Saw the no pain no gain guy on the bridge again. I know this because he passed me on his bike again, and turned around again and said, “Hey! I saw you yesterday!”
“Yeah!” I said, “Hi!”
Can you imagine this happening on the train? Maybe it’s easier to say things as you’re moving by.
He reached his (gloved) hand out, maybe to thumbs up, or maybe to squeeze hands? I held tight to my handlebars. He sped up but looked back again,
“Hey, don’t just move the arch of your foot on the pedal, put the pedal more forward, near your toes.”
I surveyed all the bikes passing me as he rode off. He was right. No one else was pedaling with their arches. Also: why would they? I don’t know what has compelled me to do this, except that it was subconscious. Maybe I enjoyed that I finally had a bike small enough that I could afford to pedal with my arches? What luxury! Pedaling along like I was bowlegged, feet flexed, huffing and puffing like a buffoon.
So I pedaled with my whole leg and made it past all the garbage cans again.
I came home and told my boyfriend about this bike fairy I seem to have, and he was like, “Of course that’s how you pedal.” I was just like, “Hm,” but in my mind i was like WHY DID A STRANGER NOTICE THIS AND NOT YOU? BIKE ENCOURAGER KNOWS ME BETTER THAN YOU!
Then 10 minutes later he was like, “I saw you had the Yelp listing for the Williamsburg Bridge open on your computer.”
