Pre-Training Begins

I managed my first bike ride in over a year today and I must say, although there are certain parts of it that I love, it was not without its struggles. Firstly, I have never been hugely knowledgeable about how to work the gears. For instance, I simply go by "feel" rather than knowing exactly what gear to be in during a downhill, uphill, flat surface, etc. So as I climbed my first big hill visions of my second Olympic-distance tri flashed before my eyes. You know, the one where I couldn't get enough momentum going up the steep hill and became increasingly slower over time to the point that gravity took over and I dumped myself off my bike, ego and all? Yeah....so..... as I was making my way up this hill today I started messing with my gears and, unknowingly until it was too late, found myself in the hardest gear imaginable, mashing my pedals just to keep up enough speed to get up this darn thing. At one point I really thought I was going to fall over - and right in front of a golfer nonetheless. But alas, determination and quad-strength prevailed and I was able to crest the hill and finally catch my breath as well as a small break - able to change gears in the process. As I rounded the corner onto a long stretch of flat land I attempted to mess with the gears again, however, I found that they wouldn't budge at all. Neither one. So now I'm stuck in a relatively easy gear (again, I couldn't tell you what rig (derailer?) the chain was in because I'm a total dunce when it comes to bicycle anatomy - full disclosure, I just Googled "parts of a bicycle" to find that word "derailer"), but suffice it to say the remaining hills were relatively easy to maneuver, while my cadence on the flats was now much faster than it needed to be as my torque was too much for this easier gear. I decided to continue on though since I was only a few miles into my ride at this point (Oh yeah, the battery for my bike computer had also gone kaput over the last year so I could only guess how far I'd gone or what my mph was). Coming out of a relatively flat part of the park I could have turned left and headed home, giving me about a 5-6 mile ride, or go straight and muster up the strength (both mental and physical) to conquer the rather large hills I knew were lying in wait like a soccer-mom at the Grand Opening of a Starbucks. Surprisingly one of my nemesis hills ("Dog Hill" for those of you familiar with Cherokee Park) was rather easy to climb and I felt nice and accomplished when I found myself at the top. The long, steadily-inclining path up to Hogan's Fountain wasn't bad either, but I found my heart-rate took a little longer to slow back down by the time I completed that doozy. As I made my way back towards the final home stretch I found myself feeling optimistic about this ride, as well as the upcoming triathlon in a few weeks. It seems like I have to get past the first 5 miles or so before my body gets used to the ride and then I'm fairly comfortable and confident after that. It's the same with running and swimming too. As long as I get past the first 3-4 miles of a run, I'm good. Prior to that my entire body feels like lead and I question my ability to go on. And as soon as I get into a good groove swimming laps in the pool, I feel like I could swim all day. Slowly, of course, but endurance is what I'm going for here, ya dig? Anyway...back to the bike ride. I turned my last corner onto PeeWee Reese to head back towards Taylorsville Road and ultimately home when I came upon my last two hills. The first one was a killer. Of course I knew it was coming as I had just come down the backside of the darn thing not 40 minutes prior - but the fairly steep grade was still enough to take my breath away and grip my chest like a vice. The second wasn't nearly so bad and I recall being thankful that everything from then on out was a straight, flat ride in. After logging my route on Map My Ride I discovered that I had accomplished 10.75 miles. (I had to stop myself from typing "a mere 10.75 miles" just now since I'm trying to not be so hard on myself and at least give myself SOME credit for starting over somewhere.) As I've written in the previous post, the triathlon in two weeks calls for a 12 mile bike, so getting out and doing this mileage after not being out for a year, and managing to do it with some killer hills at that, gives me a sense of confidence that I can do this thing - even if my legs did feel like Jell-O afterwards. So on the agenda for the coming weeks - get the bike looked at to find out what's going on with the gears, get at least 3-4 swims in to get used to the water and working on my form, and have fun doing the Urban Bike Adventure next Saturday (three years running) with my bestie Alicia.