the good stuff
today was my first ride/run with the bondifit mob. i was pretty anxious/nervy about it - particularly now that I had the heads up that 'beginners' meant no such thing. it just meant you might have only done 2 ironmans and a bazillion shorter ones... true to form the starters were all pretty advanced relative to me and so we were told what to do and everyone took off and i was standing there going 'wot? i can barely even clip in... what's a hill lap...???'
when everyone took off and i was still there like an idiot they realised i might need some attention. so we started in a very scary way (for me) by making me ride around a very small circle while clipping in and out. it was scary!! but i didn't fall off and it did give me a bit more confidence.
so for the next lap i joined in. We were doing a hill lap (about 2.5k i guess including a strong uphill and some scary fast downhills) followed by 500m lap running. Then repeat ad nauseum :) a major part of this was practising transitions so getting your cycling shoes on and running your bike about 150m on grass before you jump on. Some people did it with the shoes already clipped in, but i reckon that'll take me a while....
the hills killed me. my quads burned. the downhills scared me. the only bit i loved was a flat stretch at the bottom of the hills where i could finally ride hard and go fast cause i still had momentum! then it was off the bike, run it back down to transition, change shoes and run. my first three times my legs were cactus!! on my last one i felt better (perhaps cause i had missed one out...:) and i actually overtook someone!!! ace! (ok so they were on their 6th or 7th rep and it was my 4th... but i'll take it!!!
i wasn't sure i'd do any more after 3 but decided to rest one and then go one more. and it was a great thing that i did because it turned out i was in the big ring still the whole time despite thinking i was in the small ring, so we changed that. he also discovered that my back tyre was at about half the pressure it should be... so we pumped that up and on my bike shopping list is a big pump that can tell me how much is in it etc. It was much easier the next lap - although i still struggled up the hills. next on the to do list is be comfortable to get out of the saddle and also to feel confident to indicate where i'm going....
anyway - so all up i didn't do that much but it was at pretty high intensity and i feel good for having got out there and given it a shot. and it gets less scary. talk about getting out of my bloody comfort zone... :)
EDIT - was supposed to go to swim squad this afternoon but decided not to (when i got into bed to read a book and suddenly it was 3pm.... so instead i went for a quick 4k. very pleasant indeed - but hows the wind today??? 4k, avg pace 5.49. noice.
posted by Ellie80 @ 9:20 am
8 Comments:
Air in the tyres does help a bit ;-)
Good work Ellie but whats with snubbing us at the 5k Challenge? ;-)
Already clipped in is the way to go - maybe practise by yourself somewhere quiet.
Sounds like a fun session - I guess they're all fun if you don't stack. Well done on the overtaking ;)
Actually an interesting post, Ellie. I am one of those in the category of knowing nothing about clip-ons, so I learnt something today.
That's one helluva steep learning curve you're on. Congrats on handling it so well (but what's the point of riding when you could have been running the CR5k! Priorities, girl. Priorities! :-))
Gnome
The bike scares the crap out of me!!! Especially on downhills! We missed you this morning!
Brilliant effort miss E :) That's a super tough sounding session, let alone for someone starting out, so congrats. You'l get heaps more confidence with the clipping in with a few session like this.
Oh, and keep that thing in the small ring!!! Always! All the time! Don't even change up if they suggest that you do - I promise this is the best lesson you can give yourself on the bike. Learn to spin :)
That sounds so cool Ellie! I wish I could find a bike squad like that! Great to get practice clipping in and out and transitioning. I have lost a lot of clipping confidence (and general bike confidence) since a silly accident last month. And good work on taking it easy and doing the 4k (nice pace!) instead of swimming.
Lordy, so much to learn. Sounds like you'll soon have it beat though! Nice pace on your run considering you'd already done the big session in the morning.
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