On Sunday I decided to take Dolly,my road bike, out for a spin. Mind you, I've only ridden her out on the road three times now. The first time to test drive without the clips and the second and third time to test drive with the clips. Obviously test ride number two was not good since I fell over immediately and boo hoo'd. The third time went well and I had no whammies. This brings us to Sunday.
I took Dolly out to actually get a ride in and fortunately, I live close enough to a 7 mile paved trail loop. I went alone cause I still feel pretty nervous having others watch me clumsily clip in and out. I have realized that I can clip in and get going without much ado.
I started my ride all by my lonesome when an older gentleman rode up next to me. He pointed out my shorts said "Her Sports, huh." I told him they were from a friend at Women's Running Magazine. He then pointed out my shirt. "Ironman Florida, huh." I told him they were from the Ironman tent sale for five bucks and I'd never done an Ironman. Apparently this was all he needed to become my best friend and de facto riding coach.
He was a really nice guy and we rode along at my snail's pace and discussed running, riding, and tris. I would guess him to be about 50 or so. He knew a lot and gave me a few pointers. One of which was to keep my foot flat. He said he knew a lot of women riders have a tendency to point their toe. He thinks because of high heels, I think it's just because of how we carry ourselves. Toe pointing is pretty!
I think he was happy to have company since he was pretty chatty. Our conversation covered a lot about being a FNG (effin' new guy) and the one thing he said that stuck out to me was, "Anything worth doing, is worth doing good. But, also, anything worth doing is worth doing bad." What? Is this some sort of Ricky Bobby crazy talk? Not really. Upon explanation this made a lot of sense.
When I started running, I stunk. I was out of gas about a half mile in and I never thought I'd get to five miles, let alone ten. I was pretty slow, out of breath, and wearing cotton. In other words, I was bad. But I knew I wanted to be good. And relatively speaking, I've gotten good. I'm no Kara Goucher, but I'm happy with my running now. And when I started, I was definitely bad. Thus, when you start something that you consider worth doing you aren't going to be "good" initially but you keep at it. "Anything worth doing good is worth doing bad." Make sense?
This is how I'm going to approach my cycling. Currently, I'm bad. Ok, I'm really bad. (I fell again on my final stop trying to unclip. I wasn't hurt and this time I laughed!) But I'm going to keep at it and step out of my comfort zone. Sure, I'll get passed and probably fall over again in the clips but hopefully someday I'll be good. Or at least good enough for me.
17 comments:
Nice to find such a helpful person! Keep it up! I've been at it for years and still struggle sometimes with confidence on my bike but I love it and will never give it up! I've noticed it's not only women that point their toes but I think it's more something ppl do when it gets hard and you are no longer concentrating on form.
Maybe you're already doing this, but unclip first, stop second. MUCH easier to do when bike is in motion.
Good for you to keep on keeping on.
good job on the clips! That scares the heck out of me! I run, swim but am too skeered to get on the bike for that reason! good job!
Great post! Love that theory, even if it does sound Ricky Bobby-ish (If you're not first, your last! LOL!).
I started biking (on Friday), except I'm on a mountain bike and pulling a whining toddler behind me. No clipping. But I did manage to fall off.
What a cool encounter, and great advice for pretty much anything in life.
Sorry you fell again...bikes can be so mean. But I like the quote and I know that your days of falling off will soon be over.
Long live Ricky Bobby.
Like I said, everyone falls, even the pros. Well, I pretty much sucked at the swim yesterday. After an hour of fighting the waves, I hadn't even reached a mile and I'm pretty sure I drank all the water in the Gulf. I suppose one could also say Anything worth doing is worth doing the HARD way! And if that nerd wants to see a girl drive thru a pedal stroke with heels down, let me know and I'll bury him! BTW, Kara Goucher had better look out. I think the next time she's pregnant, you could beat her by a mile!
Yeah, Athena and I are not very good together, yet! But I will be getting better too... I just know. I signed up for 2 Tri just to prove it. :)
Sounds like an interesting ride! I'm glad that this ride went better, even with the little spill at the end. That's a fun quote!
Sounds like interesting company! I don't know how people do the clips! I would be taking a digger every time I stopped! Keep it up...I'm sure you'll be "good" before you know it!
Loved this post!! :)
Great point!!!!
Btw, I point my toes too when riding. I wonder WHY we do that?
I like the quote.
This is a great post!
Love it! I think we are equally bad :) I hesitate to bike from my house anywhere because I have to bike up a hill to the park. I have to get started on a flat (or that is what I tell myself... ha ha)
Sounds like my running these days. Keep at it and you will see sweet success! When that happens I'm going to brag that I knew B.o.B before she was an Ironwoman!
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