Day 74: Trying to Get in Gear

Today was another cycling day--my second ride on the new bike. (And by the way, I found myself spontaneously referring to the bike as "The Precious" the other day. Scary!) I went for a short ride (about 15 miles in 1 hour, 15 minutes) on the W&OD trail. This trail is what's called a false flat--it seems to be flat, and it's definitely not hilly, but in reality, it's slightly graded, so you're always going slightly uphill or downhill. Tricky!

Allow me to quickly put your mind at ease regarding my safety with the clippy pedals. I successfully unclipped my shoes from the pedals every time I had to stop and didn't fall over at all. Phew!

I felt very sluggish for the first 30 minutes or so, then finally hit my groove and seemed to have more energy (or maybe I just hit a downhill segment). I'm definitely still getting used to the gears on this bike and spent most of the ride changing them up, trying to figure out which gear to use when. For some reason, that part hasn't been as straightforward as I thought it would be.

I only have one more chance to ride (tomorrow--Friday) before LiveStrong on Sunday, since Saturday I'll be driving to Philly and then resting in preparation for the big event. I'm planning to do part of the Mt. Vernon trail tomorrow to really test the bike out on some hills (and test out how well I do on those hills with the new bike). Stay tuned for that scintillating report tomorrow!