#winwin

Adventure 4: My living room

There's been a lot of stress in my life lately as I work through some career decisions. But, I was excited to distract myself with some basketball and a ride on my trainor. Can I say how much I love being married to my own personal cyclist advisor? He adjusted my bike for me on the spot. Love it! I finished my ride much more comfortably - and Golden State won #winwin

I also tried out new bibs. These went on crazy sale, so I picked up a pair. The pads were a little awkward while standing, but on the saddle felt great. I'm loving the halter - it made it easy to take on/off. The stitching at the top of the halter was my least favorite part (it wasn't full stitched across), but it had no functional impact on the bike. I'm picking up another pair while they are on closeout for sure.

Purchased at Western Bikeworks

Adventure 3: Bike date

Adventure 3: Bike date

A fun quick neighborhood ride. My guy has been working crazy hours, so I was excited we were able to do something together. 

Adventure 2: Evelyn Schiffler Park

Adventure 2: Evelyn Schiffler Memorial Park

It was just me tonight, since my riding partner is working a closing shift. I decided to follow my physical therapist's advice (notice my sweet KT tape featured above?) and keep it lowkey, so I headed over to the neighborhood park. Being the history nerd I am I wanted to know who is/was Evelyn Schiffler, and why did she have a park named after her? 

After some intense googling, I found out that Evelyn Schiffler Memorial Park was formed around 1976, from land that was donated to parks & rec by the Schifflers and other property owners. It's had multiple updates, with a particularly big facelift in 2013 thanks to a bond measure. The park is around ten acres and has a skatepark, picnic areas, a pavilion, play structures, basketball courts. My favorite part is a 2 acre wetland with a boardwalk running through it. I also discovered at the exterior of the park, there is a space for community gardening.

Sadly, the internet didn't provide me any information on who Evelyn Schiffler was, so I think my next trip will be the library.

Adventure 1: Farmer's market/Library

(1) my stash / (2) my favorite booth at the market

A pretty leisurely easy ride, roundtrip 2 miles. I'm in this weird place where I've owned a bike a long time, I'm married to a "bike person", but I still can't really bring myself to feel super comfortable on my bike. Continuing on with my list theme...

Things I'm trying to conquer

1) Shifting

2) Getting over having a poorly fit bike most of my life, and accepting that my feet shouldn't touch the ground when I'm riding. That mistake was corrected awhile ago, but I'm still not confident stopping and gracefully getting off my saddle.

3) The time I was most active in my life, I was 40ish pounds lighter. I'm pretty sure I feel every single pound I've gained every time I go up a hill. This is more of a mental barrier than a physical one.

4) Feeling more comfortable riding near cars. I realize this comes with time, but I don't trust them and I don't entirely trust myself on my bike.

5) RIDE MORE.

Alright. I'm going to eat some strawberries.

Introductions are made best in list form (Updated)

This is the story of me and my bicycle. I've had some ex-bicycles, but we weren't that close. This new relationship began on my 30th birthday, introduction courtesy of my awesome husband. My goal is that this new relationship grows into something beautiful and strong:

Alright, that's probably enough anthropomorphizing my bicycle for now. 

The purpose of me starting this rusty blog up again:

- I want to add some variety of voices on the internet. There are a lot of really amazing dude-written blogs out there for cycling. There are also a few lady-written blogs that are rad. But there aren't enough of them, and there are even fewer written from a beginner's perspective. Go Team Ovaries!

- I would like something to document my journey. I'd be lying if I said I was only doing this to become a better cyclist. I am also doing this because I want a killer body. I am doing this because I don't want my future-kids to be able to out-cycle me. I don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore. I want to feel strong.