Sunday Ride Recap

The weather this weekend was amazing!  I am so excited for spring and this weekend was a sneak preview of how awesome spring is going to be!

Saturday I ran with the running group.  It was still cold at 7:30 am when we met.  I was slow and had no endurance but it was good to run with the group again.  I'm sure that the endurance will come quickly now that I'm running twice a week again.

I met Lisa J. through my cycling class.  We were chatting after one session and realized that we live in the same neighborhood.  She invited me to ride with her and a few of her friends on Sunday morning. 

Now Daryl had also invited me to ride with him in Crofton.  I know Daryl reads my blog so I'm going to explain why I chose to ride with the ladies...NERVES!  Plus I had my swim clinic Sunday afternoon.  I knew that the ladies would be much less challenging than if I rode with Daryl's group.  If I pushed myself to try to keep up with Daryl's group, I knew that I would be worn out by the time swim clinic started.  So the ladies won out this time around.

Sunday morning was a bit hectic because of the time change.  I got up in plenty of time, but for some reason it seemed like the morning flew by.  Before I knew it, I was running late to meet the ladies.  Now, you have to understand something about me...running late is something that I absolutely HATE.  I am always on time...if not early.  Running late stresses me out.  So I was already starting the day stressed out...not good...especially considering that I was nervous.

I've mentioned my nervousness a few times.  Let's talk about that...yes, I was nervous...anxious...even a little intimidated.  Why you might ask?  Well in a word...clips.  I have been riding my beautiful new bike indoors for 2 months now.  I can clip in and out like a champ when it's being held in place by an indoor trainer.  I have never ridden outdoors with clips.  I have heard stories about how everyone falls with clips, but it still doesn't make me feel any better.  I'm terrified of road rash...and convinced that these clips are a sure way of getting some.

So I'm nervous about the clips, stressed about running late, and working myself into a mini panic.  This is supposed to be fun, right?  Tell that to Stephen who was trying to help me but ended up feeling the brunt of my panic attack. (sorry)

Finally I get out the door.  The ladies were meeting at Lisa J's house, which is on the other side of my neighborhood, about 1.5 miles away from my house.  I decided that it made sense to ride over there instead of driving.  This way I could get a little practice with my bike before anyone else sees me.  I clipped in and out of the pedals the whole way to her house.  As I rode into her driveway, I was gaining confidence.

The ladies were all super nice and very welcoming.  They had ridden together before and from the conversation, I gathered that they had all known each other for awhile.  We did a casual ride through the neighborhood since some of the more seasoned riders knew that Lisa J and I were newbies on our clips.  (so nice!) 2 of the ladies dropped off when we decided to go out of the neighborhood.

We rode out onto Marriottsville Rd and took a left on 99.  I know that there are a lot of bikers in this area of the county, but the cars still made me nervous.  I am definitely getting a mirror.  That will make me feel much better.  As we turned onto 99, there was a pretty decent sized hill.  I noticed that I was getting up the hills a lot faster than the other ladies...ego boost!  We said that we would meet up at the high school, so I rode ahead of the group a bit.  At this point there were 4 of us, Lisa J, the other Lisa and Lynn.  I was the only non-L name.

At the high school, the other Lisa commented that she was worried that they were holding me back.  Of course they were, but that's kind of a good thing at this point.  I was looking for a ride where I wasn't challenged too much but where I could prove to myself that I've made significant progress from my last big ride.  Check!

By the end of the day, we had ridden about 20 miles.  Since I rode to and from Lisa J's house, add in another 3 miles for me and I was around 23 miles.  Not bad!  My legs felt good, my ego felt good...well at least until I fell.  Yes folks, everyone falls, including me.  As we were riding back into Lisa J's driveway, I experienced my first clip-out failure.  I was going very slow (problem #1), I wasn't entirely paying attention to what I was doing (problem #2), and I was trying to clip out both shoes as I was coming to a stop (problem #3).  I knew I was going to fall before it actually happened.  Over I went and the bike came down on top of me since it was still attached to one of my feet.  I didn't hurt myself and I actually just started laughing.  Later at home I looked in the mirror and I have a nice big black bruise on my rear end.

It was just so much fun to get out there on my bike.  Now I'm ready to meet up with Daryl and his riding friends.  I just needed a test session before I rode with the big boys!