Rookie Cyclist 101
I bought a new bike two weeks before my first Tri! When I say new, I obviously mean, new to me. Claudia is a second hand Cannondale SuperSix Evo (2016) and I am very excited to have her!
Day 1: - Purchase bike, realise they have MTB cleat style pedals and your pedal plates you've been training with, won't fit. - Time to graduate to cleats. - Order new cleats from Amazon.
Day 2: - New cleats arrive. - Swap them over on your bike shoes. - Practice clipping in & out in the safety of your own home. - Feel satisfied they're easier to escape from than regular road bike cleats!
Day 3: - Take bike to the park cycling in trainers. - Swap trainers for bike shoes, right first, then changing the left as well. - Practice stopping & starting/clipping and unclipping. - Only one or two minor falls when you forgot to unclip. - Feel satisfied you can do it, but call it a day before you get too cocky!
Day 4: - Wake up really tired because you did a Splash+Dash the night before and have had three bad night's sleep in a row. - Insist you need to go out and practice anyway, so tell yourself just to do 1/2 hour. - Go out on local, quiet roads, probably out for about 45mins but manage just under 30 of cycling. - You're tired and anxiety is always worse when you're tired. At least you did something.
Day 5: - Take the bike to the VeloPark, a mix of cycle/walk/tube and a mix of trainers then cleats. - An inevitable fall as soon as you switch to cleats on the Greenway! - Get on well at the VeloPark, manage to start and stop/start a few times - Get a bit carried away, especially when your friend Joe arrives and end up doing a bit further than you meant to. - Realise the saddle on the new bike needs changing! Ha, ha. - Realise it's after 4:30pm & you won't be able to take the bike on the tube, you'll have to cycle all the way home! - Change into trainers (you've had enough cleat excitement for one day) & walk with Joe to Stratford. - Eventually taking it easy, you cycle home.
Day 6: - Rest day. No time for bike skills today. Also, so knackered and so (saddle) sore!
Day 7: - Stay at boyfriends in Walthamstow. - Take the bike out to a quiet road near his house. - Can't get started. - Have no idea why, but you keep starting and getting in your head. - Start to feel shaky, take bike back to the flat, cry and have panic attack. - OH SHIT, you cannot be having a panic attack this time next week. - Calm down and know you have to get back on the bike, so walk it to the park to start again. - Manage to start, stop/start a few times and decide to call it a day and quit while you're ahead. - Feel kinda weird for the rest of the day.
Day 8: - You've signed up for a short Duathlon at the VeloPark, to get use to racing. - You still have yesterday's fear/panic attack in your head, but know you need to keep trying. - Start/stop a few times in front of the VeloPark until you're allowed in. - Do half a lap of the VeloPark when you get in - stalling three times before you get started... oh shit! - Duathlon starts, run is fine. Transition is fine. You get on the bike... one false start, but you get going on the second one. - Realise you've forgotten to hit transition on your watch, but decide now is not the time to test out the one-handed cycling! Ha, ha! - Finish the cycling no probs, cycling faster and harder than you have before - it feels great! - Over anticipate the stop and go down the gears too early! - Finish the duathlon with a better run than the first lap. - Still feel shitty for the rest of the day... not quite the warm-up/whet your appetite event you were hoping it would be!
Day 9: - No time for bike skills today because of a temp job, but mange 30mins of a Sprint work out... that's something right!? Ha, ha!
Day 10: - Wake up early to go for bike practice and then a run. - Bloody miserable weather. - Torrential rain makes you head back to bed. - You're in a funk today.
Day 11: - Wake up early to practice starting in cleats again. - Manage to start once, but keep getting stuck inside your head and you know today is not the day, so you go back inside. - Have a lovely chat/cry-chat with Coach Cooper (Cristina, my fellow adult learner who completely understands the fear!). We talked it through and tomorrow is another day. - Panic by pedal plates for my MTB pedals, so I can cycle in trainers if I need to - Go for a relaxing swim. Something I'm good at! Ha, ha.
Day 12: - Testing out my new mantra "Push and Glide" - after realising I needed to visualise how to start on the bike. - Manage to get going first time, two or three times in a row. - Stumble. Start again. Stumble and fall. Start again. - Eventually get to Cristina's a few mins late! - Have a great cycle around the park, starting and stopping. Trying to lift one hand off the handle bars and then the other... - Decide to quit while I'm ahead. Walk the bike over the road. Can't get started again! Ha, ha! - Fall a couple of times & decide to change into trainers and walk most of the way home, with a little cycle... just to prove I can still do it! - Generally feel positive and happy that I will be able to do it in cleats. - Pedal plates arrive - good to have as back up!
Day 13: - Uhm and ahh about going out to practice... - Decide you don't really have anything to gain this close to the race and don't want to jink it by having a bad run. - The next time you ride your bike, will be in the triathlon!!!!
Day 14: - RACE DAY!!! - I will cover this is more detail in another post... there were a few false starts and some lessons learnt! - BUT, I did it! I did my first triathlon on a road bike, in cleats! - I've been cycling for less than 2 years, on a road bike for about 2 months and in cleats for just under 2 weeks!











