Clipless Pedals

Well, I got the bike and I'm really excited about it. I went on my first group ride right after I got the bike with the Nitty Gritty Bike Band. It was a "beginner's" easy ride on the east side of Athens. I think I was the only true beginner there.

And I also went ahead and got clipless pedals and cleated shoes while my bike was being fitted for me. This type of pedal is supposed to be safer and more efficient in biking, but they can be a little tricky at first, especially when stopping.
I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the shoes have cleats on the bottom that snap into the pedals securely so that you can use your foot to pedal on the upstroke and not just the down stroke. The catch is that you are really attached to the bike. Whereever you're foot goes, the bike goes too and vice versa. This a great fact for efficient pedaling, but not so great if at any time you forget that your feet are attached to the bike!

The trick to stopping is the "clip out" of the pedal while you are coasting to a stop by turning your ankle out to pop the cleat out of the pedal. So the first time I am on the bike with these clipless pedals I did exactly that. I thought very hard about making sure I clipped out and put my unclipped shoe on the pavement shifting my weight to that leg. All went well until I moved my other foot (still clipped in) forgetting that it was still attached to the bike. I tried to put the clipped in foot on the ground and instead I started to fall bring the bike down on top of me. I skinned my knee on the pavement and felt like I was in 3rd grade again, falling on the blacktop in P.E.

The good news is that it didn't hurt and I just have a few scrapes on my knee and a bruise on the other side of my knee from the bike tube falling on me. And a bruise on my butt from hitting the pavement. I've fallen twice since then, both of the other times were also when I was stopping. I still need to figure out how to stop properly when I'm still on a incline and no option to coast.

I'm having fun riding my bike and I'm really proud of myself for facing my fears and getting out there to challenge myself -- even though I might fall. Sometimes it's almost like I'm reliving moments from my childhood but this time I'm being a grown up about it. At 28 years old, I refuse to be afraid of getting a scraped up knee or getting water in my noses while I'm swimming. Neither of those things are going to kill me and they are not even very painful, just a little uncomfortable. I don't know why I've been such a baby my whole life about things that are challenging to me. I'm finally getting the chance to have fun with biking and swimming and not worry about how bad I am at it.

I'll write more if anything eventful happens this week. I have 5 more weeks until the Triathlon event. And I have lots of training to do before then!!