After Three Years

So I was out riding today and I hit me that it has been just about three years since I took up cycling.
The only real goal I had when I started was that for the price of the bike I bought, I had better get in at least five hundred miles.
Well five hundred miles and two bikes later, there I was going around Lanikai, where I had my first crash, huffing and a puffing to get up the small hill to the lookout.
Okay, not really.
The huffing and a puffing part.
I was thinking of how hard that hill was when I first started.
To my neophyte legs that is.
I'd grind up that short incline and have to stop to catch my breath at the top.
Of course, I'd make like I was just enjoying the view, for often girls on cruiser bikes would be passing me by.
It's all about looking fast, don't you know.
In those days, I wore regular shorts and a tee shirt with the sleeves cut off. I also carried a bag with all my sorts of stuff in it.
Well, these days, I have real bike shorts, a real jersey and I waist pack to carry all sorts of stuff in.
I sort of had to change over to padded shorts; I rode for about six months with a nasty(evil) saddle sore.
Learned a lesson there.
I just can't seem to get rid of the pack with all the stuff in it, even if evil Hoku gives me grief about it.
I also got the shoes, the socks, the pedals, three helmets, the heart rate monitor, the computer, the gloves, the eyeball protectors, the bling(cloak) wheels, anodized cable ends, Road ID, Super Blinky, Kryptonite lock, three different chain lubes, carbon fork, SLX, XT, and XTR.
Etc.
Oh, and two other bikes that mainly sit in my living room so I can look at them.
Well okay, I ride them sometimes, but not as often as I should.
Or so I think.
I mean, I can only ride one bike at a time.
Now all this is good.
Usually, my interest, or better, my attention lasts only so long.
Actually, I'm sort of surprised I still ride regularly.
Sometimes I think it's the self inflicted suffering that keeps me going.
Or maybe it's the constant upgrading of the bike.
It sure isn't because my performance has increased.
I mean it has, I'm just sort of resigned to the fact that it has plateaued and that any increase will be marginal.
Or insignificant.
Yet I'm still out there.
A huffing and a puffing, watching my heart rate climb along with the incline of the road, feeling the burn in my legs, wondering when everything will explode.
I've decided that it's the sunshine that calls and beckons.
I cannot, with good conscience, just sit here on the couch, while the sun is shining and I have an operational bicycle at my disposal.
I mean every time I go out for a ride, it's like taking a little adventure.
There's the traffic to deal with, things to see, the feeling of the sun on my face and the wind in my helmeted hair, and places to explore.
Okay, not really.
About the exploring I mean.
Seeing as how I pretty much ride the same route over and over.
It's just about getting out there.
I'm not trying to be green.
I'm not trying to make a statement.
I'm not even trying to stay in shape anymore.
Riding my bike is just about getting out there.
Wherever there may be.