ok...so i got into biking oh about almost a year now. my husband has been a cyclist (mountian) for most of his life. and he kinda got me into it and for most of the time i have been riding i was doing it because he wanted me too. so now i am wanting to do it for myself!! i havent been on my bike in about 3 months and right before i stopped riding we got me clipless shoes to go with an extra set of peddles my husband had. i got on the trainer once with them 3 months ago. so now i am wanting to get into for the right reasons, i am a bigger girl so we went looking for bike clothes to fit me and that is how i came apon this site. but anywho back to the story....

ok so tonight was the first night i had been back on my bike. i was initally going to get on the trainer and practice, but my husband called me on my way home from work and i decided to go with him. well we went out to the park and i asked him to help me practice with clipping in....he did once. so then i was too nervous to start riding, and i was getting alittle frusterated with him not being helpful. so we went to the playground where they had padding under soft mulch. this helped me not to be as scared of falling. so i started practicing and got it once then went to stop. i had one foot unclipped but the other wouldnt come when i stopped and i fell (right in frount of a bunch of kids!) but it didnt hurt too bad except i hit my head on the slide(yes i had my helmet on). so i kept going and almost fell again. then the last time i got it and was doing good then i tried to start coming to a stop and neither foot would unclip! and because of the soft mulch it slowed my bike down so much that i just fell. it was a hard one too. yeah you tend to find that soft mulch still hurts! and to make it better i have bad knees from growing as a catcher in softball. and my left one has a pocket of fluid. well my bike slammed into that pocket of fluid and the mulch cut me some. it wasn't that bad except the fluid in my knee. so we stopped then. but i am not as scared of fallling...the practicing falling on your bike helps. maybe you should try falling on to soft grass or something like on a playground. it helps and it doesnt hurt as much.

sandy