Thanks, Blake!

I hit the road this morning for a bike ride from my house. I'm so ridiculously proud of myself!

I'd love to tell you how far and how fast I went, but unfortunately, I somehow managed to disable my bike computer when taking the front wheel off my bike for transport last week. And of course, I can't figure out how to make it work again.

I'm hauling the whole thing to Agee's this weekend, along with Scouter and his bike, to show me how to fix it and to have them look at my gearing again. I'm having a hard time getting in and out of the big chain ring. While I'm there, I also plan to get geared up with a new saddle, another bottle rack, a spare tube, and whatever else catches my fancy. To the extent that Scouter will allow without freaking, that is...

Scouter and I are planning to attend an RTC sponsored bike maintenance class in April. I can't wait! We both really need to develop some skills in that area.

Back to the program... I can tell you that I rode for 55 minutes. Yep, should've gone a full hour but really I had only allotted 45 minutes and had to race to work afterwards - but it was so worth it.

Clipping in and out takes on more significance when done in traffic at a stop light. I didn't let myself worry about it too much in advance and actually did okay. No falls, anyway. (yet!) Riding behind Taz and Rainbow earlier this week was good practice - they alternate between speeding down the rode (with me flying behind) to a dead stop with no warning. Now that's some serious pressure to stop/clip out fast!

Note to HNDAGRL and pretty much any service truck that passed me: Share the rode! I am allowed to be there and you running me over is not going to teach either of us a lesson.

There's got to be a petition somewhere regarding bike lanes. Seriously, how hard could it be to add few feet of asphalt and a white stripe?

It was chilly this morning but I had the gloves I purchased prior to the ACAC sprint tri in October along with some winter biking pants and shoe covers that I bought this winter but hadn't used. I added three layers of workout tops and was good to go. My ears were cold at first but I warmed up pretty quickly. Or at least got distracted.

I'm gonna have to drive my route tonight to see how far I went - inquiring minds want to know. Mine anyway.

I actually used my big chain ring again today. At one point I was stuggling on a hill and realized that I was in the hardest gears, front and back. Gee, no wonder! My route was fairly hilly and I felt much stronger than the last time I rode these streets, which was probably in October. Indoor cycling, as much as I bitched and whined about it all winter long on this very blog, really paid off.

Thanks, Blake!