I bought my first road bike from REI, three and a half years ago.
and as I was (proudly) walking it out the front doors of the store the employee on door duty grinned at me and said, first road bike?
and I smiled back, nodding my head, and said, yep.
then he said, say goodbye to good posture!
I winced, and kept walking, slightly deflated.
darn mountain biker, I thought to myself.
what brings this to the forefront today, you ask? well, my upper back is hurting. this is a result of sunday's ride: when I'm fighting the wind I tend to tense up, lifting my shoulders and tightening all those upper back/shoulder/neck muscles. when I ride under those conditions I try to remind myself to relax, drop my shoulders, pull my shoulders back and take the rounding out of my back.
try, I said.
I must have said to myself drop your shoulders thirty times sunday.
I ended the ride hurting, and during yesterday's ride they still ached, and today they are finally beginning to loosen up a bit.
but here's the thing: I think that REI guy might be right.
I feel like my shoulders have a permanent round forward to them, and my back rounds as well. every once in a while I'll see someone out riding whose back is flat and their shoulders are pulled back and they look beautiful to me. this is how I want to look when I ride.
when my daughter was in preschool she broke her collarbone and had to wear a brace for a few weeks. the brace pulled her shoulders back, keeping the collarbone correctly aligned during healing. I want one of those. because I tend to forget to pull my shoulders back and straighten my back. I need a reminder.
perhaps a tattoo, on my knuckles.
faith on the left hand, straighten on the right.
I know it's too many letters, but then again so is faith, and I manage to make it work.
maybe I just need to break my collarbone, to get put in a brace, to help me re-learn how to carry myself . . .
or maybe I'll just dig out the sharpie.
S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T-E-N
yep, I think I'll go for the sharpie.
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