The Investment

Shins were still sore today, though much better than yesterday. Still, I didn't feel it was worth risking them, and nature apparently agreed. It poured down with rain all day.

I decided that in order to protect my shins, and also to keep up with the cardio that I would make an investment and today I went out and bought an exercise bike. ----->

Cost me two hundred bones, so it's a cheapie, in exercise bike terms, (though not in Halky terms) but does seem very sturdy, which is good. It has a fan, a display that shows your calories, distance, time etc, 8 presets and even some speakers. The one issue I had with it on my inaugural 'pedal' was that my knees kept hitting the bar, so I reversed the bar's position and now that's not a problem.

When people think of running, they think of it being a cheap sport, at least for amateurs. I suppose it could be, but the more I get into taking it seriously, the more it's costing me. :-). Exercise bike. $200. Shoes $125. Race fees. $200+. Medications, rubs, anti-chafing stick $30. I haven't even bought any additional "gear" this go around, but I know I'm going to need a decent coat for winter runs at the absolute minimum and I could use another pair of running shorts too. That'll be another $100+ I'm sure. All this so that I can spend 4+ hours pounding the streets of Arizona. That's about $25 per mile! For a t-shirt, a medal and a gift certificate!