Living Deliberately Strategy: Triathlon & art 01 Dec 2007 09:56 am
Learning About Bikes
Living Deliberately Goal: Complete My First Triathlon
Broken down goal: learn and research the componenets, to decide what gear I need to get started.
Further broken down goal: start with bikes. It’s a big world!
I think the last time I rode a bike was a fat-seated beach cruiser when I was pregnant with my third baby. I was barely showing at the time but the fear of falling was too intense so I got off and left it. Wait no…that’s not right. It was earlier this year, at the beach, on a man’s mountain bike with a crotch-numbing seat. While soaring under a mossy canopy near ocean views, it was nothing like racing down a dirt road on my banana-seat Huffy as a kid, trying to make it home before a storm broke, wind through my hair and dust coating my bare feet!
The first time I had an interest in cycling was after watching the movie Singles; I’ve since seen that movie at least 500 times
and I still get a giggle out of Debbie and her gear. Her peter-horton love interest in the movie was also a cyclist in Thirtysomething, his bachelor bike on a stand in his uber-cool apartment. Somehow, serious cycling has kind of interwoven itself into an impression of active-adulthood in my mind. Coupled with it is my interest in energy reduction and blogs like Simple Reduce that document regular people using bikes more often and their cars less. Cycling, in all its forms, feels like a responsible choice for a hobby, more productive than collecting things that gather dust or add to heedless materialism.
I’ve recently spent some time with a cyclist, getting just a snatch of exposure to safety concerns, stories of road accidents, and the wide expanse of choices there seem to be in very task-specific bikes. Silly me took a look at a bike on a stand and thought the same bike could go down both highway and off-road trail!! I couldn’t figure out why the spokes looked different or why the wheel routinely came off or why a wheel would go to the repair shop. I’ve since learned that wheels, like everything else associated with cycling, can be pricey and is designed to go many, many miles; bikes come odometers and regular maintenance is a must. Getting parts replaced is necessary, just like on a car.
Still feeling rather shy about asking questions, I’m going slowly and using websites where I can. I found a british site today that broke down the differences between the kinds of bikes out there and most importantly, had a separate article for the difference I need to look for in a woman’s vs. man’s bike. I found one site last week that was triathlon-centered and said repeatedly to just get the cheapest bike that would do the job but I’m thinking that there are certain elements that need to be paid attention to (like that, um, SEAT?!?)
In other Triathlon news, I have found a race or two I’d like to pencil in but the ‘08 dates feel way too soon. I’m setting my sites on being ready for ‘09. This year will include trail running, learning to swim, getting a bike and learning to ride it, and practice runs.
on 01 Dec 2007 at 11:17 am 1.Amy said …
Blessings on your journey!
on 31 Dec 2007 at 5:26 am 2.joy said …
First, congratulations for making a giant leap in your fitness goals! It takes a lot of courage to go beyond the fuzzy “I want to exercise more” goal and say you’re going to do X, Y, or Z. Or, in your case, X, Y, AND Z.
Second, about the bikes. I picked up a bike last spring to ride to the store and with the kids on weekends. That’s how my obsession started, at least. It’s a hybrid, so is comfy on bumpier gravel/dirt trails and has the cruiser seat for comfort on longer paved bike trails. I have the basket mount on the front, for the store trips. The bike is sturdy and stable, so is perfect for attaching one of my younger kids on a trail-a-bike, which allows a 6-8 year old to pedal along on a 20 mile ride.
The hybrid is comfy, but heavy. Because of the smaller tires on the woman’s model, it’s also slower. My reward after my 3rd month averaging over 200 miles was a road bike. A step or two above entry level, but not a budget breaker, thanks to end of season clearance sales at the bike shop.
It’s a smaller frame men’s bike, which is great for my long torso. My average speed on easy rides has jumped from 12-14 mph to 16-18 mph. When I push myself on a mom’s day out ride, my 40-mile rides breeze by in just a little over two hours… and I feel just like I did as a little girl when I’d go flying down the big hill in my neighborhood, pigtails streaming behind me.