Racer Ex 

What part of OK are you in? Raced up there a fair bit when I was in Texas and have several friends in the area.

IBOHUNT

Welcome...
I wish I could even remember 44.

YogaKat

I'm right here in Okc.

revchuck 

Emptied a lot of Mason jars that year?

revchuck 

Just wanted to add my welcome to everyone else's!

You're young enough to be my daughter. Don't even try to play the "old" card around here, young lady!

YogaKat

I'm liking you all more and more.

IBOHUNT

"that"?
Started long before that son...

Heathpack 

Hey, @YogaKat, are you a yoga instructor?

YogaKat

No, just a practitioner. I practice solo at home with a couple of videos of vinyasa style that I like. Over the years, I have gotten to the point where I will do a mix of the two routines in more of a freestyle session.

In a class, I find it difficult to suppress my competitive tendencies which is really the opposite of what yoga is about to me.

Heathpack 

Aw, too bad. I was going to invite you to the BF Masters Racing Breckenridge Training Camp as our official yoga instructor.

(This is a joke. I am going on vacation to Breckenridge next June and I am trying to get people from this forum to go at the same time so that we can do some rides together.)

Writing this post between forward folds and down dogs and cow-cats in my hotel room. Skipped yoga class two weeks in a row and I'm suddenly super-stiff and sore in the lower back. Go figure.

What is your cycling story? You just got into it? What made you start? What kind of riding do you do? What kind of bike do you have? Who do you ride with? What kind of racing appeals to you? What about racing appeals to you?

YogaKat

Namaste @Heathpack


You just got into it?
Yes, if you don't count riding around the town when I was about 12 years old I just began on August 10th.

What made you start?
Might be TMI, but I struggle with depression. Finally got on the right med and completed some good old therapy so upon feeling like a functional human being again, I decided to get on my daughter's bike and ride around the neighborhood to get some sunshine and exercise. I realized that her little bike was going to kill my knees so I ran up to Walmart and haggled them down from 99.97 to 85.00 on a Huffy Cranbrook and was so very proud of my almost 3 miles that day. Little did I know what I had gotten myself into, huh?

What kind of riding do you do?
Mainly I take a two hour lunch break and ride the bike trails locally. I have a little traffic to get to one of them, but I've gotten comfortable with that so sometimes I will run quick errands on my bike too. I like the weekends because I have more time to ride without having to worry about the time so much

Last Saturday some friends of mine invited me to the Hills of Oklahoma Tour. We turned a 44 mile tour of 2217 elevation gain, into 54 miles by missing a turn. It was brutal but amazing!

What kind of bike do you have?
A pretty Lilac Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser and as of yesterday an old late 80s model Bridgestone Sirius 300. Planning on looking for a fancy ride after the holidays.

Who do you ride with?
Myself if you don't count my mapmyride friends and our little fun challenges.

What kind of racing appeals to you?
I'm really not sure yet. I'm thinking more of longer distance?

What about racing appeals to you?
I tend to be a little competitive and love the feeling of accomplishment.

chasm54

It's going to be a fun journey. A 54 mile ride, with >2200ft of gain, is an interesting proposition for a brand new cyclist on a singlespeed cruiser. I'd say you're going to do fine. Be careful about asking our advice when you choose your road bike, we'll have you on the most aero and expensve machine on the market.

Don't worry about the TMI. We're all unusual in here. Speaking for myself, cycling is a big factor in maintaining my mental health. I get vaguely depressed and lethargic when I don't ride regularly. Off bike = vicious circle. On bike = virtuous circle. And, of course, the bike is all that stands between me and morbid obesity. LOL.

YogaKat

Regarding the advice, I kind of gathered that from what I've seen so far. haha

Regarding mental health, I have been pondering trying to set up a charity bicycling event to benefit NAMI perhaps sometime next year. I did the Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention walk not long ago and it was a very special experience.

sarals 

Me?

You're young enough to be my son, whippersnapper...

revchuck 

That was directed at YogaKat. My RA is 64.

YogaKat

Get of my lawnnnn!

sarals 

Lol!!!

Heathpack 

@Yogacat, I'm a fairly new cyclist myself, you will figure it out. I went from a $37.50 mountain bike that I bought at a garage sale to a $600 entry level woman's road bike to now three nice road bikes and a time trial bike. That has taken me three years.

The key in my opinion is surrounding yourself with good people and more importantly listening to their good advice. Join a cycling club, ride with other people, find a good bike shop (easier said than done) & cultivate that relationship, read and post on bike forums (where there is a huge amount of static but also some really helpful & knowledge people).

Before you think about racing or organizing a charity ride, just focus on riding your bike for awhile. Buy a bike computer, join Strava and just ride for around 2000 miles or so. Get to know your strengths and weaknesses. Formulate a game plan as to what you'd like to do. I'd recommend starting with some challenging non-competitive events- test yourself against yourself before you attempt to test yourself against others.

Welcome to the world of cycling. It's something that will make your life better.

chasm54

LOL, @Heathpack, that's exactly what I told her in another thread - even down to choosing a couple of thousand miles as the distance. You're clearly a highly intelligent woman.

YogaKat

Very good advice Heathpack. I am working on a lot of what you mentioned. It seems that the local bike club is winding down for the season, but hoping to get involved in the spring. (I do plan to continue riding in the winter and have a stationary trainer for days that we have ice storms.)

I have a friend IRL that does triathlons that has really challenged me as well as has given me some good advice and I got to ride with him and another friend of mine at the Hills of Oklahoma Tour since they live about an hour and half away. Regarding this forum, I'm soaking up as much info as I can and as far as the static I tend to find it humorous. I have a twisted sense of humor in that way. Also starting to scope out the local shops, one of which is where I found my Sirius for next to nothing (for obvious reasons I know.) lol

I do agree that I'm not close to the racing game but I see that as more of a long time goal. I would like to do more tours in the meantime. That was truly one wonderful and painful day! lol

I've been using mapmyride, but joined Stava and used both apps on today's ride. I did 27 miles on the new bike and found muscles that my cruiser doesn't use, started learning to use my gears. I also learned the reason cyclist use gloves. Ouch!

Thanks for the warm welcome and the excellent advice.

@chasm54 has really been a great help since I've joined BF as well.

Heathpack 

Heathpack 

I moved to a town with great bike paths. I said to myself "I really should take advantage of that." Then our across the street neighbors moved and we bought their old 1980's mountain bikes at their garage sale. Kind of not too much fun, the bikes were heavy and crappy, I stopped riding for awhile. I decided to give it another chance and I bought an entry-level Trek for $600. *That* was much better.

I had a friend who knew more about cycling than I and she had just bought a new road bike after not riding for a few years. We rode together and she mentioned she always had a goal of riding a century. I had no idea what that was, but once she explained it, it sounded way too ambitious to me. We decided to go for a metric century instead and trained for around 3 months for that.

It went well but again I stopped riding for a bit afterward. I wanted to be faster but had no idea how to accomplish that so I started to lose interest. To rekindle my interest, I set the goal of riding a century about six months later. I started reading about training and posting questions on BF. Eventually I figured out that I had a bad bike fit and could use a better bike and it also that it would behoove me to develop a wider circle of cycling friends. I wound up going to an elite fitter (I did not know he was that elite when I went, I would have been too intimidated had I known). But we hit it off very well and that gave me a real leg up on equipment and I had a perfect fit. I found a great beginner cycling group. I bought an awesome bike which was so much better that it seemed like magic. Haha, this is the bike that I now refer to as the Magic Bike and I had a lot of my friends convinced for a while that it really *was* magic.

The century went well and then another hillier one and then an outright climbing one, maybe over a 4 month period of time. It turns out I naturally have good endurance. I was looking for more endurance riding friends, so I joined a club with a big endurance component with the goal of riding a double century.

After the third century, I went off climbing with a friend who put the Magic Bike into his roof rack wrong and the front fork was damaged. There was a big wait to get a spare fork and I freaked out. The fork got replaced pretty quickly in the end, but I decided for peace of mind, I was the type of person who really should have a spare road bike. So I bought my back up bike, a used Trek Madone. Someone asked me on BF what it was like to ride. I said it rides like a sparrow. So that bike is officially the Sparrow. Sweet bike.

Posted more on BF and started to make some pretty good friends here. It was suggested I get a power meter, which I did. That led to hiring a coach who turned out to be terrible. But I still got through the double century, then got connected with my current coach who is perfect for me.

Big goal rides this past spring were a series of climbing century plus rides, I wanted to place in the top 10 for the series and I placed 9th. Those were the hardest rides I've ever done. I asked my coach if there was anything else he thought I should try and he suggested a time trial. So in June I rode our local time trial on my road bike and came in 2nd out of 5 women. That was pretty cool, the TT effort is somewhat similar to a climbing ride in physiology but it is very different mentally plus it's very technical. Loved that too and of course I bought a TT bike in order to ride a TT series that runs Sept to April. So far, I've ridden two TTs on the new bike and they've gone well, although the competition has been minimal. I missed one of the races in the series already and there's some very experienced and bad-ass women in that. Due to a scoring fluke, I'm currently tied for first place. That won't last but it's kind of nice in the meantime.

Mostly I just discovered that I loved riding bikes, almost everything about it. I also really like the training process and figuring out how to prep for something. And by personality, I like to do things right, so I delve pretty deeply into trying to understand whatever I do. Cycling just completely suits me. It's a great sport for a lot of people, because there are so many directions you can go with it.

YogaKat

Thank you so much for sharing. What a great story you have, it is very inspirational. I love that you have a magic bike.

IBOHUNT

Anybody ever wonder if woodpeckers get headache's?
Spent 2 hours in a tree yesterday and had a bunch of those knuckleheads around.

revchuck 

It'd cover the sound of you nocking an arrow, eh?