Hi everyone
My name is Tom and I live in New Mexico in the beautifull high desert of southwest US. Please forgive me for the cycling life story but I feel like typing and I need to let my breakfast digest before going out on my Sunday ride.
I'm 47 and returning to cycling to recover my health and fitness and to improve my life. It's not an exaggeration to say that the bike is going to help save my life for reasons you shall see.
In my 20s I ran and I loved it. I loved sweating and being fit and having more energy than everyone else. At 27 in 1985 I thought I wanted to be a triathlete and bought a racing bike - a Centurion with Suntour Superbe components. Pretty soon I forgot about Triathlons and, after a year, I even quit running. I rode the bike everywhere including to work and did a 100 miler almost every Sunday when I could. I got very fit. I saw LeMond win the Tour De France in 1986 and was incredibly inspired.
In 1987 I finally got a USCF license and won 3 of my first 4 races in category 4. 1988 started well winning a race and placing second in another. In April of that year I was struck by a car which broke my left leg. I was back on the bike in a few months but, of course, my year was over.
In 1989 I moved to New Mexico to take a job here and found it to be a cycling paradise with mild weather and an abundance of road and off-road places to ride. By this time I had started drinking more than I should and my training slipped and I won no races. I did complete a 100 miler in less than 4 hours in 1989 and 1990 but that was about it. In 1991 I moved to Missouri for job and family reasons. I entered one 100 race and took third. In 1992 I trained all summer and entered the same 100 race and won it. That was the last time I raced.
Over the years I gradually drifited away from cycling and focused on job and drinking. The last 100 miler I did was 1990. I gained 30 pounds and felt like ****. I understood what I was doing - becomming an alchoholic - but put off doing something about it. For years I had wanted to return to New Mexico to again pedal my beloved moutains. But my parents were in the last stages of life and I knew I had to stay near them. My mother passed away in 2002 and my father died last year.
In January of this year I quit drinking and began the task of losing weight and getting fit again. I'm back in New Mexico now settling in and looking for a job. I've lost 15 of the 30 pounds already and things are going well. While I know I'll never be as fit as I was in my 20s, I'm looking forward to doing the best I can with the time I have left.
It's time for my 25 miler now. Thank you for indulging me with my boring story. And I look forward to some good bike talk. I'll be taking my little 4 mega pixel Fuji into the moutains with me and hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share and show off what a great place New Mexico is for bike riders.
By the way, If you're wondering what an EL34 is, it's the vacuum tube used in Marshall guitar amplifiers from 1966 to the present. Starting with Cream and Hendrix right up to present rock and roll, when you hear electric guitar, much of what you hear is the distinctive tone of that tube when overdriven into distortion. I like tubes. It's an old rock guitarist thing
Tom
My name is Tom and I live in New Mexico in the beautifull high desert of southwest US. Please forgive me for the cycling life story but I feel like typing and I need to let my breakfast digest before going out on my Sunday ride.
I'm 47 and returning to cycling to recover my health and fitness and to improve my life. It's not an exaggeration to say that the bike is going to help save my life for reasons you shall see.
In my 20s I ran and I loved it. I loved sweating and being fit and having more energy than everyone else. At 27 in 1985 I thought I wanted to be a triathlete and bought a racing bike - a Centurion with Suntour Superbe components. Pretty soon I forgot about Triathlons and, after a year, I even quit running. I rode the bike everywhere including to work and did a 100 miler almost every Sunday when I could. I got very fit. I saw LeMond win the Tour De France in 1986 and was incredibly inspired.
In 1987 I finally got a USCF license and won 3 of my first 4 races in category 4. 1988 started well winning a race and placing second in another. In April of that year I was struck by a car which broke my left leg. I was back on the bike in a few months but, of course, my year was over.
In 1989 I moved to New Mexico to take a job here and found it to be a cycling paradise with mild weather and an abundance of road and off-road places to ride. By this time I had started drinking more than I should and my training slipped and I won no races. I did complete a 100 miler in less than 4 hours in 1989 and 1990 but that was about it. In 1991 I moved to Missouri for job and family reasons. I entered one 100 race and took third. In 1992 I trained all summer and entered the same 100 race and won it. That was the last time I raced.
Over the years I gradually drifited away from cycling and focused on job and drinking. The last 100 miler I did was 1990. I gained 30 pounds and felt like ****. I understood what I was doing - becomming an alchoholic - but put off doing something about it. For years I had wanted to return to New Mexico to again pedal my beloved moutains. But my parents were in the last stages of life and I knew I had to stay near them. My mother passed away in 2002 and my father died last year.
In January of this year I quit drinking and began the task of losing weight and getting fit again. I'm back in New Mexico now settling in and looking for a job. I've lost 15 of the 30 pounds already and things are going well. While I know I'll never be as fit as I was in my 20s, I'm looking forward to doing the best I can with the time I have left.
It's time for my 25 miler now. Thank you for indulging me with my boring story. And I look forward to some good bike talk. I'll be taking my little 4 mega pixel Fuji into the moutains with me and hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share and show off what a great place New Mexico is for bike riders.
By the way, If you're wondering what an EL34 is, it's the vacuum tube used in Marshall guitar amplifiers from 1966 to the present. Starting with Cream and Hendrix right up to present rock and roll, when you hear electric guitar, much of what you hear is the distinctive tone of that tube when overdriven into distortion. I like tubes. It's an old rock guitarist thing
Tom