Pushing My Limits

Biking is not my strong point.  I’ve never been big on it, other than riding my bike to the pool or to Stone Mountain Park when I was younger.  I actually had to borrow a bike from my parents (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!) to even start training for my Triathlon.  Yep, you read that right…I signed up for a Tri without even owning a bike—Genius right here!

Anyways, I’ve been trying to get out on the road as much as possible (which is not super easy when it’s just me and my 3 year old).  I started off huffing and puffing my way through 1 mile, and was saddle sore for the next two days.  I bumped up to 3 miles, then 4.5 (but I got wise and bought my first pair of cycling shorts—HELLO DIAPER FEELING).  So last week, I mapped out a 6 mile route in a different neighborhood, loaded up my stuff so I couldn’t make an excuse after work and hit the road.  I forgot to set my GPS, so I made a detour and got that set up….I also taught myself how to fix my chain during that detour too, because it was so excited about being ridden that it jumped right off! So off I go again, feeling pretty proud that I figured out the chain thing, cruising down the road when it jumps off again.  Yay! Stop, fix it, continue.  Stop, fix it, continue.   Stop, fix it, continue.  Yep—chain popped off 4 times within the first 2 miles.  Feeling winded and a little discouraged, I keep pressing on, hoping I remembered the route I had planned out on the computer.  Huffing and puffing I topped each hill, with the advice of an amazing Triathlon blogger, Swim Bike Mom’s post about “How to Train Your Bike to Climb” running through my head! Then, around the 5 mile mark and just before the longest, biggest hill on the route, the Juvenile song, “Back that Azz Up” (yup, the explicit version) came on and it boosted my spirits.  Instead of finishing up there, I pushed myself and back tracked a bit.  Stop, fix it, curse the dang chain, continue.  *Note to self, don’t use the 7th gear.

All in all, I finished 8.5 miles, my rear wasn’t terribly sore, and I was pretty proud of myself.  Getting closer to that 9 mile portion of my Tri on the 31st!