It just felt good to me most of the time, but I definitely wasn't pushing it at first, the bike started out as part of my strategy for recovering from a mild stroke. Hadn't been on a bike for a few years, big hills sucked for sure and riding into any significant wind was a chore. It took me most of a summer to build up to 8 or 10 mile rides. I definitely had problems getting back into it, some of them caused by poor bike fit, most of them caused by me not being fit. The bike has since been replaced, the body still needs a lot of work ;-)