Entries RSSIt is easy to get caught up in the fear of taking on a new challenge. I myself, am not a fearless person. The trick is that I try and fool myself into thinking that I am indeed fearless, and then while my brain is caught up in the confusion, I quickly go sign up for a triathlon, or a trip to Alaska, or whatever else I may actually fear most. Once I return to sanity, it is too late to get my money back. A training partner of mine has mentioned that she thinks my mentality is- what is the point of doing something if there isn’t a slight chance of it killing me? That may taking me a bit far. . .but I know on many levels she is right. If you can easily do something all along, where is the satisfaction in completing it? Fortunately for me, most things don’t come easily.
The challenge of the week (or maybe the month) for me is: Clipless Pedals. As I increase the mileage on my road bike in preparation for my triathlon at the end of September, I am starting to learn the benefit of taking the bike a little more seriously. In the 9 mile sprint course I did last year, I could pretty much fake my way through it. Anyone can travel 9 miles on a bike if they have to. But 26 super hilly miles gets a little tougher and I need every bit of help I can get. Enter: clipless pedals.
Supposedly they will give me more power out my rotations, and will help me stand up easier, and all in all make me a more efficient cyclist. But despite all of the future benefits, it is hard to ignore the present setbacks. I can’t get my cleats in the pedals. I also seem to keep getting them in wrong, and they get jammed, and then I panic. I haven’t actually fallen yet but I have gotten honked at. . .and I haven’t even left my neighborhood yet. Everyone says it just takes some time, but everyone also says they have never heard of someone not being able to get INTO their pedals. Usually getting out is the problem.
So what does this mean for my cycling training? Well, I was tempted to throw in the towel, and only ride under controlled circumstances in areas only sparcely populated with pedestrians or cars. But this, of course, means that most of my favorite rides would have to be amended and I would also have to stop riding to work. And I don’t know, but I am guessing that spending less time on my bike in the final 7 weeks of training will not do much for race day. So caution to the wind I forced my brain to do a 180 and have decided to spend every possible spare minute with my bike. But the question is- is it good to push myself beyond my comfort level and rise to the challenge? Or is getting on my bike when I know there is a significant chance of falling, perhaps into traffic, just plain stupid? I get a little worried about myself when the line between ambition and stupidity blurs.
The whole experience so far seems painfully reminiscent of learning to drive a stick shift. It took me days (okay, maybe weeks) to even make it out of the parking lot in my ’87 Isuzu Trooper that surely needed a new clutch shortly after my 16th birthday. And the first time I ventured onto the street, my dad had to pull the emergency break trick at least once and I felt like it was physically impossible that I would ever actually be able to drive a stick shift comfortably. Hopefully though clipless pedals seem impossible now, some day, like driving a stick shift, it will just be second nature and I will wonder why it was ever so hard. And why my dad’s hair seemed to turn grey so suddenly.
