Training week 2 and getting my 4K bike!

Hello, followers! This week I completed my second week of training, and got my official 4K road bike! :)

I got fitted for my bike on Tuesday, which consisted of me getting on bikes of different sizes so they could see which frame size I would need. I went to Princeton Sports in Columbia. They partner with the 4K, and 4K riders get free adjustments, tune-ups, and 10% off everything in the store, which is pretty awesome. This process was easy... John, one of the bike specialists, guessed my size correctly the first time so all I had to do was get on one bike. I was the smallest size, meep.. 

Turns out that the bike they had me get on had Chelsea's name on it - so I called Chelsea to let her know her bike was ready, and she went to pick it up that day. We spent some time in the evening gleefully admiring it and petting it, and she rode around campus a little bit giggling hysterically at how fast and sleek it was. I couldn't wait to get mine!

Luckily they had the bike in stock and just had to assemble it, so my bike was ready on Friday. The process of picking it up took about an hour and a half because they size it and make adjustments specifically for your body. They put the bike on a stationary trainer and had me get on it for a bit, then adjusted the seat height and horizontal position and kept checking and making slight adjustments until it was perfect. I was really interested in why they were making each adjustment because it is all biomechanics :) For example, they hung a weight from my knee down to my foot to see that it was a 90-degree angle, because this positioning will give you the most power on the downstroke of pedaling. 

John from Princeton Sports making adjustments to my bike!

My bike is AWESOME! It is super sleek and fast and I absolutely love it. I need to give it a name, but rather than trying to force it into a mold, I think I will let it be whoever it wants to be.... just kidding, that's kinda weird. But I am going to wait until the perfect name pops into my head!

At Princeton Sports I also bought cycling shoes, cycling gloves, a water bottle cage, a bike rack for our apartment, and my new worst enemy: clipless pedals. For those of you that don't know, clipless pedals are pedals which your shoes clip into so that your feet, and therefore you, are quite attached to the bike. (I don't really understand the terminology... why are they called "clipless" if the point of them is to clip in??) The idea is that without them, you can't get any power from pulling your foot back up after pedaling. Using clipless pedals is a lot more energy-efficient and therefore they are routinely used by serious cyclists. However, being attached to your bike can obviously be dangerous, especially if you have never used them before (ahem, me). They are like skis in that in the event of an emergency they will come unclipped, but normally, you have to quickly clip into them while taking off from a stop, then remember to unclip them before you stop... otherwise you will be getting up close and personal with the ground. I got a "special" kind of clipless pedals, AKA the noob kind, which has clips on both sides of the pedals. That way if you miss one side trying to clip in, you can try again on the other side. 

Clipless pedals 

The pedals come with an attachment which you bolt into the bottom of your cycling shoe. This means that most road cycling shoes will have a flat bottom and then an awkward clip jutting out in the middle of their foot, making it extremely hard and awkward to walk in. If you've ever seen cyclists trying to walk around a 7/11 or something and they are walking awkwardly on the heels of their feet, this is why. So for this reason, the guys at Princeton Sports recommended that I get "mountain" cycling shoes -- the difference being that the clip fits snugly inside the bottom of the shoe, and they are normal to walk around in.  Since we will be stopping for water breaks and occasionally taking in/ exploring scenery, I definitely agreed that these were the better option. Unfortunately, they are some of the ugliest shoes I have ever seen. They are all black (they only come in black, apparently because they would get dirty) and sort of mesh, with three giant velcro fasteners... super cute! But I'm guessing that when we're out riding 60-120 miles a day, having fashionable shoes is going to drop to the bottom of my priority list. Also, the bottom of the shoe doesn't bend at all so it kind of feels like you're walking around in bricks. Really light bricks, that is.

Anyway, the guys at Princeton Sports set up the pedals and shoes for me and taught me how to use them. Let's just say... it's hard. Like any repetitive motion, we are just going to have to do it hundreds of times until our bodies learn it. To get into the pedals, you have to point your foot downwards to get the front of it in the clip, then swing your heel to the side and push down to clip in. To get out, you have to push down and push your heel out at the same time. It's easiest to do both clipping in and clipping out when your foot is at the bottom, because you can use your body weight. I think getting into them is going to be more difficult because once you have one in, you'd better be able to get the other one in or you're probably going down, and you also have to be riding and looking where you're going at the same time. It's going to be like learning how to ride a bike all over again... I'm definitely expecting a few falls. The guys at Princeton Sports said they don't know anyone who didn't fall while they were learning. I'm definitely nervous, but also excited. Everyone says that they make biking so much better. Chelsea and I are going to be practicing a lot this week, helping hold each other up and everything, and we are hoping to be able to bike with them for the first time next weekend!

Chelsea and I also assembled the bike rack my mom bought us, so that we can keep our bikes inside! We aren't going to be riding them around to class for fear of theft, and we definitely want to keep them inside away from the elements. So here's our current set-up. Thanks to our other two roomies for being cool with half our living room being taken up by bikes for the rest of the school year :)

Our bike rack and identical bikes

Fundraising -- I couldn't be happier with how things are going! This week, not only did I clear the $4000 mark, but I'm also just under $200 away from the minimum that we have to raise. Thank you everyone that has made this happen!! This week I got a $500 donation from a nearly complete stranger. I was so surprised and humbled. The generosity of some people truly amazes me, and I am so grateful. It makes me hope that when I am older, I am willing and able to give generously to worthy causes such as this. Also, I'm working on a making a virtual US map that will show little pins where all my supporters are.

Training -- It's now been two weeks since I started training, and I am definitely feeling changes in my body. There's no doubt that I feel stronger! I've also been sore for two weeks straight... so I guess that means I'm doing something right. One highlight of this week was Wednesday, when Chelsea and I finally managed to run over from orchestra in time to get seats in one of UMD's cycling classes. It was a 55-minute spin class and it was an awesome workout! It must've been about 85 degrees in that room. We sweated so much that it kind of looked like we went swimming instead of a cycling class.. It was pretty gross... hopefully it's cooler next time. But it was a great workout either way and we plan on going back every Monday & Wednesday. Working out to music definitely makes a big difference, as does working out when someone is telling you what to do. 

This weekend we didn't go on an outdoor training ride because of the bad weather, so today I did 25 miles on the stationary bike. Blehhhh. Not something I recommend. It was so boring and it was not very kind to my butt. I need to get some nice cycling shorts. The only thing that made it tolerable was the fact that I finally bugged my dad enough for him to give me his Netflix password, then dragged a chair into the gym and put my laptop on it, and was able to watch the first two episodes of Downton Abbey while cycling :) On an obviously completely unrelated note I'm now kind of addicted to Downton Abbey. The good news is that the horrors of riding 25 miles straight on a stationary bike has motivated me to get these clipless pedals down in time to go outside for next weekend!!

To do this week: Focus on school (I decided to add another class, so I have to catch up in that one), keep up the training, shop for some more bike gear, and learn how to use the clipless pedals without injuring myself! I'm hoping Punxsutawney was right the other day and we have an early spring... I'm tired of this cold!

On an unrelated note, GO RAVENS!! I'm really not a Ravens fan and I didn't even watch the Super Bowl -- I went grocery shopping instead, which was a fantastic idea because absolutely no one was there -- but it's still really exciting that the Ravens won :)

Thank you for reading, and have a fantastic week!

XOXO,

Mary