Best Bike Ride Ever!

Tonight I did my first "bike ride" outside in about 5 months. I figure since I have my first triathlon of the season on Saturday it would be helpful to actually get out on my bike and do a little riding. I have been using my bike trainer indoors, approximately once a week, but it's not quite the same as getting out on the road and pushing yourself on hills and different terrain.

I was excited to go on a ride since the weather was in the 70's and also since I had my new:

Speedplay Zero Pedals

Specialized Triathlon Shoes

Both of these were Christmas presents from Sean. I had tried the pedals out last week when JoJo came for a bike trainer workout. They took me over 10 minutes to clip into, so I was really frustrated, but than after a trip to the bike store and a quick tweak with an addition of an additional piece on the shoes I was able to clip into my bike on the trainer with no problem.

Also, last night Sean hooked up my cadence sensor, and my Garmin bike attachment, so I can use my Garmin on my bike which I was super excited about. In the past I've just used my Garmin on my wrist and it's been tough to ride and keep looking at my wrist. With the attachment, I can easily clip the Garmin on the bike and clip it back on my wrist when I go on the run.

Audrey was nice enough to agree to go on a ride with me. She's not doing the triathlon with me this weekend, but is doing one with me in May. I called Audrey on my way home and told her my timing so she arrived at my house shortly after I got home.

I changed into bike clothes and put our bikes in the garage so we could pump up the tires. She had been borrowing my hybrid bike since last March and it's been sitting in her house not getting any use, so the tires were pretty flat. My bike needed air as well. No problem right? How hard can it be to put air in your tires?

Well apparently we're both clueless. I really need to take a bike maintenance class and learn how to take care of my bike instead of relying on Sean all the time. I know the basics, where to check to see what the pressure should be, where to attach the bike pump etc. The only problem was that I wasn't able to get a tight seal so every time I pumped air into the tire half of it came out. I figured it was good enough and we decided to go and ride.

Now I only needed to clip myself into my bike. Shouldn't be hard, remember last night I tried and with the adjustments made to the shoes it was no problem to clip into my bike. Well I tried, and tried, okay it didn't take forever, but it wasn't quick. I finally got my left shoe to clip in and than I fell. All the momentum I was creating trying to get my stupid shoe clipped in forced me to the left and onto the ground as soon as the shoe clipped. Luckily I was on my "soft" driveway. It was then I realized why I normally wear gloves. Why wasn't I wearing them by the way. Oh yeah, it was my first ride of the season, I forgot about them. Nothing too serious just a few scrapes.

So now my heart is racing. I've never fallen before, not that this was a hard fall. It was mostly on my calf and hands and it mostly scared me more than anything. I'm stubborn though, and I wanted to figure these stupid pedals out. I moved myself to the grass and was quickly able to clip my left foot in. Now with my other pedals once you clip one foot in you start riding and, no big deal, the other foot clips in nice and quickly. Well I'm not sure if it was my lack of confidence, my inexperience or just plain bad luck, but I had to ride up and down my side street in my neighborhood until that stupid right pedal would clip in. Finally it clipped and both Audrey and I were excited.

Meanwhile Audrey is concerned about her tires, "they don't feel so great." I said we could just ride around in the neighborhood and see how it feels that way if something happened we could walk back no problem. We get to the end of our neighborhood, about a mile from my house and Audrey is fine with riding over to Ford's Colony, the sub division another half mile away. Neither of us are very confident riders on the road. One day we'll be better. We get to Ford's Colony and I yell to Audrey to get in the turning lane and that there were no cars coming. I move over and turn into the neighborhood. I look back and Audrey's still back on the right side of the road and now there are a bunch of cars. Eventually the cars thin out and she is able to make it into the neighborhood. Once she catches up she tells me about how the bike is acting, and how the bike is pulling to the right. She also mentions the tires seem low. I look and they are basically both flat. We decide to ride back home, since what's the point of riding on flat tires.

We make it back with no drama and I was able to clip out of my bike without falling. We rode a total of 4 miles. This may have been the shortest bike ride ever, but there were definitely a few lessons learned.

#1: Make sure to put enough air in the tires to last the entire 4 mile bike ride, or however long you want to ride.

#2: When you're not sure how to clip into a bike do it on the grass.

#3: Always wear your biking gloves.

#4: A 4 mile bike ride can still be fun.

We may not have gotten the workout we both wanted, but we definitely both had fun. Once back at the house Sean showed us the "correct" way to put air in the tires. Of course he made it look so easy.