Back in the Saddle Again...

So the title of this post is painfully punny, but expresses how happy and comfortable I feel to be, once again, cruising along on my trusty bike steed after about two months of not riding. Back in early November, around the time that my blog co-author Fabi and her family found themselves completely without car transportation for several weeks, I was involved in a minor auto collision (in my car). Struck from behind while my head was turned to one side, my shoulder/neck muscles, ligaments and spine were, to put it technically, out of whack. I found myself at multiple chiropractic appointments per week, stretching and getting injury massage, and avoiding my bike out of fear of prolonging my recovery period or putting my ability to keep up with my own massage training courses in jeopardy. Fortunately, my chiropractor approved of my rate of rehabilitation and recommended that I get back on and ride for healthfulness, exercise, and to see how my injured area would do once I was back to my "normal" routine.  So now after mostly using four-wheeled transportation for the end of last year (I am resolutely not finding out how much Christmas cookie weight I gained while I was sedentary), I am riding around all of my regular neighborhoods and errands.

Surprisingly, a lot has changed in two months! I lost muscle tone and my seat calluses (I was sore sitting down after my first ride), and my little co-pilot got bigger. The first time I went to put Alton on his bike seat on my longtail after this hiatus, I had to loosen straps and reinforce my stance holding the bike up. The little guy (who just turned 5), has gotten more adept at riding his own bike, so one of our first outings together was one mile up the street to the movie rental place, with me riding my longtail in the street and Alton riding "Little Red" on the sidewalk next to me. He did great! But that was no surprise, since he and his daddy took a ride right after Christmas to our main city library, a 5+ mile round trip.

Alton hitched a ride some of that time on Andy's "Big Red" longtail bike, which has a sturdy deck to sit on and handlebars for Alton to hold, while his little bike gets strapped down in the saddlebags. Now that he's outgrowing that blue child seat on the back of my bike, we'll get a set of rear handlebars attached to the back deck of my longtail as well, so that it's easier for the little guy to get up there and his center of gravity is lower than in a child seat. Not to mention that his long legs will be busting out of his footrests, soon!
We've made a few changes to our cadre of bikes in the few months that I've been off the bike, too. Just before my accident, we sold my hybrid bike...

...and then just this week, our best biking buddies and co-authoring family, the Zawalskis, opted to purchase our Dutch bakfiets for some fun side-by-side riding with their two youngsters. It's been a couple of years now since our family cycling went from recreation to obsession, and we're learning a lot about bikes, our abilities, how we like to ride, and to always, always stay flexible! Whatever we do, I'm glad to be doing it from the seat of a bike once again.