bike dreams

we did it.

when we first moved here i had a conversation with a friend who was telling me about all the wonderful things to do in saskatoon.  one of the many things she mentioned was the bike trails - she talked of how her and her family would bike from our community to downtown saskatoon, have a meal or go for ice cream, and then bike back. she made it sound recreational.  effortless.  she started me dreaming.

i have had my bike, flavia, for over a year now.  we've done a few trips to the zoo next door, to the school, or just around the neighbourhood.  i love being on flavia.  i love the wind in my face (but keep your mouth closed even though you're smiling with joy and exertion - bugs don't feel great going down!), my heart pumping, my legs working, feeling alive and well and child-like.  it's like i'm in my own "participaction" commercial. 

scott got a bike on the weekend.  i suggested the name "ernst", because it seems to work with flavia and it's an onomatopoeia for the feeling of riding a bike.  ernst. he didn't go for it.  my husband believes that inanimate objects should not be named - not that they shouldn't have names, they just should not be given names.  he feels that a name should just "happen", through circumstance, or conversation - in a moment when you're  not thinking of directly naming something.  for example, his car.  it growls. when you are idling it has this vroom-vroom-vroom, like it's accelerating when it's standing still.  sometimes i fear that if my foot isn't on the brake hard enough it's just going to take right off.  on one of our dates out we were talking about this idiosyncrasy, how it sounds like a jungle cat, like a lion...and that night the car was named "pedro", after a washington band from scott's youth "pedro the lion". 

for the sake of this blog entry, i'm calling the bike ernst. 

so, scott and i, and flavia and ernst, lived the dream yesterday.  we biked from our home, through our neighbourhood, into the grasslands/dogpark, down to the river, across the bridge, travelled along the riverbank until we reached the downtown core, hooked up just past the bessborough hotel, and landed at solueio foods.  we both had a steak salad and carrot brie soup for lunch (!!!), then made the trek back.  it was glorious.  it was NOT effortless.

i think the longest bike ride i've taken, since my childhood many moons ago, was probably 15 minutes or so.  i biked hard for close to an hour yesterday - scott thinks around 10 miles.  i'm sure i have a lovely bruise the exact shape and size of my bike seat on my derriere.  by the time we made it home i was literally giving myself a pep talk for every push on my pedals.  which was funny, because on our way out we saw this guy running and i said to scott "he looks like he's running away" - his arms were flapping and his feet were slapping the pavement and his eyes were a little terrified.  scott said "he's running flat-footed.  he's exhausted".  well, i was biking flat-footed when we pulled into our driveway.  i painfully extricated myself from flavia.  scott said "i could go for a run right now".  i though we was joking, but no, he wasn't.  i love my husband but sometimes i want to punch him.

thanks to an epsom salts bath (how do those magic salts do it?!) i am able to move today, but every time i sit down it's like a lovely little reminder.  it was wonderful, especially accomplishing that with scott.  much more fun than working out with jillian michaels. 

and i'm pretty sure flavia winked at me on my way out of the garage.  or maybe she was winking at ernst?