Do Something That Scares You...

Monday mornings, it's a no brainer. We always have staff meetings and on the agenda my bosses always have an inspiring quote at the top of the page. Well today, we were charged with "Do something that scares you!" Well, as I sit here typing this new update, I'm icing my knee with frozen vegetables. You see, for a while now, I've been meaning to learn to ride my new road bike with clip-in pedals. I've used my clip-in shoes many times in spin class, but there's safety in that... umm, it's stationary. Tonight, I was determined that I would learn to clip in my right foot, pedal forward, and get enough momentum to clip in my left. It was recommended to me trying this out in the grass first, and I'm glad I did. I'm also quite sure it made it more difficult. You don't get enough speed or balance to really get going, but it does make for a softer fall. I'm sure my bruises tomorrow will hurt, but I did conquer getting on my bike about 3 times tonight. I feel like I'm seven years old all over again with the anxiety, the unsteadiness of the wheel and then of course, the pain and tears that came from falling. Now, you may ask what led up to this nervousness of this task...and the answer is quite simple: Everyone has told me horror stories of their first falls. "Oh, I smacked myself into the side of a truck!" or "I didn't even leave the driveway before falling." Great.....

So, I came to defeating this task by small baby steps. First off, I did a few 30 mile rides just to get used to my bike. I listened to words of encouragement that wearing these "super shoes" would make the ride much easier. After being convinced, I knew it was time to take it to the next level. I had my husband take off my old school pedals and replace them with clip-ins. I've looked at my bike every day for about two weeks and have simply walked away from it and found other things to do. So, today I took their advice and went for it. After many tries and much frustration, I did succeed a few times and then called it a night. Skye could tell that I was not going to quit until I figured it out. What did I achieve tonight? As Obama would say....a little thing called "Progress."