how many muscles are in the human body?

I'm sure someone out there knows the answer, but really, don't tell me.
All I know is that every single one of mine is aching.
Not as much as yesterday, thank goodness.
Hardly at all now actually.

The reason for my discomfort?
The bike.
And myself of course.
I rode on Saturday, further than I've ever ridden since I first got on the bike.
Heh, I'm such an over-achiever....

Anyway, earlier this year, I'd bought a basket to go on the front of the bike.
Nothing as simple as the old-fashioned sort that just hooks over the handlebars.
Oh no.
This complicated little s*** of a basket needed a fixture fitted to the handlebars with power tools.
I don't have any.
Plus I looked at the instructions and they might as well have been written in Klingon for all the sense I could make of them.

So, Saturday.
I put the basket in a big old garbage bag, (bright yellow, for easy visibility by passing motorists), and decided it was now or never.
I was riding into town and get this basket fitted.
Off I went.

Stuck to the footpaths and bike tracks through the parks as much as I could, and walked the bike across intersections.
(I'm a safety girl...)
Getting into town was easy, getting the basket fitted was easy, getting home again, not so easy.
The roads aren't flat!
The way home involved more than one gentle upward slope.

I'm telling you, my thighs were not happy!
I took it as easy as I could, getting off and walking the bike several times, once even stopping altogether and resting.
But I made it home, and straight away, lay flat on my back with my knees up on pillows for an hour.
When I got up again, my thighs were fine.
So I went about the rest of my day, eventually getting to bed around 11pm.

Sunday morning dawned and I tried to roll out of bed.
And discovered that my upper back and shoulders were quite stiff and almost painful.
I had to lie there and gently stretch my way into the day.
I knew the best cure for this was to get moving, so after a hot shower, I took a gentle stroll around the block.
Later in the day I took another walk, then a third stroll around the block just after the sun disappeared.

I'm still a bit achy, (but not as bad as when I hurt my back), but no real damage has been done and I was able to work today .
The best part?
The basket is fitted and I don't have to ride that far in one hit ever again if I don't want to.

The lesson I learned?
Well, knowing me as well as I do, I probably didn't learn a damn thing....