In an act that seems more prescient by the day, my wife and I bought an exercise bike back in late January. We settled on a decent one with good reviews that cost a few hundred dollars after seeing that we could buy a flimsy one for much less and an unnecessarily nice one (for us) for a whole lot more.
We reasoned that with a newborn (at the time) and two other small children, it was going to be increasingly hard to use a gym membership. The ability to hop on a bike in the middle of winter — or during a particularly hot or rainy day otherwise — had a certain appeal.
Then, of course, COVID-19 turned into a global health pandemic. The ability to cut through some stress with a quick sweat on the bike — without leaving the house — became even more urgent.
For a few months this summer, as we gobbled up fresh air, the bike became an expensive clothes hanger. But now it has found a permanent home in the basement, and now that we seem to have settled into a permanent descent into winter it is getting regular use again.
I like to jump on, usually relatively late at night after our kids are (finally) all asleep, and pedal for 30 minutes while watching the end of some sort of game (with a backup plan of listening to a podcast or audio book if there isn't anything worth watching).
It doesn't really matter what sport, even — if the score is relatively close, and it can push me through 30 minutes of moving while going nowhere, it does the job. (Plus, in this time of cancellations left and right, the privilege of watching any live sports is magnified even if it is conflicting).
The prospects looked thin Wednesday night until I came upon the Toledo vs. Western Michigan football game. It was 31-28 Toledo with about 4 minutes left when I turned it on, and Toledo had the ball deep in Western Michigan territory trying to ice the game.
Knowing the glacial pace of college football, those 4 minutes had the potential to last 30. Perfect, as long as it remained competitive.
