How I got here
lauranav | May 02, 2009 | Comments 0
It all started with my dear husband (dh), as so many of my adventures begin.
A few years ago dh bought a road bike (the Trek Alpha 1000), trained fairly consistently, and road 200 miles in the local MS 150 (Charlotte, NC, to Myrtle Beach, SC). I was happy to provide moral and financial support, but I had not ridden a bike since I was in junior high, and I wasn’t about to take my poor balance and weak legs into that kind of adventure.
However, I love spending time with my husband so I did take our hybrid mountain/street bike and join him on some of his lighter training rides. When we would go to the local business park, I would ride around the 2 mile loop and he would pass me several times. If we went to a local neighborhood I would ride at my pace and he would ride out and back several times. He usually put on twice as many miles as I did, but we had fun and we were (more or less) together.
The year he did the MS 150, I drove down to Rockingham to meet him at the half-way point Saturday night. He kept pointing out all the women who were riding in the race and encouraging me to do it some time. I’m still not ready for that, but I have finally decided I want to get a more comfortable bike, acquire some more stability, and build up my stamina.
DH convinced me that a lighter road bike would make a tremendous difference in my riding experience. We have looked at bikes in the past but I couldn’t convince myself to spend that amount of money on a hobby that I don’t spend that much time on (I could spend that money on a lot of good books).
Today we visited the local Trek store just to price out a bike. I was feeling brave so all the talk about form, shows, pedals, gears, etc, didn’t intimidate me like it has in the past. Jeff did a great job of asking questions in a way that left me feeling like I could honestly answer if I didn’t like something or didn’t want to try something.
It was raining so we couldn’t do a test ride (and I hadn’t brought any of my gear, it was a spur-of-the-moment trip), so we set an appointment for next week. I might own a new bike before the week is out!
Popularity: 25% [?]
