Gabriellsca, we can do this together. What I've learned in my 57 years is to take acceptable risks. Fourteen years ago I was schooling a young gelding and wanted to get off. I thought, Oh, Cowboy UP, woman. Well I wound up with a broken neck, plates, pins, bone grafts. Not an acceptable risk.

Everybody told me how lucky I was not to be paralyzed. My husband (the ultimate man) said why couldn't I be like regular lucky people and just win the lottery? When I laughed all trussed up in a neck brace and head gear, he told me I looked like Elsa Lanchester (bride of Frankenstein) and that I was drooling.

But actually, I was lucky. I not only survived the wreck of my dreams, I got to reassess. And I get to tell the story.

So here I am with my new bike which I love, and these ^%$^% pedals. I will learn this. We will learn this. It will become intuitive and comfortable. It will become necessary for the the power we will need to get up those hills. [I]Clipping in will become fluid and balanced.

We will learn from Oak and others.

And then we will teach and train others more afraid than we are now. And we will be kind and make them laugh.

Since I'm a teacher, sometimes it's tough for me to be a student. Humbling. I need that too. It keeps me safe.