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overdoing it

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I went to the shop where I bought my bike (about 3.543 weeks ago). I had to replace my pedals because the small resin ones that came with my bike had started to warp, and the reflector pieces had fallen out. I didn't really think that I'd been overdoing it by any means, but apparently that's just what it was.

The fellow told me that I was putting too much pressure on the pedals and that I should be gearing down and 'spinning'. I had thought that I'd been doing just that - keeping the revs up and the resistence down. The fellow (who I think is the owner of the franchise) repeatedly said things like "you're a powerful peddler", which strikes me as insanity because I'm actually an asthmatic and somewhat averse to athleticism.

But when I look at the facts - I peddle ~10 km in ~35 minutes with a slight but steady uphill grade the whole way (it takes me no longer to get home by bike than it does by transit) - I guess maybe that's a bit much for a cheap commuter bike.

Then if I look back at the other exercise I'm doing (20 sit-up/curls, fifteen pushups, and five brutal chin-ups every morning before heading to work), I guess I have gone from no physical activity to a fair bit all at once.

In this, I seem to have inherited my father's tendency for excess in sudden bouts of physical activity. I can recall his out-of-the-blue embarking on a morning regime of dozens of sit-ups for instance, and the many *many* stretching exercises he'd get into. It would all last for a couple of months and then stop again, but the resumption would always be the same.

Though looking back, the last time I started the push-ups was when I was 17, and I did them pretty much every day for about ten years.