Over My Head (Again)

I have a nice tendency for getting into things I can't handle. Take Mrs. GVB for example...Or the time my friend let me drive his Audi TT.

Hi, this car can do things I've only seen in movies. Same goes for Mrs. GVB. Sadly, I have this constant feeling that there are capabilities there I am not able to take advantage of. The car or the wife? (This is where everyone who has met Mrs. GVB says, Yup. She's WAY too much for you.) Thanks.

Which brings me to this new bike of mine. I set out today to start breaking her in and to (god forbid) get a little workout in. There is a nice 25 mile loop from Casa GVB out east across the valley, south to the Snohomish delta, and back up to the house. A few small hills, but mostly flat or small grades.

Out of the driveway and down the hill toward I-5. I'm using my Garmin Forerunner to help check the calibration of the computer on the bike. Calibration is fine, apparently, since they both quickly climbed to 26 mph and beyond.

This damn thing is fast. Faster than I can ride, that's for sure.

And it's geared to climb straight uphill. I abandoned my planned route to try a steep 1 mile hill just to see how it went. It's still work, obviously, but she just spins right up there.

Coming down the other side scared the piss out of me. 33 mph without trying. I don't think I've ever squeezed ANYTHING between my legs that hard before.

All of this in the first 6 miles.

By the time I made the last turn toward home, I had settled down a little bit and was getting more comfortable with things. She's a little aggressive (like Mrs. GVB, actually) but once I learned to anticipate that, it wasn't as scary. At first just switching hand positions from the brake hoods down to the bars was sketchy (going the other way was worse, actually), but I mostly got over that.

An online review of this bike I read mentioned something about "not wanting to let go of the bars". Now I get it. The search for new cycling shoes and a new saddle will commence soon.

She's a lot to grow into. Weather permitting I'll trade bike and run days this week, with the new goal of running the SeaFair half marathon on July 9th (with a couple of smaller races in between such as the SunRun and Beat the Bridge).

Tomorrow morning I'll do a fast 5 mile in the shoes. Tuesday looks like the gym. Other than that...Cap'n? What's the plan? Don't you have a race to train for?