get a bike and ride it

We’re going to make this a weekly thing. Mt. biking is my new favorite way to exercise. I’m getting better at it too. Technique and courage much improved, still lots of room for improvement as far as strength and endurance go.

I still need to actually use my bike for transportation.

I went mountain biking last night! Yay! It was very difficult, but surprisingly easier than the last time (10 months ago). I know I’m in worse shape now, maybe she was just going easier on me…
My friend is trying to go mountain biking at least once a week, hopefully I can tag along enough to get decent at this.
Also, the seat that my coworker gave me is a billion times more comfortable than the one that came with my bike. Its not as cushy as the one’s I was looking at in the store, but still a huge improvement!

I went on a long bike ride today with some friends. Lots of fun. We stayed on the path mostly, but rode in the street in some areas, all on bike boulevards with low traffic.

Still nervous about using the bike for transportation, especially now that I’m not moving to a bike friendly area.

My boyfriend lives on a designated “bike boulevard”. Even so, I’m too afraid to ride my bike on it. While the traffic is low, it’s still traffic. And there is parking on both sides of the street and I’m afraid of the cars pulling out of those spots without noticing bikes. In fact I often park there and am super cautious about bikes every time I arrive and leave.
Tonight there was a city planning presentation about the bike boulevard so boyfriend and I went to it and learned all about what this city is doing to make these areas safer and more well-marked and we gave our feedback. I felt like I was helping. It was good.

I road to the store today! Yay! Still not on the busy streets yet, although I did cross the busy street in the intersection as a vehicle, not on the crosswalk. I think thats a minor victory.
I want a new seat. Would a mountain bike look strange with one of those big cushy cruiser seats. Probably.

It was a lot of fun, but I’m way out of shape and was very obviously the inexperienced rider in our group. They constantly had to stop and wait for me to catch up.

Today I road my bike to the grocery store!

We decided to go on one of greenway trails through town. Long story short: Those trails are incredably poorly marked and there is NO map that shows them well on the parks department website. We started toward the middle, went east until the trail met up with a road and couldn’t figure out which way to go from there. Turned around and headed west, came to a road that we knew we were supposed to turn left from shortly but never saw the turn and ended up going at least a mile too far. Turned around again and couldn’t find the turn to get back to our starting point!

It felt like a dissaster becuase I felt like I wasn’t prepared, once I got over that and just enjoyed myself it was fun. I got some expereience (more than planned) riding on a road with probalby the perfect amount of traffic. There were enough cars that I was building up my experience and courage and learning to keep an eye out for people turning right in front of me, but not so much fast traffic that I was panicing.

I think I want to buy a more comfortable seat…

I finally rode my bike today! I just wandered around the neighborhood getting a feel for it. (I guess the suburbs are nice some something.)
When I was making dinner I had to make a run to the grocery store for just one item. I hate making trips like that in the car but was already there by the time I realized that one of the nearby stores is along the bike path so I can ride there without the scary traffic.

Boyfriend has decided that I should get a multi-sport helmet that can convert from a bike helmet into a snowboard helmet with the addiition of some insulation. He insists that this will save me loads of money in the long run (and he gets very worried about me boarding without a helmet). BUT i’ve yet to find these in any stores so far. Granted, I haven’t looked everywhere, but so far, nothing. At the REI sale last week I almost bought a regular bike helmet on sale, but he convinced me away from it. I really want to actually ride my bike! Its just sitting in the garage looking all neglected. If I don’t find a multi-sport helmet my the end of the month I’m going to just go ahead and buy a bike helmet.