Serious Cyclist

In middle school, I remember a boy in my class named Lowell.  Lowell was an avid cyclist and annually, he rode in El Tour de Tucson.  El Tour is a massive bike event in November that hosts a century ride and several smaller distances.  I remember being impressed by Lowell's cycling feat, but also a little wary.  I could never imagine myself riding that far.

And thus, as with every other competitive athletic event in my life (i.e. marathons), I'm riding in El Tour!  Since the event is so close, I am only doing the 40-miler.  However, this distance will surpass anything I've done on a bike so far.  My friend Heather messaged me on Saturday night and asked if I would be interested. Sure, why not?

I met Heather and her fiance Tony for a 20 mile ride on Sunday morning.  We took a leisurely ride through the foothills of Ahwatukee.    Leisurely, except for the massive hills and three flat tires.  I even managed to pop a tube while I was inflating it.  On closer inspection, I did find small piece of glass lodged in my tire, but that little bugger was hard to discover!  Running my hand on the inside of the tire found nothing.  I had to inflate my old tube, dunk it in a bucket of water, find out where the puncture on the tube was and then closely inspect the corresponding point on the tire.  I never have to do this much work for running!  Well, except run.

Finally, I took the last step to being a serious cyclist:

Installing my cleats.

Awesome bike shoes!  There goes my super easy bike to run transition.  Hopefully I'll make up for it with sheer speed.

I installed clip-less pedals!

Now I get to practice falling on my butt.  It's me...  you know it's going to happen.