Let me introduce you to Freshwater. It fits for so many reasons. First of all, she's white, she is shiny and rock solid. Like a freshwater pearl, she is the smooth part of our ride and I am the bumpy imperfect part. 
Let me introduce you to Freshwater's friend...pearl. Pearl is Christine's bike and this is us on our first outing on our new bikes. Christine was smart and left Pearl's pedals in place. I on the other hand knew I needed to get used to my cycling shoes before our Goldilocks ride on May 8th and the triathlon. So, I swapped Freshwater's pedals out with new fancy ones and was ready to clip away.
Clip in shoes. To make Freshwater and I one. It is a bit tricky to say the least. I should have gotten use to Freshwater before making any changes to her. But I jumped on, clipped in and was ready to go.
What I wasn't prepared for everyone else stopping at the top of the hill while I was coming up the hill. All I could think about was my shoes...they were clipped in and I hadn't quite figured out how to unclip in the middle of riding. Let alone while going up a hill. Crash #1. Freshwater and I totally biffed it. Her seat bent back and my leg was attacked.
After stopping at a random house for some tools to fix Freshwater's seat, we got going again and rode quite a while before coming to a break in the trail. We went off trail to skip over that section and I am not quite sure what happened but the curb came faster than anticipated. I unclipped one foot as fast as I could and Freshwater and I tipped the other direction, foot still clipped in. Thankfully on some grass.
By far the best, we were coming down a hill which rounded a corner at the bottom. My biking buddy's son was in front of me and flew down the hill, rounded the corner without slowing or having any problems at all. My cautious self thought to brake but seeing how easily he went down, with a trailer in tow mind you, I thought for sure I could make the corner too. Bad idea. It was too sharp of a turn and at the last second I realized I wasn't going to make the turn. Realizing that my shoes were clipped in and there was no way I could get them out and save the turn, I held on for dear life and off roaded it. I went off the side into the weeds, bushes, rocks and trees. All I could think the entire time was that if I fell, my feet were clipped in and I wasn't going to be able to unclip without completely biffing it. Headed towards a tree, I put my head down so that my helmet would hit first and tried to get around, barely missing the trunk. I made my way back to the trail. When I got there I started laughing hysterically. Christine was behind me and watched the entire thing wondering what in the world was going to happen. Hilarious now. Not so much in the moment with the clip in shoes. I will get the hang of this. I am sure I will.
What I wasn't prepared for everyone else stopping at the top of the hill while I was coming up the hill. All I could think about was my shoes...they were clipped in and I hadn't quite figured out how to unclip in the middle of riding. Let alone while going up a hill. Crash #1. Freshwater and I totally biffed it. Her seat bent back and my leg was attacked.
After stopping at a random house for some tools to fix Freshwater's seat, we got going again and rode quite a while before coming to a break in the trail. We went off trail to skip over that section and I am not quite sure what happened but the curb came faster than anticipated. I unclipped one foot as fast as I could and Freshwater and I tipped the other direction, foot still clipped in. Thankfully on some grass.
By far the best, we were coming down a hill which rounded a corner at the bottom. My biking buddy's son was in front of me and flew down the hill, rounded the corner without slowing or having any problems at all. My cautious self thought to brake but seeing how easily he went down, with a trailer in tow mind you, I thought for sure I could make the corner too. Bad idea. It was too sharp of a turn and at the last second I realized I wasn't going to make the turn. Realizing that my shoes were clipped in and there was no way I could get them out and save the turn, I held on for dear life and off roaded it. I went off the side into the weeds, bushes, rocks and trees. All I could think the entire time was that if I fell, my feet were clipped in and I wasn't going to be able to unclip without completely biffing it. Headed towards a tree, I put my head down so that my helmet would hit first and tried to get around, barely missing the trunk. I made my way back to the trail. When I got there I started laughing hysterically. Christine was behind me and watched the entire thing wondering what in the world was going to happen. Hilarious now. Not so much in the moment with the clip in shoes. I will get the hang of this. I am sure I will.
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