Our Training Ride

The weather finally broke, which was good because we had planned on doing our shakedown ride today. Originally unsure about my ability to ride the mere 30 miles, I quickly felt confidence as I survived the first hill out of the village.

Although I had tried clipless pedals on the trainer, I had read somewhere that it wasn’t a good way to learn to use them. Skeptic that I am, I don’t believe everything that I read or hear. I thought that I really got the knack of using the clipless on the trainer and am certain that it saved me from any falls.

I really like the clipless system for a few reasons:

I have an advantage climbing hills. Pulling up on the pedals helps me a lot.
It seems that toe clips always hurt my toes and top of my feet. That doesn’t happen with clipless.

Our ride was only 30 miles with 299 feet of climbing. I may see if I can figure out how much climbing there is between Astoria and Westport, just to torture myself.

This was the first outing on my new Trek 520. It is definitely a nicer ride than my Specialized Hybrid.

As soon as we got home, it was time to disassemble the bikes and put them in boxes for FedEx. They say that they will arrive in Astoria in 5 business days. We will arrive in 6 business days.