The bike is just different for me.
Utilitarian.
I ride it to get me to school,
to get me to the trailhead so I can run,
or to the pool so I can swim.
I need to expand my horizons
to go beyond the utilitarian
to go beyond accomplishing training.
I need to make the bike about biking.
How the hell am I gonna do that?
My trainer lays dusty in my closet -
still in its plastic.
I, the one with the vocabulary,
mentally block on words like cadence and wattage,
gears, parts vs. components, derailleurs
= Derailed.
But hey, I got bottle cages and seats downpat!
Er - or was that saddles?
How do you retrain a brain,
create a proclivity?
Woefully, willfully ignorant.
Is there hope for me yet?
Yes. I will find a way.
8 comments:
Hi there... just stopping by and thought I'd let you know I was here. My husband is also a triathlete and I am a teacher. Don't remember if I have posted before or not... just want you to know how organized your thoughts are about your reluctance of the bike...
Ahh, just think of all your rides to and from places as training. I do when I ride to work..
Oh, not to be a biker (biking), but you must be one with the bike and become a CYCLIST..
Where else can you dress in bright colors, spandex, and everybody thinks it is okay...
This being only my third season of biking I lack so much of the gear head knowledge. It's coming, slowly but surely. But, it also helps that I enjoy cycling.
Hmmm, there's a lot of bike talk here. Is there something hiding deep in your brain?
TT,
I don't think you have to be a gear head to be a good, no, GREAT biker. The 'stuff' can come later.
Here we start to get into the law of diminishing return: How much bike stuff do you need to know to get to be GREAT?
It's a little like the COST of a great bike. You can get a piece of crap for $500, you can get 'decent' for $1300, 'great' for $1700-3000, but from there DOUBLE the price for every 2% improvement.
So how much do you need to know about derailleurs? Enough to make it work.
Don't obsess about the gear unless you want to.......
IF you focus on riding, and get faster, and THEN start adding bike knowledge and equipment, you will see the improvements on top of a good foundation.
But you don't have to make it complicated unless that's your thing. Learn to love riding, and you will start to learn to love the gear.
AND: Lastly, you and are in the same boat (again). I am JUST learning the bike, and it's parts, and learning to like training. (And it can't touch running) Maybe we are runners with a triathlon problem?
M- (cool post :-)
Sorry, I had a comment. I got sidetracked and posted instead.
-jwm
I have the opposite problem. The bike used to be that for me, but now it's just a means of a workout. Don't lose the utilitarian aspect of it!
I actually rode my bike to and from a meeting today and it was FUN. Hmmmmm..
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