I want to ride my bicycle...

Hi friends! It has been a while… I am fully engulfed in week 3 of my training plan for 70.3 Augusta. Training is going great! Last weekend I had two very long tennis matches in the 95 degree heat that were a little draining so I adjusted the schedule a bit. All in all, I am pleased with the training plan so far, it seems to fit my schedule fairly well. It is not too overwhelming but at the same time it gets the job done.

I am making major progress on the bike now. I guess it is like swimming and running, the more you do it the easier it gets. (I know… You are saying what took you so long to figure that one out KDUB?) I purchased my bike (Trek 2000) off Ebay a few years back for $300. I am continually drooling over newer, lighter and less used looking models but mine works and apparently I got a good deal (which had less to do with me being a shrewd negotiator and more to do with me just lucking into someone who was getting out of biking). I never got a fitting for the bike and really never knew that was something that should or could be done. I just rode it. My hands would go numb, my arms were locked because I could not reach the bars otherwise, and I rode. A couple weeks back, a friend of mine went for a fitting and we were talking about how a few adjustments here and there make a world of difference. I thought, wait a minute…. My hands aren’t supposed to be numb?

I called several bike jobs two Saturdays ago trying to find someone to do a fitting. Most seem to do fittings at odd times. This working girl can’t be at the bike shop at 4:00 on a Tuesday. They also quoted all kinds of prices for the fitting. One place wanted $150! The bike shop near me thought they could do it but wasn’t sure when their mechanic came in that day. I finally found a place that said I could come right on over. I was a little nervous me being the newbie and all. Would they judge me because I didn’t have a bike rack and had to put my car in the trunk? Would they laugh because I didn’t know a bike stem from a flower stem? Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

The bike shop was in an old storefront that was probably main street in its town back in the day. I walked in and immediately felt comfortable. After a couple of visits, I realized the place is like Cheers. Every time a customer walks in, they greet them by name. While I was there at least 2 different people came in to pick up bikes that the owner was loaning them for one reason or another. Just a wonderfully friendly place.

We got the bike set up on a trainer and started measuring and moving things about. In the end, we ended up moving my seat up and getting a new stem so the handlebars could be moved back. I also went ahead and added aerobars. Last Saturday, the parts came in and they adjusted everything while I waited. There was no charge for the fitting, I only paid for the aerobars, stem and $25 to install. VERY reasonably priced, much lower than I could have gotten it anywhere around I do believe. I have only had one ride on the new set up. I did about 30 miles of rolling hills on Sunday. I was able to try out the bars for a bit and my hand did not go numb. I will call that success! More riding tonight and Sunday, we are up to 40 miles this week. Hard to believe it seems so effortless now. Must be that practice. ;)