Conquered My Bike Fear (Almost)

One of the real treats of training this time of year is that we go to Marin each weekend. When I left my house on Saturday morning it was wintertime in San Francisco -- cold, 52, and yucky. But as I crossed the bridge, the fog started to burn off and a glorious spring day awaited me.

As the sun appeared, the butterflies in my stomach started to flutter. Today was to be my first day on my new bike with my clipless pedals. My previous rounds resulted in 12 bruises on the inside of my knees (which, btw looked awesome with my bikini when I went to Mexico for my friends wedding 3 days later). But I promised my coach I would put them on for todays 21 mile ride.

The swim was great. The pool is heated and the sun was out. We swam for an hour, close 2000 meters. That was the easy part.

Then with great trepidation, I got ready for my bike. It turned out that there were only 2 of us in the "age groupers" today. "Age Group" is a really nice name for "Utter Beginner" group. As I was getting ready to leave, a friend of mine who had gone out earlier in the morning, and who is also an newbie on the clipless pedals, calls out my name and points to her bleeding leg. She fell about 2 miles out, broke her rear derailer, and had to head back. This did not encourage me.

Feeling unsure about what was in store, we set off. My coach right beside me encouraging me. Much to my amazement, I did not fall once! It was a glorious ride and the new clipless pedals made things a whole lot easier.

I still have to over think every stop. Here's roughly what goes through my mind: "OK, slowing down. You'll be fine. Don't think too much. Put on the breaks. Clip out one foot. Stick it out. Get off the seat. Lean to the right. Keep leaning to the right. Lean some more or your going to fall the other way. I can't control this! This isn't looking good! Panic! Ahh. My foot's on the ground."

Today I also purchased a women's bike seat. Hopefully that too will make things a bit more, um, comfortable.