Thursday, March 26, 2009

An Uneventful Ride

New Bike, No Problems

Last night I got home, I checked the weather, (54 degrees and sunny thank goodness), and got stoked to get in my first good ride on the new steed. I braved the fingerless gloves again, although I stuffed Becky's teal gloves in my pockets just in case. I gave the new bike the once over. Air in the tires...check. Ok, I guess I didn't really have a long checklist, but hey, its a new bike, everything was looking good.

I pulled out of the garage and headed out, planning to do the "quick" down and back 13.7 mile loop. I'm happy to report that I don't really have anything funny or crazy to write about today. As I pulled out, I passed the UPS man and smiled thinking maybe we would play leap frog again, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, I didn't see him again all ride.

The new bike was serving me well. I could choose any gear I wanted and the bike did what I told it to do, shifting smoothly into the requested gear. I have to say, while this new freedom was great, it posed a whole new challenge for me. How do I know what gear to be in? Do I pick a higher gear and burn my legs pushing hard, or do I choose a lower gear, and get winded spinning the pedals like crazy. I think I'm figuring it out but I'm sure if I had a coach or someone experienced with me, they would have some advice for me.

I'm a little under the weather, so the volume of snot on this ride was particularly high, I definitely broke in my new gloves. Also, my neck is still not used to this road bike position and screams a bit after 7 or 8 miles. Other than that, I just rode down, turned around and rode home. Nothing crazy, no real problems; in other words, it was awesome. Maybe boring to read about, and less things for me to poke fun at, but at this point, an uneventful ride is a good ride. Now I just have to keep upping the mileage. As you may have guessed I still haven't put on the clipless pedals, so when I do, the "uneventful" thing might go out the window for a bit, but for now, things are rolling smooth.

2 comments:

  1. Just found your blog. It's nice. I would avoid turning a harder gear and burning your legs. If you do that you won't be able to ride very far. The trick is pedaling at a high cadence for long periods of time. Just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Welcome to the blog Mike J, glad you found it and are liking it. Thanks for the advice as well, I'll try to keep the cadence up.

    ReplyDelete

 
Custom Search
Nitro-Pak Preparedness Center