The Ride

As I was getting ready this morning for my ride, I was going through the touchy feely stuff and remembered a couple of more essentials. Gloves, maybe not the first couple of rides but as the distance of your rides grows, and it will, you will need them. Sun Glasses, a no brainer, they keep things out of your eyes and give a target to suicidal bugs. Your every day sun glasses will get you by, but start looking at a pair that wrap around the sides of your eyes. No, it is not a go fast streamlining effect. But your regular flat type driving glasses tend to suck those suicidal bugs into the back side of the glasses and be a ping pong ball to your eyeballs or eye lids and the back side of your glasses. Color makes a difference also. I have always heard that bees are attracted to yellow, but yellow gives an excellent contrast to the surface you are riding on no matter what the light. One last item, at least for now, is a good tire pump. The main thing to look for is the largest barrel that pushes the air you can get with the most accurate gauge. Why? Before every ride you will want to look the bike over; check for stickers, rocks any obvious broken or frayed parts and fill your tires. Overnight your tires will lose air pressure, fill them before each ride. Put them at the maximum pressure and you will have a plush low rolling resistance ride. You are about to find that every little bit helps.

OK, here we go. You have practiced at the bike shop learning to shift, getting in and out of your new spiffy clip on pedals, you have fluid in your water bottle(s), you have an easy, flat, low traffic (preferably a closed road around a park or straight bike paths) five mile out and five mile back course in mind and we are off. Now this is your first ride or at least first in a long time and your doctor has said your health is at a point to start an exercise program. (Yes, that is a disclaimer; anyone starting a new and improved exercise program should have a doctor’s blessing. Besides, it would very embarrassing to fall over dead getting out of your driveway.) Let’s not see how fast we can do this, this is practice as is every ride. We need to practice pedaling in a smooth manner, we need to find a comfortable pedaling cadence (revolution per minute the pedals are going around) as well as shifting smoothly to maintain that comfortable cadence. We also need to practice going in a straight line. The “super stars” I had mentioned, will use you as a passing dummy and if you move around you’re liable to put both of you on the ground. Oh, by the way, breathe! Look at the scenery you may see things close to your home that you have never seen before. It’s pretty out there. As you look around think of alternate routes that you will want to take later, maybe a couple of inclines because that is an evil that you will learn to enjoy. Remember that cool odometer with all the neat options, right now you need to see speed and trip distance. When you are about 2.5 miles out be honest with yourself and evaluate how you feel. Watching the scenery and listening to your favorite music the miles have flown by. Remember wherever you are at you need to get back. Feel good? See, you are doing great. Let’s choose, go back now or go to our five mile mark. Either way we are going to keep practicing, pedaling and shifting ‘till we are back to our starting point. If by chance you have the opportunity to pass someone, pass on the left, ring your bell, and say “on your left”. It keeps people from being scared into your path. This includes pedestrians, which you will encounter on the multi use bike paths around the country. You will understand this when it is your turn to be the passing dummy for the “super stars”. The exception to that for some reason is the female “super stars”, eight out of ten let you know they are there. Hey look, were back at our start, congratulations a new healthy you is around the corner. What now? Well first you are going to record all of the information from your iffy jiffy odometer in what is called a training log. More on that in the next post. Over the next fourteen days you will ride every other day getting those ten miles down. Each ride you will need to keep practicing and attempt to make each ride a little quicker. Thirty seconds quicker every ride will be three and a half minutes faster than you did today. Happy Riding.

Next post, Training Log as well as some do’s and don’ts I have learned the hard way.

“G”