You never forget your first....

You never forget your first time...going clipless.  First, I never quite understood why people call them clipless pedals because technically you are "clipped in."  I call them clip in pedals but I digress.

Yesterday marked a first for me in my biking life.  I rode a road/racing bike for the first time ever on local roads.  I have ridden BMX and Mountain bikes all my life but never once climbed onto a road bike.  Honestly, I have a fear of spandex pants and the images of people wearing them.  I also really never thought I would be interested in road biking like I am in mountain biking.  I also have never ridden clipped into pedals on a bike.  The whole concept was rather terrifying to me.  Especially with a mountain biking backround its hard to just jump into clipping in because there is a fair amount of thinking involved everytime you stop the bike.

The last thing I wanted to do was tip over at a stoplight like a tree still attached to my bike.  I set up the bike with the SPD pedals and practiced on a bike indoor trainer for a week before my first actual ride on the road.  That made a huge difference in improving my confidence in being able to ride on the road.  But nothing replaces actually doing it.

I decided to take an experienced rider out with me, one of my co-workers husband is a very experienced rider and I came to learn an excellent coach.  Mark is a police officer in the area and an avid cyclist and triathlete.  He loves riding and it's definitely a big part of his life, right after his wife and new daughter. 
Mark was able to ride ahead of me and coach me along the road as we headed out.  He helped me to feel very comfortable with the pedals and getting the feel for road riding.  He threw in important bits of info for riding in groups on how to use hand signals for traffic, as well as to make fellow cyclists aware of hazards.  So I was able to focus on pedaling and making sure that stopping included kicking my heal out to detach from the pedals.

Speaking of which, the first stop light we approached I was up on the top bar pedaling hard as the light turned yellow and we came to a pretty abrupt halt.  I have pretty good balance on the bike and was able to steady myself and unclip.  We took off from a dead start and were moving along at a healthy clip of about 18-22mph for some of the flat sections.  We stayed on the 4 lane (25mph) road for the first half hour or so of the ride, just cruising up and back to get used to the bike.  Then Mark suggested we go after a few hills and I obliged him.  He said he was going to torture me on a few hills as payback for a stunt I convinced him to pull on his mtn bike last week.  I dropped down to a smaller ring and we attacked, Mark has disgustingly fast acceleration and he FLIES up hills.  I was in and out of the saddle at times getting comfortable with the hills.  About 2/3rd up my calf decided to cramp up every time I stood up for more power.  I hopped off the bike stretched it out and then finished riding up the hill.  Mark met me at the top and told me that they best part about going uphills is going back down.  After a brief discussion about braking and proper cornering technique we were off and FLYING downhill.  We were easily hitting 30+mph at times.   There is an amazing adrenaline rush and feeling of freedom when you are riding like that.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so attacking a few more hills which Mark DESTROYED while I puttered along at my gradual more comfortable pace.  Again hopping off to get that knot out of my left calf AGAIN.  We finished the ride back on the 4 lanes of Corrigan drive in South Park.  We finished our ride in just over an hour.  We covered about 14 miles and I felt AWESOME.  I am hooked!! I can't wait to get out on the bike again.

The bike I have is an aluminum frame with a carbon fiber fork.  The aluminum definitely does not absorb alot of the shock of the bumpy Pittsburgh roads.  Some people love aluminum bikes and some hate them.  I love the feel of the bike.  It's very planted and snappy.  It takes corners quickly and feels very composed at higher speeds.

The next time I get a chance to write a blog I will probably be a new daddy!  So hopefully I will be able to keep squeezing in workouts between diaper changes.  Life is changing soon and dealing with the difficulties of having a newborn at home are going to be the foundation of this blog.

Thanks for reading!