So in high school the bicycle was my main form of transportation. I did have a car that was driveable for about six months of my senior year, but I ended up getting hit while I was making a left hand turn (I was at fault). For me I rode 10 miles to school and 10 miles home and thought nothing of it, and later on it was 10 miles to school, five miles to work and 15 miles home... again thought nothing of it. At the time I was 6'4" and 175 pounds and 17 -18 years old. If I wanted to go somewhere I either had to bum a ride or ride my bike, and given those choices it was easier to just ride the bike. It wasn't uncommon for a 70-100 mile day back then with some of those miles having me wear a frame pack on my back carrying an alto saxophone to a football game or to the repair shop which was a 40 mile round trip ride.

I went into boot camp just a few weeks after graduating high school and never thought about riding seriously again until I was way out of shape in my mid 40s (6'3" and 406 pounds in March 2014). This is when I would get frustrated as I had an expectation of being able to ride like I did in high school when in reality riding a mile about killed me. I have since dropped down to 349 pounds, but then gained back to 380 pounds, and then lost to my current weight of 365 pounds. I am not the fastest rider, but I have done a 50 mile ride, and 15 miles is easy for me now.

Things that have helped me is to not get hung up on past abilities and ride anyway, make the ride fun, getting equipment that allowed a more upright riding position at first (I have since lost some belly and am able to ride a short stem on a race geometry frame), and using programs like Strava to track miles.

So to my fellow riders I say "Don't give up, keep turning the pedals, and have fun".