Cycling

About two months ago, I was talking to a friend at a party who introduced me to another friend of hers that she met in a cycling clinic. At that point, she asked me if I was going to do the upcoming cycling clinic that she was joining. I laughed and said no as I don't even own a bike. At that, the woman I had JUST met says "I have a bike you could use." Whoa. That level of trust and generosity just blows me away. Anyway, with my excuse stripped away from me (ummm, thanks?!), I joined the clinic.

It's been a month and a half now, and I don't really want to go back and enter in everything we've done in the past, so I'll just start with yesterday (although someday, maybe I'll write about adventures with pedal clips. I've lost count of how many times I've fallen because of those). We met out at a long, low-traffic road near the airport. The weather sucked, rainy, windy, and cold. Not typical Hawaii weather, but this is what it's been like for the last week, and it's predicted to go for another week.

I'm not sure if it was due to the weather, but the coaches went easy on us. Two laps up and back (a few miles each way I'd guess) in which we practiced a single pace line. Then another lap at a double pace line. All of this is at pretty slow speeds, around 14-16 mph.

It turned out they were making us save our energy because next were "time trials." It's in quotes because nobody actually timed us. One by one, we got set up, they counted off, and at 5, we were set loose to push as hard as we could up the road and then ride easy back. If you've never see the start of a time trial, it consists of someone holding your bike from behind while you clip both feet into the pedals. When you're ready, you hold the brakes and start putting pressure on the pedal. When they count down, you let go of the brakes and pedal as the other person lets you go.

My first one went well, but I think I was in too big of a gear to start. They told us to use our big gear in front, but I think I'm not quite strong enough for that yet. Going out, you are into the wind which is a bit of a bummer. It's getting dark, so you focus on the little blinking light of the rider who went before you and try to catch them.

The problem for a beginner cyclist like me is that I don't have a sense for how fast I can wear myself out yet, so either I go too fast and have nothing left to finish, or I go too slow which is just lame. In this case, I knew we would be doing another trial right after this one, so I didn't give it everything I had, but I felt I had put in a good effort.

The second one was torture. It started well, but I went out too fast and by the end I was dying. I was gaining on the tail light in front of me, but in the end, came up just short. If the course was longer, I'm not sure if I would have caught up, or just fallen off the pace and limped in. To my dismay, another rider passed me! I know that person's one of the more advanced riders, but it still sucks. Oh well, someday hopefully I'll be able to return the favor.

I drove home with the heater on full blast (I said it was cold. Yes, it's Hawaii, I'm just a wimp), and by the time I put my bike away, I felt ready to do something more. This is a total fluke, I've never felt like doing anything more than taking a shower and crawling into bed after a ride before. So I figured I better take advantage of it and I went for a short run. My DH was making dinner, so I just went out for around 20-25 minutes. I've been focusing on the cycling, so it's been a month or two since my last run. Well...that's not quite accurate, about once a week, immediately after a ride, several of us change into sneakers and go for a 15 minute or so jog, but basically, I just trudge along for those, it's not a hard effort. Anyway, it wasn't as bad as I feared. I was able to run faster than I expected (about 9:30/mile) but I was happy to head home when the time was up.

You know, it's interesting to re-read what I just wrote. Six months ago, if I read this as written by someone else, I would have never been able to relate. I'm not an athlete, just someone who's trying to keep the couch from sucking me back in. As long as I have training groups, I think I'll be fine. I just wonder how long until I can train on my own. How long until I am self-motivating? My fear is that when this group ends, I will revert back to laziness. I guess I should give myself more time before worrying about that.