"You are ready for the streets. No you are not punking out of bikes."

The conversation started over email.

Ms. K: "Maybe we . . . could go for a bike ride in the city on Sunday, since it has been well over a year since I have ridden a bike in the city, and I'm a little out of shape."

Me: "You want to bike ride in the city with me?!"

Ms. K: "Yes! Why you don't want to? I will plan out a nice scenic route."

Me: "A scenic route where? Through Times Square?"

Ms. K: "Ha ha. No, for real. Don't make foolish of me. Maybe the Hudson River path? Do you want to come with me? Please?"

Me: "Okay, if it's a nice leisurely path where I'm not going to die then I'm down for it. Will we drive there with the bikes or take them on the subway?"

Ms. K: "Lazy little lady! We will ride the bikes over the Brooklyn Bridge. And then we will go on the path."

Dear readers, I am super out of shape. I mean I walk a lot like any New Yorker, but when I watched 28 Weeks Later recently with my roommate, I decided then and there that if I were chased by flesh eating zombies I would lose. I would be torn to shreds because I'm out of shape. And that would be the end of me. Darwin style.

So when Ms. K proposed a jaunty 15 mile bike ride, I shot her idea down as silly because while I'm interested in bike riding activities, it's a bit ambitious to think that someone who hasn't been on a bike in years would suddenly be able to ride such a distance. "How about we ride bikes around Prospect Park instead?"

My compromise fell on deaf ears and even some pouting.

Okay, I thought. I'll suck it up. I need a stress outlet, right? And what could be more stress relieving than a jaunty bike ride to Manhattan? But I at least prepared Ms. K for the inevitability that I would probably make it as far as Park Slope before my body quit on me -- especially since I've been sick with a chest cold.

I have to say I did better than expected. Mind you I enforced a lot of stopping, but when I finally rode my bike over the Brooklyn Bridge I felt a strange sense of exhilaration, the same sense that I got when I walked over the Manhattan Bridge back during the strike. I also felt the power of traversing the span between boroughs on a structure that has tethered two islands together since 1883 -- back when Brooklyn was its own city and when the bridge was the tallest structure on the horizon. Yes, YES! I thought. I can bike ride to Manhattan! I rule!

Exhilaration later wore off when my body started to not like 9 miles of bike riding. Ms. K didn't give me too much shit when I suggested we take the subway back.