When my husband Wayne and I turned 50 we decided to take up road biking. We wanted to find something we could enjoy together. We loved riding our tandem bike for years, but once Wayne got dizzy the tandem was no longer an option. It was hard enough keeping himself upright, let alone a long bicycle built for two. We purchased good bikes, got our biking spandex and 3 weeks later we were doing our first 50 miles around Bear Lake. It was hard, but we did it. When Wayne and I got home from riding around Bear Lake he was pretty confident that it was time for us to trade our regular bike pedals in and get fancy pedal clips and special shoes instead. I was a bit hesitant, but as usual I jumped in feet first and got clips and shoes as well.
This is a huge step in the biking world.
We tried them out at the bike store and clipped in and out over and over to get the feel of it. To clip out you have to yank your heel away from the bike and then the clip releases. This was hard for me. We had a "lesson" on the track at the Jr. High. We clipped in and clipped out and rode around and around. We got our confidence built up. It was a lot easier clipping in while riding, instead of trying to do it at the bike store, that's for sure and yanking my heel to release the clip was a process, but with a good strong yank, it was doable.
We read a lot about technique and the best way to do this, but we were warned over and over that we would probably fall. Once or twice. I thought, "Really? This isn't that hard."
Time for the open road.
Day one: No problem. Of course, we didn't stop very much, but when we did one shoe clipped out and we leaned to the right while our left shoe was still clipped in and we were safe.
Day two: Disaster strikes. We were heading to the stop on Davis Boulevard a busy road with an even busier cross road called Val Verda. Wayne comes to a stop, clips out his right foot. I stop and clip out my right foot. There is a car across from us, there is a car behind us and many cars coming down the hill. Then, in what feels like slow motion, Wayne (who has balance issues) begins leaning toward his left and falls to the pavement while I yell out..... "Wayne" and reach to my left, which then affects my balance. I fall on top of Wayne and his bike. We are like two turtles on their backs because our left feet are hooked to the bike pedals. We were stuck.
Once we assessed that we were mostly all right-- just a skinned knee, skinned elbow, bruised thigh, greasy shins, bruised ego. I couldn't stop laughing. Wayne did not think it as funny as I did. I couldn't get my left shoe unclipped from my bike so I could get off of Wayne and we could get up. We were stuck, trapped while I struggled with my shoe clip and car after car just had to go out around us. I wasn't making any type of eye contact with the drivers. They wanted to know if we were okay....I think the laughter let them know we were. Wayne was fuming and I finally took my shoe off since I couldn't unclip it and was then able to get off of Wayne and stand up which enabled Wayne to get his shoe unclipped and stand up and move our bikes off to the side of the road. Still no eye contact from me, only humiliated laughter. I kept saying, "Just move along folks. Nothing to see here"...except two embarrassed bikers.
Once standing up I couldn't unclip my shoe off of the bike, even with my hands. Wayne had to pop it off for me, then I was able to put it back on, clip in and we rode off back home..but not before the Mr. brown-car-guy, who saw the entire thing happen, came back around the block to check on us again. He gave us a two thumbs up.
I am laughing even while I write this. It should be on America's Funniest...but I am glad that no one caught us on video. We were basically stopped, and then just, fell over, just like that, and then we were stuck.
When is the last time you were stuck? Trapped? Embarrassed? Feeling like there was no way out?
Is it today?
What about when you decided on something you wanted to do and you were so excited about for a bit and then couldn't figure out how to move forward with it or what to do next?
Our brains like to keep us STUCK.
It's easier for our brain if we stay stuck in lower brain mode of avoid pain, seek instant gratification and do everything as easy as possible, than to move forward, grow and evolve in higher brain mode. Growth is uncomfortable, but it's worth it.
Get unstuck. Get on a FREE mini session. Don't let your brain talk you out of it.
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