's hanging perch in my garage, I filled the tires, checked that the brakes worked, and immediately took off with a goal to explore.  The smart decision would have been to stay in my subdivision, but I know what my subdivision looks like.  I wanted to see the new subdivision across the access street and the older subdivision that was beyond that subdivision.  After a 10 year hibernation, there was a very good chance that I could have blown a tire, had the brakes fail, or even had the chain come flying off.  I rode away from my house for about 10 minutes before turning around.  Yes, it was only 10 minutes, but you can cover a lot of ground in 10 minutes when you are cruising along on a bike.

The good news is that there were no incidents and my bike is mostly in tip-top condition.  In addition, I'm in fairly tip-top condition.  My muscles aren't sore and I'm not extra tired from my encounter with physical activity yesterday.  Actually, the fact that my muscles aren't sore just goes to show that I didn't ride long enough.  My muscles should have been a little sore today to show that I had worked them a bit.  Maybe tonight I'll ride a little further to the subdivision beyond the old subdivision.  Or to the candy store.  Mmmm... candy.