Learning to ride a bike

I am currently training for a sprint distance triathlon.  Which I think is kind of amusing in a very NON-laughing way as “sprint” to me means fast and I haven’t yet, done any of the practices for this event “fast”.  (Who is the creepy "Charlie Manson" looking guy with the baby....my DAD! Join my cult!)

Drama…..cause apparently life must have some. 

I am pretty much learning how to ride a bike at 33 years old.  Of course I had a bike growing up and I have a bike now.  My family and I go on bike rides frequently but I always bring up the rear so I can keep an eye on my munchkins and Ray takes the lead.  The pace is always slow.  I think the only time I had a challenging bike ride with the family was when Rachel’s bike broke down two miles from the house and I had her sit on my seat and I hovered over the back tire and rode us home.  THAT was a quad work out.

There is a lot of shit to biking.  In my naïve mind it was push pedals, stay on bike. 

I, with the rest of the population who buys a bike from Wal-mart, have a trail bike.  A fancy $79 trail bike no less.  It has never had any adjustments done to it….I didn’t even know you were SUPPOSED to adjust a bike.  Me have strong legs, me pedal, me go.  Seriously….I was that naïve.

Turns out that the bike is supposed to fit you and you can adjust the seat, buy different tires, clip pedals or cages, big cogs, little cogs, long chains, short chains, handle bars up, down, forward back, different types of handle bars, different types of seats, the weight of the bike, the size of the tire not only in circumference but width…..oy vey….and it is all ‘spensive!

Luckily, a friend lent me his rode bike for this event and after practice riding “fast”  (sans Ross pack) on my trail bike….and actually I had to start using my husband’s bike because mine doesn’t have brakes.  Turns out you need those when you bike competitively.  Who knew?

So Dave’s (my friend) bike is a fancy rode bike that weighs next to nothing, is aerodynamic, and has brakes, skinny ass tires and clip pedals.  Now normally weird stuff is because of me, but oddly enough Dave and I have the same size foot and I can wear his clip shoes too.  My foot is a size 8…I’m not the weird one.   Saved money….Score!

I went out for a bike ride this morning (followed by a run) and I was scared!  I wrecked twice.  Couldn’t wrap my mind on “how to” get my foot out of the pedals fast enough.  Luckily, because I have trained in jujitsu I know how to roll….albeit with a bike attached to my whole entire body….and I didn’t break anything but my ego.  But my ego is used to being stomped on by physical activities and I recognize that change always looks intimidating, so I brushed it off with some ease. 

The next scary thing……..cars!  And more importantly BUSES!  Holy shit yourself….there is NOTHING more frightening than having a bus roll up beside you and watching, helplessly, as it skims the bike lane line.  YIKES!  Do they realize this cool shirt I have on is NOT made of Kevlar….or the fact that I CANNOT GET MY FAWKING FEET OUT OF THESE PEDALS if I need to stop because they are just being a plain road hog!

I’ve seen my kid really fawk up two bike helmets….this thing ain’t going to help me if a bus decides to hit me…neither will my cool jujitsu roll. 

I can’t drive very straight on this bike and I go down hills like maple syrup rolling down bark.  My eyes are so wide open they tear up and my neck is burning from being craned up constantly scanning the road for anything that these skinny ass 1” tires might get snagged on….of which I will take yet another fall because I can’t get MY FEET OUT OF THE DAMN PEDALS. 

My neck, shoulders and triceps started to fatigue towards the end of the bike ride.  I was wondering how these precious muscles of mine can do pull-ups, hand stand push-ups, press 130#s over my head but can’t seem to hold my own upper body up for an hour??

What was the point of this long story about me and my bike…well actually my friend’s bike?  Change always looks intimidating.  Riding a bike competitively is a change for me.  So is swimming, I used to be really good at it but that was close to 20 years ago, I am essentially learning my cadence all over.  When change is desperately needed?  Well then it is really scary and daunting.   I desperately don’t want to look like an ass at this triathlon.

But the cool thing about training is that if you apply enough of it your body will meet the demand.  You see I am but a mere human, just like you, if I can do this, then so can you.  We may not both do it the same, you could do it better, I could do it better.  You could be faster, I could be faster….but the fact still remains that it can be done by us.  You cannot fear the work it takes to be healthy.  You just can’t.  You don’t have to ride a bike on the interstate…I actually REALLY advise against that now. …but you need to tackle any demons that are holding you back from getting healthy.

Health requires effort.  Which means you are going to have to do SOMETHING and a lot of it over and over again.  You have to focus on the step you are taking right this minute.  Right this very minute.  Make the most of that step.  Don’t worry about the next steps or the steps in the past.  Focus on making this a good one.  If it isn’t?  Then amazingly enough you have a new opportunity the very next second to make the next one better.  This is a metaphor…no shit right?  I have so many people tell me they messed up their day by eating “x” and that proverbial “x” looms over them all day, preventing them from being better.  We CANNOT do that.  We CANNOT dwell on the previous steps; we must focus on the step we are taking right now.  Making it a good one, making a good choice. 

Get out of your comfort zone.  Stop eating grains, sugars and fake sugars.  They are sofa king bad for your health….yeah health….you need to care about your health first, your waistline will look great when you get healthy.  MOVE your body, pick something that makes you feel awesome, that makes you feel sexy and powerful – when you enjoy it, you do it.  Power is sexy.  Confidence is sexy.  These are goals you should have at the top of your bucket list.  Be powerful…cultivate my power.  Be confident….cultivate my confidence. 

 To quote a good friend…..”Get after it.”