Originally Posted by Wobblewheel

I love all the well written and thought out responses. I am 62 and felt my body weaken overnight as s result of a mini stroke. I stopped riding a few years ago, when it hurt to ride my oldskool racing bikes. And turned into a dedicated couch potato.
I have recently bought an upright posture, short reach, compact frame geometry bike to relieve pressure on my hands. Its a single speed 34 x 16 thats easy to spin, yet still climb small hills. The bike feels lively, and while is fully rigid, absorbs a decent amount of shock with easy rolling fat 29er x 50 tires, platform pedals enable me to find a knee freindly position and I strive to maintain a cadence around 80 to build a smooth and efficient pedal spinning style. Now I look forward to riding pain free like a kid again! Been riding it several times a day from 2 to 10 miles each time. Wake up n go for a quick ride, do a local errand under 5 miles..evening ride after dinner...point is that I'm having fun, exploring local areas close by the house, getting off my butt, socializing and feeling good about my efforts to get more fit, stretch, make better food choices.
So, my contribution as a non athletic, somewhat older guy to this thread is to say:
get out and make it easy n fun to re experience the simple joys of riding your bike, and keep the rides short at first, n try to ride in a spirited manner. Buy something new if that sparks your enthusiasm, especially if your current bike doesnt fit or its a rusty outside clunker....OMG, there are so many cool bikes on the market today...new and used. I love the clear head and increasing muscle fitness not to mention a little socializing.