Running In Place

Look what came in the mail the other day!

What could it be? The name would seem to imply that it’s very fast.

Some assembly required.

So today was bike building day – my first time. Should be easy….if only I could read French which is the language of the (de)structions.

It wasn’t quite as daunting as I had anticipated. Here’s attempt #1. Notice anything odd about the front forks?

(In case it’s hard to tell from the pic – they’re, um, backwards.) I thought it was awfully difficult to get the front tire on. The old man came up out of the basement (which is where I keep him until I need him for something) and, in the supportive manner of husbands, laughed. He had offered 100 times in the last few days to put it together for me – mostly because he was sick of having it in the middle of the living room – but I resisted. So, comedy of errors that it was – I pretty much did it myself (though I’ll admit that once he was in proximity, I did begin enlisting his help for tire pumping and such).

So it’s pretty much ready and rideable at this point. It wasn’t the most complicated task in the world – the back tire/brake/derailleur was all put together and mounted – but it was more than I had ever done with a bike so I was kinda pleased with myself.

You know, last year when I injured myself early on, I took to the notions of swimming & biking – and maybe when I could run again, triathloning. Swimming – I took lessons – turned out to be kinda fun but I never much made the effort to get to the pool. Biking – well….maybe the first thing you need to know about me (if you don’t already) is that I’m a bit impulsive. Also, if you catch me in the right mood, you can sell me anything. So in my frustrated non-running condition, I made an unplanned and ill advised stop at my local bike shop. Salespeople can wait a lifetime for a rube like me.

So I walk in to Local Bike Shop and tell them I want a bike. A road bike. Yeah, for racing – maybe even triathlons. What do I need??? A couple hours later I walked out with Giant TCR2, and every conceivable accoutrement. Because when you’ve never done this before it’s good to start at a point way out of your league because then you’ll just get awesome faster. Right?? Short story: I hate that bike. It’s painful, it’s difficult, I hate the clothing and shoes and snapping into the pedals and trying to figure out the gears and always popping the chain off because I can’t figure out the gears. And you can call me a wuss or say that if I’d put some effort into it blah blah blah. But I don’t love riding a bike like I love running. This year I’ll train for my first marathon – and I’ll run when I don’t want to, and I’ll run when it hurts. I do have a sense of how it feels to challenge yourself and push yourself and come out on the other side of something you didn’t think you could do – but I have decided that when I ride a bike it’s going to have some nice wide tires and a big cushiony seat and only 12 gears instead of 246. And it’s entirely possible that I will plan all my rides so that I never have to pedal up a hill.
I love my silly Smurf colored bike.

And I’m selling the Giant – cheap! Take my bike, please.