Two Mile Touring
This time of year, I usually find myself in conversation with someone who is curious about my bike habit. Often they feel like they could never do it themselves. So I usually give some simple starting advice.
Because pretty much anyone can ride a bicycle for two miles- for fun, to run an errand, to get dinner with a friend, to explore their neighborhood. Maybe after that they’ll ride two more miles… and then two more…then two more.
So just ride a bicycle two miles (anywhere) today. Maybe tomorrow too.
I started with 2.75 miles every morning. It changed my life. Now it’s changing my husbands life.
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.”
On a recent blog in the UK Guardian newspaper someone said that a neurologist friend of his absolutely refuses to let his children or his wife ride bicycles. If true – which it well might be – the reasoning process behind this seems to be something like (i) I am a neurologist and therefore treat people with brain injuries, (ii) riding a bicycle carries a vast risk of brain injuries, because otherwise cyclists wouldn’t be wearing helmets, (iii) even with the helmets, cyclists still suffer brain injuries, THEREFORE (iv) riding a bicycle is so dangerous that only a reckless lunatic would do it – and its proven efficacy in combatting later-life obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes in my children is of no consequence whatever.
Only two miles? When I worked in Holland a very nice 15-year old girl called Saskia used to come to us twice a week for English conversation. She would cycle alone about three miles from the other side of Nijmegen in the dark and when it was raining, in the middle of January, and also used to cycle one evening a week to play hockey in Heumen about six miles away. She said that if she’d asked her father to get the car out because it was raining he would just say, lazy little madam, shift for yourself, what did God give you legs for? But then, with segregated cycle tracks all the way he had no reason to fear for her
safety. Likewise, with so many other cyclists about at all hours there was little danger of the girl being molested on the way.
Never thought much about why people tell cyclists their reasons for not riding, or not riding more. Maybe they are seeking encouragement. Thanks for the lesson!