What got you into biking?

[WindingRoad]

Life Crisis. Yeah that's what prompted me to start riding. I had ended an eleven year relationship, become very unhealthy and was at the jumping off point pretty much. Not to mention I had just moved to a large city and wasn't comfortable with that yet, see I'm from a very small town, people scary. Ironically by some twist of fate, I ended up in a bike shop. It was the same bike shop I went to as a kid with my mom and dad so there was always the 'happy' effect when I went there. I was just skulking around the showroom floor and reminiscing in my mind when the owner approached me and started asking me about what I wanted. I had no idea but somehow I ended up trying out a Giant OCR3 road bike. I rode in around the parking lot and it was strange how quickly I felt at home on that bike. Guess it reminded me of my old twelve speed Rally I had when I was a kid. Whatever it was it made me happy when I rode it. It was expensive for me at the time so I had to make a few payments before it was officially mine to take home. I came to 'visit' it and ride it around the parking lot a few times in the meantime. They probably thought I was completely mad thinking about this now . I finally paid it off and brought it home. I think I stared at it in the living room for the first three days because it looked so cool, LOL. Somewhere along the journey I discovered this new thing called "group rides". After battling the urge to chicken out as I had done numerous other times, one morning I actually went to one of these rides and met some really nice people. I rode that bike over 2,000 miles the summer of 2006 on group rides and had so much fun, made new friends and got in incredible shape. It truly was one of the greatest times in my life. I had regained my physique, my courage and a social life. I'm very grateful for the nice people in my local cycling club they have no idea what they did for me that summer.

[jobob]

I started riding sometime in 2002 (although I used to bike a lot in junior high & high school, mainly just to get around though, before I got my drivers license. ).

My husband and I were both seriously overweight (I still have a picture from 2002 that I use to remind ourselves just how fat we had become - aack!). So along with watching our diets we decided we’d start biking, so we both bought hybrid bikes.

We're fortunate enough to have a great place to bike. We live near the Alameda Creek Trail, a multi-use trail that runs along both sides of Alameda Creek from the Niles District in Fremont to the San Francisco Bay near the Dumbarton Bridge. It’s a paved trail on one side, and mostly dirt trail on the other. Near the bay end, the paved side connects to a paved trail that goes around Coyote Hills Park, with a few very gentle climbs (and one optional short yet steep climb).

I was so timid at first that more often than not we rode on the unpaved side of the AC Trail - all those fast racer guys & girls whizzing by really frightened me! After a while I got used to riding on the “scary” paved side, though.

We were really enjoying going out on rides together. And the Alameda Creek Trail was a really nice ride. There were a couple of parks along the trail -- Quarry Park was a fave -- and we’d pack some sandwiches and make a day of it. Heck we did some 20 mile rides sometimes !

Boy in the beginning we were really huffing and puffing over those hills in Coyote Hills Park! (Lee more so than me. He had a lot more weight to lug around ) Yeah, I get a chuckle when I ride over those hills nowadays -- they're now molehills instead of mountains

Lee really took to this riding thing, much more than I. He managed to lose about 50 pounds -- not just from the riding of course, but it sure helped. Over time he got a couple of used bikes (one a Bridgestone RB-2) and started toodling around a lot more.

In the fall of 2003 Lee started lusting over a road bike called a Romulus built by a company called Rivendell. We both thought it cost a ridiculous amount of money -- $1400 for a bicycle?!?! Get real! -- but all the riding Lee was doing was really doing wonders for him, he was losing lots of weight and getting fit, and he really enjoyed it, and if the Romuus would keep him interested in biking then I thought it would be well worth the money.

So, at my urging (some may say nagging!) Lee bought himself a Romulus. And he really took to it. So now we’d go out, he riding his Romulus and me riding my clunky hybrid. Which was still OK, but then I got thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to go on longer rides?

I tried his Romulus (we're about the same height) and it was really creepy for me at first but then I started to really like riding it. And I started thinking of getting a road bike of my own.

Right around then I came across a notice for a training ride program for women put on by a local cycling club, intended to improve mechanical and road riding skills and to build endurance for longer rides, culminating in the Cinderella Century, an all-women’s metric century in our area.

Oh, and I also came across TE around then. Here’s my very first post on TE.
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=842
It's kind of fun reading the replies - little did I know what I was getting myself into.

Soon thereafter I bought myself a Romulus just like Lee’s (thanks in very large part to the urging from my new TE friends )

I met snap and mellissam on that Cinderella Training Series, and, mostly through TE, I met a lot of other great folks on rides in my area (you’ve seen the list on the other thread ) and made lots of friendships that have continued on to this day.

And thanks in large part to the support and encouragement of those friends and you folks on TE, I'm a much stronger rider today and I still really love to ride.

Cheers, gang!

[maillotpois]

What a fun thread!

I started riding in January 2001 (after years of spinning and riding a MTB a bit). My husband and I signed up to do a century with TNT. I'd done 3 marathons with them, and am a terrible runner and honestly I really don't much like running. My husband had ridden in college, etc., but he was seriously out of shape. (He got into a LOT better shape a few years after we started riding.)

When I started riding I was amazed that I wasn't always last anymore like I was as a runner (at least I wasn't always last til the first time I did the Death Ride a year later ). I never considered myself an athlete til I started riding a bike. I stink at ball sports and was in remedial PE when I was in elementary school (that's back when they had funding for that sort of thing.) Now I definitely consider myself an endurance athlete. I started coaching the TNT century program in 2002, and have been coaching the Death Ride for TNT for about 4 years now. I really enjoy seeing other people exceed their endurance cycling expectations.

[Veronica]

In 1988 or so Thom said, "Let's get mountain bikes." So we did. We did lots of 20 - 30 mile rides down near San Diego, some road, some off road.

Then in 1990 Thom got of the Marines and we moved up to the Bay area. After one HORRIBLE ride at Henry Coe I decided I didn't much like off road riding. I don't remember what made it so horrible. I know it was hot, sandy, the parts that weren't sandy were above my ability. So we soon put slicks on the mountain bikes. We did lots of road rides in the Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Saratoga area and eventually did a self supported tour from Sunnyvale to Santa Barbara in 1993. That was awesome and I want to do it again.

Then in 1994 we bought a house and stopped riding. We needed to do things around the house. We didn't feel like the riding around here was great. It didn't help that I had a beer bottle thrown at me. And I HATE beer. So the bikes sat in the garage. We got into woodworking and sailing.

For some reason the school year of 2000-2001 really stressed me out. It wasn't my kids. It was changes in the district and the various committees I was on. I think I gained nearly 20 pounds in that school year. I ate chocolate constantly. In June of 2001 I weighed 180 pounds and could not fit into my size 12 clothes. Being a 12 was okay. I was in my mid thirties, married, carrying some extra weight was no big deal. But size 14 in my head meant I was fat. By the end of 2001 I had lost about 25 pounds by doing Spin classes and swimming. At work I only ate what I brought. The chocolate on the school secretary's desk was off limits.

Somewhere in there we got a postcard from TNT advertising tri training. I tried to talk Thom into it, but six years in the Marines really soured him on running. But they also talked about different century rides, so we decided to do one - America's Most Beautiful Ride around Lake Tahoe. We did it on our own, not part of TNT, on our mountain bikes with slick tires. We got passed by a tandem, pulling a trailer with a cooler on the ride. So we got a tandem. Then I decided I wanted to commute to work, so I got a single. Then Thom got a single. Then we started riding the mountain bikes again. There is great mountain biking just three miles from our house at Black Diamond. I still haven't been back to Henry Coe - I need to.

At the end of 2005 I decided to do doubles. I did 3 in 2006 and 3 in 2007. The last one left with an overuse injury that it took me nearly 6 months to get worked out. My right leg still has some issues. I'd missed doing some of the doubles I wanted to do, so I decided I'd do a HIM tri instead and go for an R-12 award. Around the 9th 200K I was feeling pretty burnt out and I barely rode before #10. I tried twice for 10 in December. I was actually really relieved when I didn't finish number 10 on Dec. 31. That meant I didn't have to do 11 and 12.

I haven't been riding much since then. I want riding to be fun again, not something I HAVE to do. I'm finding that place again. My rides up Diablo have been fun, look at the scenery, not hammer to the top events. I'm really excited about our upcoming trip to Vermont.

Veronica

[GLC1968]

This is a really cool thread!

This is my story:

I occasionally borrowed my roommate's mountain bike in college. It was this taxi cab yellow Trek and every time someone new came to our room, they would comment on it. Not too many people had fancy Trek mountain bikes in Maine in 1987! Anyway, after college, I bought my own. It was a Nashbar bike back when they had a real brick and mortar store and no internet business. I rode that bike as my all-around bike, but I don't know that I ever took it out on real trails until I moved to the Poconos in the mid-90s. We would do some trail riding, but I decided that I really didn't like the bike all that much. I traded it for some skis! Then I spent $900 (an ungodly amount of money for a bicycle ) on a Specialized Rockhopper. All of a sudden, I loved riding trails. My boyfriend would come down from Boston and we'd spend all weekend riding (with my dog running along side). I still have that Specialized. I love that bike! It still has its original tires!

Then I moved to FL where I met and married my husband. He liked mountain biking, so I tried it (swamp biking)with him a few times, but really didn't like it. It was too hot, too muggy, too swampy...cypress roots are painful...The bike proceeded to become a dust collector.

Fast foward another 7 years and we move to NC. By then, I was already heavy into fitness and weight lifting. I hated cardio, but figured out that it was because cardio HURT. Custom orthodics didn't help. Getting off my feet and onto a road bike did though! My OB/Gyn had just lost like 85 lbs by taking up biking, so he totally talked me into it (knowing that I still had 10 lbs I wanted to lose and my feet were literally giving out on me). One 15 mile ride on the rolling hills in my area and I was instantly hooked. That was in July of 2005 (four years ago next week!).

My husband bought his first road bike a week later. I immediately signed up for the local MS150 with a group from my office. After having a blast on our first 35 mile group training ride, my husband signed up too. The following summer, we did our first two century rides. The summer after that, we started climbing mountains in NC (which was one of my original biking goals).

Then we moved here to Oregon and bought a mini-farm. Biking has fallen off pretty drastically as we are constantly swamped with getting our house/farm/garden, etc up and running. My hope is that by next summer, we have a better handle on it and can start training for some good rides again. I really want to do the Crater Lake Century in 2010!

[Veronica]

Where did you go to school in Maine?

Veronica

[maillotpois]

Where did you go to school in Maine?

Veronica

Yeah, really - where?

I was at Bowdoin 1985 - 89.

[GLC1968]

Bates - 86 - 90

[Ann G]

I biked around as a kid, like the rest of you. When I was in grad school, the bike shop in town had a moving sale, and I got a good Raliegh Super Course Mk II. I enjoyed it, but my back and rear would kill me after about an hour. The town where I was living was an overnight town for RAGBRAI in 2002, and I hosted a friend and a couple of his buddies. I made lasagna and opened up a bottle of Robert Mondavi merlot, and we had a great time. In the morning, I got up with the late risers, and rode along the RAGBRAI route for the next 8 miles. It was great bike riding weather. The later risers tend to have the goofiest attire. They strap beanie babies and ears of corn to their helmets, wear Mardi Gras beads and feather boas. One team wears ballet tutus over their bike shorts. I really enjoyed the nuttiness of the late risers. At the point where I was going to turn around, there was a church fundraiser serving breakfast in a farmyard. The smell of bacon and coffee was in the air. I sat at a picnic table and envied the riders who were actually doing RAGBRAI. I pretended for a few minutes that I wasn't going to turn around and go home.

At that point I was 51 years old. I knew that I'd never be able to begin to do the kind of distances that are a part of RAGBRAI on that bike, but I'd heard that recumbents are more comfortable. I did some internet research, test rode some, and bought one a few weeks after that. Around Thanksgiving some people in the office did a group weight-loss incentive, and I decided to join them. I started being more careful about what I ate. Over Christmas vacation I started lifting weights, and I started walking like I was the one who invented walking. I talked to somebody who runs a charter service during RAGBRAI and signed up with that group. By the time RAGBRAI started, I had lost 35 pounds. I had 3 goals for myself. First, to actually last the whole week and not have to be rescued by my husband if the whole thing turned out to be a terrible experience. Second, to make it across Iowa under my own steam and not ride the sag wagon. Third, to ride up as many hills as possible, and not walk up the hills. It was a hilly route that year, but I managed to ride the whole route, and only walked up one hill, so I met 2 goals and nearly met the third. RAGBRAI is a little adventure. By the end of the week, I was thinking, darn, only one more day to go.

I've traded up in recumbents twice. I'm 58, and my 7th RAGBRAI starts next Sunday. It's another hilly route, but I've decided that there are no hills that I can't walk up if I have to.

[andtckrtoo]

This is a cool thread! Thank you for starting it!

Veronica - I know why you hate Henry Coe Park - we did Search and Rescue training there one time and there is no flat in that park. It's hot, dusty and either straight up or straight down. I've hiked several 14,000 foot peaks, but I never hiked the elevation changes I did in Coe. Wow. I'd love to see your reaction to it now.

I got into cycling 12 years ago when I turned 32. I was very heavy and a smoker, and had just separated from my then husband. I decided that I may as well cut all the excess baggage from my life, and I quit smoking and bought myself a very low end mountain bike (Trek 320). The LBS I bought it from had training rides for anyone who bought their bikes, but I was so out of shape that I was too embarrassed to go with them. Instead I started riding the lower half of the trails - the reasonably flat parts. For two months I rode those and dropped a lot of weight and got all of the smoke out of my system. Then one day I was back in the shop getting something fixed and one of the guys (man was he a cutie) told me that I simply had to join them for a ride. That night I did, and I struggled up the big hills and had all sorts of difficulties on the technical stuff and freaked out on the rim trail, but I had the time of my life. I went back every night and practiced until I could conquer the things which scared me. By then I had met a lot of other riders and started going on rides all over El Paso, Texas and New Mexico. Then I ended up moving to Maryland and did not have the mountain bike trails as readily accessible. So I bought a road bike, signed up for a century ride, met some wonderful people and had a great time. I've since learned that while there can be some hard core cyclists who wouldn't give me the time of day, the cycling community for the most part is a warm and incredibly friendly group. I love it. I'm now in California. I got my DH into mountain biking, then we stopped riding for a bit and took up running and hiking. But now, I'm back in the saddle and enjoying every minute.

[maillotpois]

Bates - 86 - 90

So close! Funny. small world.

[GLC1968]

Very small world - it seems to get smaller as I age, too!

Oh, and that roommate of mine with the Trek? Yeah, she was from Marin County.

[Veronica]

So funny. If I had stayed to go to school in Maine, I probably would have ended up at Bates, Bowdoin or Colby. But I just had to get away at that point in my life. I'd have been class of '89 like MP.

Yeah, Thom and I have been thinking we needed to go back to Henry Coe. It's amazing what a little strength and confidence will do for you.

Veronica

[PamNY]

I bike because it's fun. I thought it would be a good social outlet, too, but the group rides I've observed don't look safe.

[hirakukibou]

I am 47 years old and had never been an athlete, until now. Growing up I was more interested in poetry than sports. I was a member of the literary club in high school snubbing anything as physical as football or running. However, I knew, a year ago, when I fell in love with David that a lot more exercise would come into my life. What I didn’t know was that it would change me profoundly. David is an avid cyclist and has been for twenty some odd years. I was an avid couch potato without the slightest interest in anything that could be called exercise. But, I liked being with him and he was on the bike.

I remember the first time I rode from Arlington to Bedford on the Minuteman Bike Trail. I had to stop at every large rock to rest and catch my breath. When my energy flagged and my pedaling slowed, he would come up behind me and rest his hand on the small of my back and give me a push. I needed those pushes, like the small child on the swing who can’t quite get going. I made it to Bedford and back. That was three and a half years ago.

Since then, I have cycled about 15,000 miles. I own six bikes. I work teaching bicycle riding at The Bicycle Riding School. I am a ride leader with the NEBC Women's Ride. I ride with two clubs. I have done the Harbor to the Bay AID charity ride twice and will do it this year as well. It is a 125 miles in one day. I do a lot of my own wrenching. I am learning to build wheels. Our apartment looks like a bike shop -- we have no kitchen table but instead have a work stand. I have lost weight and am more fit than I was in high school. My life has been consumed by all things bicycle. It has a life of its own and I have made it my own. Now, I can't imagine my life without cycling.