Learning to ride: My brain is wearing me out.
I began the summer with the best of intentions. My parents got Meals on Wheels delivered for a while and I noticed on the site that you could do deliveries by bike. Yep. They loan you a trailer, help you hook it up, give you the lunches each day, and away you go. Seemed like a great way to provide a service to the community and get exercise. Only problems were my lack of bike and that I hadn't ridden since I was about 7 years old. No big deal. I had spent 6 weeks as a volunteer in a bike shop- starting from scratch- when I found the perfect bike. A 24" Schwinn Varsity. Bike acquired, all that remained was re-learning to ride. And that's where the much bigger trouble started. I'm not afraid of falling; I've got excellent brakes and I heal fast. No, the hard part is getting my competitive comparing self out of the way. Nearly every time I oversteer or fall over or catch my pants leg, I think "What the hell? I've taught a dozen 5 year olds to do this and it only took them half an hour. I've driven a car through Seattle traffic during rush hour. I'm 2 days away from 51 so what is wrong with me?" I only got 1 1/2 hours of practice in before I was too tired to lift my leg to put my foot on the pedal and so frustrated I was almost in tears. Is this common? Is it age-related? What's the best way to get past it?