Friday, June 11, 2010

From Runner to Rider :D

I woke up at 4:00am this morning and headed out for an hour and a half bike ride. I ended up getting started a bit late so it was cut short to an hour and 20 minutes but I still feel good about it. This was the first time on a bike in years (since 2003?). I got my old bike from high school back and had the local bike shop give it a makeover. I told them I'd be riding in the dark so to do something to make it visible. They put enough flashing/nonflashing lights on that thing to make me look like a carnival parade float! I'm not complaining though, the cars DEFINITELY saw me. I even had a headlight :D Pretty neat.

Lessons learned today:
1. I was jealous of the runners I saw (I'd rather be running too) but I tried to focus on how fun it felt to go so fast and have the wind in my face. My legs are thanking me right now too since we have a long run tomorrow. I doubt they would be so happy if that were a 5 mile run this morning :D

2. There's a reason bike shorts aren't 2'' long. I wore my spandex running shorts today and got some serious chafing in the inner thigh area around the seat. Whoops

3. It's much easier to drink a water bottle while riding a bike than drinking while running. Score!

4. It is good etiquette to yell "passing on your left" when you're about to zip past an unsuspecting runner on the trails. But... if the runner is wearing an ipod and blasting it so loud they cannot hear you, it's okay to not feel any guilt when you scare the living crap out of them as you zoom past.

5. Helmets are cool. EVERYONE I saw riding this morning was wearing one (including me :D)

6. Don't reach out for stationary items while riding your bike... the bike keeps going. For example, when approaching a stop light don't assume that reaching out and grabbing the pole with both hands will stop you. Instead your upper body will stay attached to the pole and the rest of you will keep going. Yeah.... seriously embarrasing.

7. Wind in your face = less sweat in your eyes = actually being able to see the beautiful sunrise.

All in all it was a great cross training experience. I want to try to get in a 1 1/2 to 2 hour bike ride once a week.



And no that is not my bike but if that were red, it would look EXACTLY like mine!

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lot of fun. One of my next plans of attack for training is to get a bike. Not sure when that's going to happen, but I'm cool taking care of one thing at a time.
    Thanks for the post, and enjoy your weekend!

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  2. Thanks for scarin the bejeezus out of the headphone wearing cluless runners

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  3. Wow. Nice. I haven't gone on a real bike ride since I was a kid. Only cycling/stationary bike workouts.

    I sometimes run on a paved trail and really wish I was a biker. They are going SO much faster and look SO much cooler (heat wise). I never thought some of the bikers might be wishing they were running instead ;)

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