Back to Cycling

Fresh off (watching) the Tour de France, I've gotten back on my bike. I'd had a persistent cough since February, which is still only 99% gone, that prevented me from really exercising properly all spring, and I was nervous about getting back on my road bike with the shoes and the clipless pedals and their tendency to cause slapstick-type falls. But I did it. I got on the bike and rode 11 miles today and did nothing hilarious or cringeworthy.

Biking is good for you. Aside for the exercise part, biking keeps you humble, because if your bike gets engaged with almost anything, a car, a pedestrian, a squirrel, a stick, a crack in the pavement, you are going to take the brunt of it. So you have to be constantly alert, and you have to be humble enough to know that you can't just roll over whatever you want without inflicting pain on yourself. Both altertness and humility are useful things to have.