Like Riding a Bike, Part I

I never learned how to ride a bicycle growing up.

I tried. I rode my bike with training wheels and I loved it. When my parents took the training wheels off, they told me, "it's exactly the same, just ride like you always do."

It wasn't, and I was a stubborn little kid, so I pretty much stopped trying after that.

In high school, my classmates went on a field trip to Block Island. Everyone bikes around Block Island. I tried to learn again before that. This time I was able to get moving without training wheels, but I could only go in tiny little circles, I couldn't go straight. I decided not to go on the field trip.

I grew up swimming competitively. I swam for the Bay and Ocean State Squids, which doesn't exist anymore (there's some history in that link) but used to be one of the top swim clubs in New England. I was an OK swimmer. I was never fast enough to swim for Maryland, which is why I started running, but I was OK. I swam a 5:42 500 free and a 2:40 200 fly LCM (2:23 SCY). The 200 fly was my favorite, but I liked distance freestyle. I did the Save the Bay swim (1.8 miles open water) twice.

Me and my family after Save the Bay 2007

So everyone who ever knew this about me would be like, "you should do a triathlon!" Then I'd say, "I don't know how to ride a bike." They'd interpret that as "I don't know how to race a bike" and start telling me that "the bike is the easy part." After like ten minutes I'd finally convince them I literally couldn't ride a bicycle. At all. Without falling over.

Enter Cascade Bicycle Club. At age 24, I finally got sick of this dialogue and decided I needed to learn how to ride a bike so that I could do a triathlon. I took lessons.

The formal environment really helped me. Most adults who learned how to ride as children take it for granted. When you ask them how to ride, they say they just kind of ride, "if you go fast you won't fall," "it's easy," "you just have to do it," "my older brother just pushed me down a hill; I can do the same thing for you if you want." I could say the same thing for swimming, which is honestly so ingrained in my memory from childhood that it's like walking to me, muscle memory, smooth and easy.

But I don't. I teach people all the time. And I never do that. I break it down.

So William Gerdes had me balance in place on the bike. He had me start and stop. Then start and pedal and stop. Downhill. Uphill. Then turn. Then shift gears. Turns were terrifying. Everything was terrifying. I screamed a lot. But I kind of like being scared.

I bought a bike.

Raleigh Detour

It was the most stable bike ever. It felt like it had training wheels on it.

In between lessons, I brought my bike to a parking lot like a little kid, and I practiced starting and stopping and turning and shifting. 

I took the Back to Basics course. There were other adults who were new to riding or riding again for the first time in a long time. That was cool.

Eventually, muscle memory kicked in, and I could just kind of do it. But I was still scared of riding my bike anywhere. There were cars. I didn't know how to signal without falling over. How was I supposed to ride my bike in the street with cars? I bought a car rack and drove my bike down to the Burke-Gilman Trail. I rode my bike for a few miles, turned around, rode back, and then drove my bike home. It felt ridiculous.

I got an email from William that Cascade was trying out a 1:1 mentorship program to bridge the gap between Back to Basics and Urban Cycling Techniques. He thought I was a good candidate. I said yes.

Michele Finkelstein was my mentor. We met up and did things I didn't feel comfortable doing alone. We rode in the street, from my place to the Burke-Gilman Trail. We locked our bikes on racks. Put our bikes on the bus rack. Signaled and signaled and signaled until it felt comfortable. I kept practicing on my own.

One morning, Michele rode with me to work. Then I racked my bike.

Shut up, I didn't know it was the wrong way, I fixed it later

I was going to bus home, but it was a Friday and I had the time so I was like, you know what, why don't I just ride home too? So I did. 

I stopped working with Michele and kept riding alone. I took Urban Cycling Techniques. I was probably the least experienced person in the course, but everything I learned was super useful, and I left really feeling comfortable riding in the city. I also learned some cool tricks I think most of my friends who have always been riding don't even know, like how to counter-steer to quickly turn and avoid colliding with an object and how to brake super quickly in an emergency without the back of your bike coming up.

I moved closer to work. I started riding to work every so often. I tried to get out on my bike every week. I signed up for a triathlon.

All of my serious triathlete friends told me to just use the bike I have and have fun for my first triathlon. So I didn't do any triathlon training. I kept running like I always do, I swam a few times to make sure I could still cover the distance, and I kept riding my bike every week. I never tried to ride my bike fast.

The triathlon went well. I surprised myself. It was fun, too. I'll write a race report soon.