It looks like I’ve injured myself in a way that will not heal. This is partially due to age, and partially due to my own overconfidence and refusing to accept that I’m not a teenager anymore. Long story short, I used to be able to ride long distances on my bicycle, and now I can’t do that anymore.
I had big plans to go on long bicycle tours and basically live off my bike for weeks at a time. With this new limitation, it’s very unlikely that I will ever be able to do that. I was just getting started on the pathway to fulfilling a lifelong dream, and now I’m faced with this hard reality; I will never get to do what I’ve wanted to do since I was a child.
People age. We can’t help that, but we can help getting old. I feel like I let myself get old. I feel like I fucked up, because I did. The injury was easily avoidable, and was totally my fault. Now I’m blaming myself.
I can still ride my bike, just not very far. I’ve spent the past year trying to push through this new limitation, and now I’m seeing that’s not going to happen.
I know I’ll eventually find a bright side to this. Maybe it’ll cause me to have some experience I wouldn’t have had otherwise? Maybe I’ll figure out a compromise of some kind?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been healthy my whole life, so this is all new for me. I suppose I should have expected it eventually, but now here it is, and I’m not ready.
I’d like to hear about how others have learned to accept a sudden limitation in their life.
I’ve been lucky enough to avoid physical limitations so far, but I’ve done a lot of long-term travelling. Are you craving a bike tour specifically, or is part of it wanting to be nomadic/outside/survival mode for awhile? You can always go rubber tramping/dirtbagging with a vehicle, stay at campgrounds and bring a bike with you to go for shorter rides. Hell if you can walk decent and wanna get real rugged, there’s always hitchhiking. I’ve met plenty of haggard old men with injuries and lives full of manual labor and drug abuse who are still getting around. There’s a million ways to travel.
I know I have options. That’s what I’m working out now. I’ve been trying to avoid motor vehicles, but have gone car camping with my bike a few times. It’s okay, but there’s nothing like going from town to town under your own power. I’ve heard the saying “You don’t have any problems, just lots of solutions you don’t like.” That probably applies to me here.