Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Fall to the left

I took my bike in Sunday afternoon to be fixed. Turns out the part that was broken is a derailleur hanger. I picked up my bike last night and the repair cost a little over $50.

Earlier tonight I met with my tri training group. The workout was supposed to be a ride-run-ride-run-ride-run so we could practice transition. I was a little nervous about clipping in and was the last to take off, but I made it without any incident and had a great 25-minute-ish ride, even on the hills. Next was a 2.5 mile loop around the lake. It's the same course that we'll be running for the tri, except during the race we do it twice. I was happy my left knee didn't bother me today, but the pain seems to be shifting over to my right achilles again.

Anyway, I got back to our transition area and prepared to take off on my bike again. And that's when disaster struck. For some reason I didn't have enough momentum to take off and so instead of moving forward my bike just stayed put and then since my right foot was clipped in I toppeled over. I may not have this clipless pedal thing down yet, but I'm getting pretty darn good at falling. No scratches this time, just a couple more bruises.

It's just so frustrating that I feel like I'm clipping in the same way but getting a different result each time.      I managed to get back up and try again and was able to stay upright that time. Woo-hoo! And then I discovered another problem. My bike wasn't behaving properly as I tried to shift gears. In non-technical terms (since that's all I know), there was too much jumping and clicking. I got off to look at the chain, even though I had no idea what I was looking for. Everything looked okay to my naive eye so I got on and tried riding again, but now there was a lot of clicking even when I wasn't shifting. I had no desire to become an expert at falling while in motion so instead I turned around and headed back to the transition area again.

Our coach informed me that my rear derailleur was bent and I should probably have it replaced. Apparently it's a fairly fragile part. Since it's located on the right side of the bike, and I have a tendency to fall to the right, apparently I'm not only one getting banged up when I fall. So that was the end of my workout for the night. I feel like I have bad bike karma or something. My last three bike workouts have all ended up getting cut short. At least I was able to get to the bike shop just before they closed and hopefully I'll be able to pick it up Friday as long as they have the part.

With the three-day weekend coming up, I think I better schedule in some quality time in the parking lot and just practicing clipping in and out, in and out, over and over again until I'm thoroughly bored... and then do it some more. Now that I know falling hurts not only me but also my bike, and as a result my pocketbook, I have even more reason to not want to take any more spills. Either that, or I guess I should learn how to fall to the left instead of the right!

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