First ride with clip shoes

We went to church last night and saw one of our faithful babysitters. I had been meaning to get a sitter for this morning so Eric and I could do a ride. Luckily, the sitter agreed to arriving at our house at 7 a.m. I felt bad for her 16-year-old freshly licensed brother who had to be the one to wake up early to drive her over!

Today was a big day for me bike wise. I was wearing my new cycling shoes and using my new clipless pedals. (I don't understand the term "clipless pedals" because you "clip" into the pedals to get moving.)


I got my shoes last Friday, but I was too afraid to try them out in Monterey. I figured I'd better be on flat and familiar ground before attaching myself to my bike and possibly not being able to get out.

I didn't even try the pedals out first in the trainer. I just practiced out in front of the house. It took me a few times to be able to get my left foot clipped in to the pedal. Even though I wasn't exactly comfortable with the whole "clip" routine, I figured I might as well head off.


The shoes match my bike and my gloves. Very important! I even told the sales guy that they'd match. He seemed impressed!

Things were going pretty well. We got about seven miles out from our house and stopped at an intersection to decide which way were going to ride. I had successfully unclipped my left shoe, but instead of leaning to the left, I accidentally started toppling to the right!

I panicked and starting screaming, "Falling! Falling!" Luckily, I was falling towards Eric, and he caught me. Even though I didn't hit the ground, I banged my left ankle up so hard it made me cry. Then I cried because I was scared of the fall. Then I felt like I was hyperventilating. It wasn't pretty.

Eric was great. He soothed me and waited until I was composed and breathing again. I got back on and continued, but it took me a bit of time to feel as though my heart wasn't going to beat out of my chest.

We got to just over 12 miles before turning around.


Me in my new orange jersey. It is actually bright orange, but it is hard to tell from the photo.

It was pretty bright and 67 degrees heading out at 7 a.m. Luckily the ride back had the sun to our back.


Eric at our turn around point.

Our ride back was fairly uneventful until Eric got a flat tire about a mile from home. He sent me on ahead to get the car and come back for him. We are going to a flat repair clinic this Wednesday. Eric changed his tire while he waited for me, but decided not to ride home. He'll take the bike to the flat clinic to make sure he changed it the right way.

The rest of the day has been fairly relaxed. I made a run to CVS to play my coupon game. In short, I bought $60.07 worth of stuff and only had to pay $.05 before taxes! Taxes brought my total to $3.21! I love having a successful shopping trip like that.

I still need to decide how to proceed with my half marathon training. I should probably decide that before tomorrow!