The Morning After The Clip Stack - Update

I would like to get back on the road bike.

I'm no longer scared of the bike.  (As I was yesterday).

I'm scared of the extra pain I will have in my leg if I fall again..

It's strange though, because in the last few months of riding, falling never occurred to me, so why should it now?

At the end of the day, it's just a scrape.  It's not like I got hit by a car and thrown into a barbed wire fence or anything...

(image via cjsmblog.com)

Although Hoogerland got back on and kept riding.  Immediately.  For the rest of the Tour de France.

My husband thinks it would almost have been better to have clip stacked on the road, as I would have been forced to get back on the bike and get over it to ride home.

And it would have been ok.

Anyway, I aim to do a small ride today on this Public Holiday (despite Mondays being my rest day).

I think it will be good to do a practice ride on a public holiday (so traffic will hopefully be more similar to a weekend than a weekday), so I can get back into my weekly routine as otherwise, my next planned road ride would be Wednesday early morning before work.

(image via harrietkempton.com)

Ah, so true.

Which pedals? Shimano SPDs

I realised I didn't actually describe my pedals.

Despite the road shoes being smaller and nicer looking, 

I decided to get mountain biking pedals because they are easier than road.

We decided on Shimano shoes and Shimano SPD pedals as they're pretty mainstream, standard and popular.

Even within the Shimano SPD system, there are various choices.

I actually received lots of conflicting recommendations, eg:

"These are good as the platform is wider and you can pedal without clipping in"

"These are not so good because the plastic makes it harder to get the cleat in the pedal"

"These are good because you can use 1 side for normal shoes and the other to clip in"

"These are not so good because you have the added complication of trying to work out which side of the pedal you're trying to clip in to"

In the end I went with the double sided pedal with no extra bits.

Even though the others were deemed easier starting points.

I figured it was a bit like my decision to buy the road bike, if you know where you're headed, you could just decide to commit and make it happen.

My journey

Bad day: pms + no sun + clip stack + fear

So, following the clip stack this morning, am having a really low day.

PMS + no sun (remind me never to move out of Sydney unless it's to Spain) + fall of bike = not wanting to ride my road bike any more.

The bruising has now presented and I feel like it's gone to a 3 out of 10.
It hurts to move my left knee and my right shin is quite sensitive.

I went from this:

(Image via one of my favourite blogs: hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

To this:

(Image via Hyperbole and a Half)

I don't even want to touch my road bike right now:

(Another Hyperbole & A Half image via otpwg.wordpress.com)

My husband suggested that maybe I hyped up the easiness of the clipless yesterday too much.

(Image via hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

Falling bent the hood of my bike so we went into the bike store and they moved the hood back into position.  Apparently this is really common and some cyclists have it loose so they can move it back easily when this happens.  So no damage.  (bummer hey? ;p)

I can tell that my road bike in my mind has been enveloped by a cloud of fear.

(Image via jason-hedrick.blogspot.com.au)

I feel like I've been a bit defeated.  Like I've been in a fight mentally & physically and lost.

But my 2014 New Years Resolution is to conquer fears that I know are false.

(Image via welcometoladyville.com

Like they say in Strictly Ballroom:

(Image via themoviescene.co.uk, text added by me - wow, I've turned into someone that adds text to pictures)

So I could see the cloud of fear forming and after lots of talking to myself, I forced myself to go on a ride on my commuter bike because I didn't want the cloud of fear to eat the concept of cycling in general.  

After all, it had already taken my road bike.

(I still haven't been able to touch my road bike since put it back in the garage after falling....  my husband had to walk it to the bike shop and back...)

(image via http://dreamreboot.com/tag/fear/)

I actually ended up doing 40km in total.  (Which is a lot on a commuter bike with a pannier / rack / fenders).

Actually, I wasn't sure what length I was intending to do, but I just kept going, lap after lap.

I actually had a bit of a cry while I was riding because I felt so annoyed / upset at myself for not wanting to get on my road bike again.  

(But then this guy tried to race me - you can tell because they keep looking back to see where you are - and so I took him on and kept on his tail for a lap and a half and that amused me for a good bit.  One of the reasons I like cycling is that you have lots of arbitrary goals - other cyclists - that come and go randomly and give you reasons to chase.)

Anyway, I know that it's just fear because I know that I love riding my road bike and I can't believe that I wouldn't want to get on it again.

I guess next time I get on the road bike, I think I will practice clipping and unclipping first, with one foot still on the ground.

But the sun just came out, so I'm going to watch Amelie to cheer myself up.

(image via dellawhite.com)

While eating Chicken Twisties & Campbells soup,

(image via creativechristianmama.com)

And maybe,

(Image via Hyperbole And A Half again)

AS IF!  That's one fear I'm definitely not planning to conquer in 2014!

[EDIT: After having some friends cheer me up, and now that the sun is out, I do feel like I want to go and have another go at it.  However, I'm feeling pretty tired from the emotions of the morning.  But I'm pretty happy that I'm at least considering getting back on the road bike!]

Clip Stack

So, it did happen, despite all my positive thinking.  :)

It hurts.

I mean, on the scale of 1 to 10, it's probably a 2 where a 1 is a papercut or something.

I got confident, clipped in both feet on the way out of the driveway, got ready to practice clipping out, and then proceeded to fall to my left while trying to unclip my left.

It did happen very slowly.

I think I forgot or underestimated the power / strength to unclip - something that I got used to yesterday.

I'm such a prissy person, and made a conscious decision many many years ago (perhaps in high school) that I would never fall ever again.  And since then I've only fallen once or twice.

[In other news, I wish I had a brother growing up - I feel like I would have grown up less prissy.  Although one would argue that my sister isn't prissy at all and even tried her best to make me less prissy.]

So I bent my left hood, and I'm not sure what that means, so I'll have to take it to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) when they open at 11am and see whether it's all ok to ride / whether it's a quick fix.

I'm getting new (smaller) handlebars put on this week, so I'm not too fussed as everything was being undone anyway - but it is a shame if I can't ride it until then.

After going upstairs to put some bandaids on, I went back downstairs and had a few goes of clipping and unclipping my left, to see if I could give it another go to get on the road, but I didn't want to.

I have to admit, then I sat down and had a little disappointed cry.

(image via livenerddierepeat.com from a post about how robots are going to kill us one day?)

However, I still want to put some kms in this week as I'm down 60km from my usual target.

I might take my commuter out, since I'm awake and it's 7:30am - to "get back on the bike" as they say...  :)

My clipless brings all the boys to the yard

Well, instead of "all the boys", more like 1 man.  And instead of "the yard", more like to the park.

I got bored and despite the crazy southerly winds, decided to venture out into the park to do some practice riding with the clipless pedals.

Get joined by random man.  I think he was bored from riding alone for a while.

I guess that's ok.

But how did you go with the pedals?

It went well!

It's almost anti-climactic how calm and not stressful it is!

I'm definitely confident about getting on the road.

My husband says that things I fear are a bit anti-climactic because by the time I get over my fear and do it, I've researched it all to bits and am so overqualified for the activity.  This may be one of those instances!

James at the bike store did say that picked up the clipping in and out much quicker than most people.

They put my bike on the stationery trainer so I could practice on a non-moving bike first.

It took a little while to get used to finding where the pedals were, and we had to adjust my right shoe because the pedals needed to line up with the ball of my foot more, rather than the middle of my foot.

It also took a little while to get used to clipping in and out.  I noticed:
IN needs some weight downwards.
OUT needs some force to flick your heel outwards, while your foot is flat.

For some reason, I found the clipping in and out action much easier once I got to moving around in the park.

Before switching the pedals, it was also useful that my husband noticed I was already putting down my right foot consistently when I slow down, before putting my left leg on the ground to stop, so it meant that I was almost going through the consistent motion I needed to be doing, even before upgrading to the special shoes. 

The drills I decided to do in the park were

• Practice starting and stopping slow.
• Practice starting and stopping fast.
• Cycling without being clipped in.
• Clipping in and out while moving.

I was going to practice falling towards my right and trying to unclip, but I chickened out..

Good tips I received

• The foot that you would kick a soccer ball with, this is the foot that stays clipped in when you're riding.  (For me, this is the right foot)
• This means that you get used to clipping and unclipping the other foot mostly.  (For me, this is the left foot).
• This means that you need to lean the bike to the side AWAY from your clipped in foot, which is also the side of your foot ON THE GROUND.  (For me, this is the left).
• If you don't clip in straight away, don't panic, just keep riding and clip in when you can.  This is actually really easy to do because the shoe is so stiff you could be pedalling a music box handle.

My process for starting:

1. Clip in your right foot - by finding the pedal and applying weight downwards.
2. Raise your right pedal to get ready to take off.
3. Start pedalling.
4. Put your left foot on the pedal.
5. With your left foot, find the bit you need and apply weight to clip in.  If you don't manage it first go, keep trying, or just keep pedalling until you get momentum and can try again.

My process for stopping:

1. Brake
2. Clip out left foot.
3. Once bike is almost stopped, put left foot on ground. I guess it's important to lean slightly to the left, but I find I do this anyway without thinking to put my left foot on the ground.

(Another person's experience: http://www.hellodaly.com/2009/08/ready-to-ride-giro.html)

Useful articles

• Bike Pedals: How to Choose and Use
• How to: Master clipless pedals
• Video: Skunk River Cycles: Why You Should Ride Clipless Pedals

I love my thighs / Does everyone have to clip stack?

Apparently the average person loses 5.8kg when they start bike commuting to work.

None of my shorts fit my any more because my waist has gotten smaller.

(image via www.dailymail.co.uk)

But, my pants all still fit because my thigh muscles are holding them up.  HAHAHA.

I love my thighs so much!

(It's also funny how much society seems to have a stigma on women loving their thighs.  Watching people's facial expressions when I talk about my love for thighs is very interesting).

In other news

I got clipless pedals installed!

(They're called clipless because they came after the toe-clips style, so essentially they were relatively clipless).

So everyone keeps telling me I'm going to fall.

Except most of the people I know that cycle a lot.

And I met a girl this morning on my group ride that was saying she's never fallen the whole time she's been riding.

I think people say that "you have to fall", "you're going to fall" so you don't feel bad if you fall.

But it still feels weird that people are in a sense, telling you that you're going to fail at something new that you've decided to take on.

It's obviously not true that EVERYONE has to fall, because I have actually met people who never "clip stacked".

I'm planning to do some practice and then go for a short ride over this long weekend.

I wonder how I will go.

Don’t ask, “What do you think of my bloomers?”

A List of Don’ts for Women on Bicycles Circa 1895

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895/

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't know whether my favourite is:
a) Don’t ask, “What do you think of my bloomers?”
or
b) Don’t scream if you meet a cow. If she sees you first, she will run.