I'm having a love/hate relationship with cycling. Well...not hate so much as aggravation.

Anyway, I bought a road bike earlier this year because I have friends who are into cycling and I've been wanting to ride a century, so I signed up with TNT. The friend thing has fizzled out since they live about an hours drive away and we've had trouble scheduling, so we've only gone on a handful of rides together. As for TNT, I didn't make the fundraising so I had to drop out. I wasn't crazy about the group of people I was with there, so it wasn't too big a loss. I was getting really discouraged about the whole thing.

Today I finally went out to meet up with a local cycling club. It was a very nice experience. They had a newbie safety meeting before the ride and I think I got more info in a few hours with them than I did with several weeks worth of rides with TNT. The people I saw seemed about a generation older than me, but they said they have 500+ members, so I'm sure the age range is pretty wide and its a matter of who shows up for what rides. I almost didn't go because last night I had a fight with my serfas floor pump that ended up with it going back to REI and a planet bike pump coming home with me.

The equipment upkeep aggravates me. I'm sure when I get more adept at everything I'll be less aggravated. I also had a hard time clipping into my pedals today. This was the first time I went on a longish ride with the clipless pedals, and finding the place to line them up with the cleats was a challenge. I'm sure that's something else that takes practice. I will say I feel a little more hopeful about having others to ride with now. My Saturdays are not completely open, but I think I can squeeze in one or two rides per month with this group. They seem very social, as opposed to the hard-core groups I see around. There are different length rides to choose from and they stop for coffee in the middle of the rides. I'm not sure if that's standard for cycle clubs or if this one is unusual, but I think it's a nice thing to do. So...we'll see how it shakes out.