Gear Repairs

Pete and I decided not to go out on the roads today, but rather to spend some time focusing on fixing the gears and shifting struggles I've been experiencing. Pete puts the bike on the trainer and sets about making adjustments. I won't explain it all because he did it and I don't really understand it. Adjustments done, I climb on the bike and begin testing the shifting. No problems! What a great bike mechanic I've found!

Pete turns on the t.v. and an episode of CSI for me and I begin pedaling. I tell you, without that t.v. in there, I'd be so bored on the trainer! I pedal for about 25 minutes which is five miles. I go to get off the bike and find I'm stretching for the floor. I forgot how much taller the bike feels on the trainer. My legs are tired still from yesterday and even this short ride tonight. I didn't learn from yesterday, apparently, and try to pull my leg through the bike again. This time I have the thong on my bike (a piece of fabric to protect the bike from your sweat while on a trainer that runs from the handle bars to the seat post of the bike.) The thong is higher than the top tube of my bike. Hmm... I should have swung my leg over the seat. But now I'm committed so I try to get my leg through and manage to get my cleat stuck in thong. I start to sway and hop around on my left foot trying to keep my balance. If I fall to the left, I'm going to land on the rollers and that can't be a good landing. I hop around, but manage to only delay the fall, maybe soften it a little and maybe get myself into a position where I can fall in between the rollers. Crash! I sit there thinking "Well that was dumb. The landing could have been worse on these rollers. How am I going to get myself out of this one? I hope the trainer survived this." Pete comes running. So much for hiding my silly fall in the house. "What happened?" I relay the story and can't help but chuckle at the silliness of the whole thing. He rights the back and helps me up. Boy do I feel dumb. Oh well, part of the learning process for this biking thing.

I switch to the exercises Pete found in Bicycle magazine last year. The exercises helped him with his position on the bike, so I'm hoping if I start these too, I'll benefit as well. Some of the exercise require one of those yoga balancing balls. Some of the exercise are simply ones I remember from grade school P.E. Some of the exercises say to do ten reps. "Only ten? Simple," I think. Ha! I hit five and can feel the burn, so I push through to ten. Then I try some where I'm laying on the floor and have to lift off the ground and hold. The picture shows these people in perfect form with lots of space between the back or hips and the floor. Those models must be a size zero! I learn that my hips are so wide I feel like I've lifted as high as I can off the floor and there's hardly any room between me and the floor. Oh well, at least I'm doing something about it now.



Goals
Today's Miles: 5
Total Miles Achieved: 174.2
Financial Investment: $863.55
Total Weight Loss: 0 *We've discovered our scale is worthless. You can weigh yourself three times in two minutes and fluctuate over five pounds. Hopefully, I'll begin to see changes here when we get a new scale.