Was I Younger Then?

I took the first of many bicycling vacations with a gal pal back in the 90’s. Imagine meeting new folks, experiencing quaint B&B’s and seeing different parts of the country year after year—Vermont, Maine, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington. On one trip, we met two girls from NYC, and we four became fast friends, scheduling several cycling trips together over the years. Later, two of my work friends joined us on some trips too. 

Eventually, life got in the way and these week-long trips took a back seat. I’ve since taken two trips with my husband, a bike and barge trip to the Netherlands and one to France, but I thought the era of girls’ cycling trips had ended until last year when my one of my girlfriends said, “We’ve got to do another one.”  I replied, “We need to do it while I still can.” Thus came about our Outer Banks trip with Carolina Tailwinds, chosen primarily for the description—flat.

Because I’d only occasionally been riding, I knew I had to start a training regimen so that I could do 20 to 60 miles a day on this trip without killing myself.  Let’s be clear for you cyclists out there: I ride a hybrid, not a road bike, so this was major mileage for me.  My typical ride around home is about 15 relatively flat miles.

I asked a friend to start riding with me so I’d be in shape for that early spring trip, and we rode on some pretty cold and windy days.  He kept telling me that I needed to cycle more than once a week to get in shape, and when I told him I’d typically only ridden once a week to prepare for my trips in the 90’s, he said,  “You were younger then.”  He could’ve gone a long time without mentioning that. The good news--I was able to do my personal best of 50 miles on the first day of the trip.

This year, my husband and I are taking a sailing/cycling trip to the Greek Islands with my training partner and his wife, and he just had to bring up that “younger” comment yet again.  I’m trying to ignore him, even though the description of this tour is a bit daunting.  Bike Tours Direct describes it as “…relatively mountainous…one of the more demanding…with some longer and rather steep climbs where pushing your bike is permitted.”  When I mention this, the response I get is, “That’s what gears are for.” And, you wonder why he’s still my friend, right? 

In my head, I keep hearing the Byrds singing, "Ah, but I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now," and I'm hoping that it's true.