How I learned to ride a bike
Being the most inexperienced rider on our team, I find myself obligated to write a blog to encourage others to join R4WH even if they are unsure of their bicycling skills. I'm not going to lie, I had NO bicycling skills when my plane landed in San Diego for bootcamp the week before the ride. I trained on an indoor trainer and worked on my cardio, however, I learned quickly that nothing replaces the experience of just riding a bike. The saying "It takes a village to raise a child" is so applicable in my case because R4WH basically taught me how to ride a bike. These are the lessons that I learned:
- Buy a solid bike. Thanks to Jake at roll: and my friend Minh, I bought my first bike a few months before the trip. She's a silver Giant ORC 1. "Lucy" is her name. Minh believes in color coordinating your bike, with your wheels, with your helmet, with your handlebar tape... I'll leave that to your discretion.
- Check your ego at the door. Learning how to ride a bike involves a lot of falling, especially when your shoes clip into the pedals. Sadly, a lot of falling happens when you're at a complete stop, therefore your ego is more bruised than any body part. Just remember to get back on your bike after a spill. I can say from experience that it will get better. On another note, R4WH is not for those who embarrass easily. For example, farting has definitely become more of a social norm than a faux pas. Lastly, I've found that when you're feeling low, like on my first day when I had trouble riding a bike, you can always depend on another more experienced rider, in this case our CEO Joe, to make you feel less embarrassed by having their own embarrassing moment. On our first event day, Joe attempted to pick up a 10 gallon Powerade cooler by the lid and had half of the contents spill on the front side of his pants. Thanks, Joe!
- Saddle up! Nothing replaces learning how to ride a bike than actually getting onto one. Practice, practice, practice...and then practice some more! The downside of this is that you will develop saddle sores (refer to my last blog entry).
- Redefine your definition of "beauty." I used to think that before this ride, I had a good shot at winning my medical school class superlative for "best legs in Class of 2008." After bootcamp, my legs had scrapes and bruises as if I had run through a field of thorned roses and then stumbled over ten stools of varying height. After over a month of riding, I have wonderful tan lines outlining my sunglasses, t-shirt, shorts, and fingerless gloves. Grease can always be found under any of my fingernails. And I constantly smell like sunscreen, sweat, or a combination of the two. But I'm definitely starting to feel more like a biker!
- Learn proper bike maintenance. One wise person once told me that "a clean bike is a happy bike." Definitely find yourself a person like Van who will teach you proper bike maintenance and be there to answer any and all of your questions.
- Find your Sensei/ Yoda/ Dave Holder. Dave Holder, our head of logistics, was probably the most important factor in getting me and Lucy from San Diego to Washington D.C. Dave ran multiple drills with me for many hours in the Torrey Pines parking lot on the second day of bootcamp and continues to be my go-to-guy for any bicycling question. He's also a master at fixing bikes, creating daily routes, and troubleshooting any bicycling problem. I found out weeks into the trip that Dave had made contingency plans and routes for me during bootcamp because he seriously doubted that I would make it to Washington D.C. with the rest of the team. I'm glad I could prove him wrong (and save him the extra work of creating a second route specifically for me!) I could go on and on about how wonderful Dave is, but I'll stop here and just tell you to look out for this face on future cycling magazine covers.
- Surround yourself with a lot of positive reinforcement. As mentioned before, I was so nervous about riding a bike on the very first day of bootcamp that I couldn't even ride out of the parking lot of the place we were staying to our first stop at the Solano Beach Senior Center. I had never ridden in traffic in clipless pedals before. Luckily, I was fortunate to have the help of such amazing people. So, my suggestion to you is to...Find your own Bobby, Ashley, and Kel who will wait patiently so that when you actually do mount your bike, you won't have to ride alone.
Find your own Cory, who will use his military voice (but gentle spirit) to make you ride around in circles in a parking lot just to get the hang of the clipless pedals.
Find your own Tammy, who will force you to ride up the Torrey Pines hill on your first day and then guide you safely through the streets of La Jolla back to your place of stay.
Find your own Seth, who will be your personal cheerleader during your first century ride and continue to give you his positive energy when you've used up all of yours.
When all else fails, find yourself someone like Samara who can explain away all your shortcomings by pointing out some design flaw in your bicycle.
Once you feel comfortable on the bike, continue to keep these positive influences around.
Find a group of riders like Kem, Tammy, and Marianne whose strength and drive are contagious and will help propel you up 3,000 feet of climbing over nine miles until you reach the top of the Continental Divide.
Find a group of riders like Carissa, Chris, and Seth who will want to form a bright yellow jacket gang with you even though, at times, that may be the only thing that the four of you have in common.
Find a group of riders like Jen, Anuj, Nate, and Van who you hope one day to be able to keep up with but whose humility and easy-going nature make me believe that these pack leaders will never be the "biker snobs" we all dread.
- Most importantly, enjoy yourself!
