To Bike, or not to Bike?

I had been asking around to see if I could borrow someone's bike to make the trip to track practice a little less time consuming. On Monday I was pleasantly surprised when someone told me I could borrow their bike until December! Awesome. It is a pretty nice bike too, with awesome gear changers.

I tried out my new trick-mobile on Monday and cut the time in half-- from an hour+ to about half an hour. Sweet.

Come Tuesday, I realized the situation I had put myself in. Sitting in the office I could barely keep my bum to the chair because of the incredible amounts of pain-- that stupid, tiny, skinny bike seat actually made me sore and bruised. It wasn't as if walking was any easier than sitting, because my thighs were completely dead. After getting on that bike on Monday I quickly realized that I basically lived in South Africa's San Francisco: the biggest, steepest hills imaginable... maybe that is the reason why I have never seen anyone ride their bike around here, because it is impossible unless you have thighs made out of superman-quality titanium. Even in my 4 years of weight training and doing monster squats in the giant Harvard weight room, or doing stadiums or even hill runs, my thighs have truly never felt a pain like this... I am dead serious. Imagine how stupid I felt when I had to get off the bike and start walking up the hill. Pretty stupid. I could barely walk yesterday evening, let alone do anything remotely athletic while I was at the track.

Sooooo maybe the bike wasn't the best idea. Maybe I will give myself a week, telling myself that the the bike ride is a great replacement to weight-lifting or something. Maybe I will be able to sit down without feeling immense amount of pain in my rear from the bike seat, or walk without cringing in pain.Or maybe I will decide that I would rather take twice as long and speedwalk with cramped calves instead of biking/bike-walking with cramped calves, dead legs, and a sore bum. 

Cast your vote.