Seriously, no clue! I did not learn how to ride a bike as other regular kids do.
When I was 9 years old, I had just left the training wheels and took my first attempt in my brother's bike in a parking lot. I found myself going straight to a lightning pole and as a magnet, I could not help aiming towards it, in a freaking huge parking lot!!! so, at the last second, I missed the frontal collision, but I still freaked out, left the grips and embraced the pole without hitting the brakes.
Well I guess you can imagine it did not end pretty.... not serious injuries, but that experience was scary enough for me to declare, I was or was never ever gonna be good at riding bikes, and I thought that was the end of it.
Until I decided it was not... two years ago!
Two months before the fancy expensive purchase of the road bike, I made a personal agreement. I was going to learn something new, and I wanted to defeat my fear of bikes.
At first I bought a cheap one, that I liked because it was purple. I did not know a thing about shifting gears, or braking, or not embracing myself to lighting poles while riding a bike. I was terrified, but at the same time assumed the challenge and went for it.
My plan was to start going to work in my bike, so I needed to learn how to ride it... and I was not living with my hubby at that time, so I just went to Walmart on a Saturday morning, looked at the bikes and said, I want the purple one!... as if buying a new scarf or a can of soup. Just another item in my grocery list.
And put the thing on a borrowed truck, because I had decided I was going to get myself a bike.
At first it was terrifying. I could barely move the pedals without losing balance, but little by little got a hang on it. I was still scared with people passing two meters away from me, or cars driving next to me.
One morning, I finally felt ready to hit the road and cover the 3 miles to work on my bike, I secured the helmet, left home 30 minutes earlier and closed the door behind me with a heart that was beating so loud I could swear it woke up my neighbor.
Flash forward 2 months: Specialized bike store... Frank talking to the sales man about carbon fiber, pedals, tires, saddles, forks, crank sets, and me staring at him wondering if I was really going to spend thousand of dollars on a bike, after my less than a hundred bucks Walmart purchase!
He finally saw the ones he wanted, and with the blink of an eye we had 2 road bikes, black -not purple!!!- in the middle of the entry hallway of our tiny one room apartment!
The first time we went out, he took me to a slow road, and I had to learn to clip and unclip my bike shoes... easy said, not so easy done... I knew that once I clipped my shoes to the bike I would be attached to it, without a chance to put my foot back on safe ground, so it was scary! very scary.
The second time we went out, he took me to a mountain, the mountain that professional bikers around here go to for their workouts, with a distance of 6.5 km and an elevation range of 395 mts - that, my friends, is a very steep slope - specially for a newbie like me!, oh boy!!! my ambitious husband, he believes in my athletic abilities, more than I do!
I was terrified, like holding-my-grips-so-tight-my-hands-will-cramp terrified... dealing with cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles going fast and very close to me, and could take it for only half way, my heart rate was so high I could barely breath and my legs were burning like crazy.
So the third time, he figured a plan to get me to the top of the hill... he attached an elastic band from the back of his bike to the front of mine, and he pretty much pulled me all the way up... I do believe in his fitness abilities, he's a monster on that bike!
It was a sweet gesture from him, and I was capable of enjoying the ride, since the effort was reduced to half for me!- although the competitive one in me felt a little bit frustrated for not doing it by myself-
Flash forward other three months: I was doing my first triathlon, crazy? yes, and I enjoyed every second of it. It was one of my greatest achievements, because I could ride my bike in a competitive pace, I looked convincing the whole 15 miles, I felt strong and healthy, but most important I did not fall, crash, or had any type of encounters with lighting poles.
Overcoming that fear has meant a lot to me, and although I am still learning how to ride my bike standing up, and I am too scared to release one hand in order to drink water (I still need traffic lights and get easily dehydrated in long distances), I know that the feeling of accomplishment and overcoming that fear, has been one of the biggest, toughest, sweetest challenges of my life.
