However, I DID get out and exercise today. I ran three loops close to home (the childcare room was closed when I called the gym and by the time they opened it would have meant scheduling a late appointment -- I'll try again another day). It struck me about a mile into this that this is the first time I've run outside since the marathon. Pretty sad. But I had absolutely no IT-band or femur troubles, so that's good news. Actually, that's not quite true -- I could feel some tightness in the band in my right leg, but up near my hip, and not where it used to hurt; it just needed a little stretching and it stopped bothering me immediately after that. I thought, based on my phone's GPS, that I was REALLY slow on the run, but when I got home and looked at what it thought I had run I realized it was just completely wonky in its recording -- it said I did under 2.9 miles (which seemed low, but it had been a long time since I'd done the route so I couldn't remember if a loop was just over or just under a mile) but it was really more like 3.3. So I averaged about a 10-minute pace, which is perfectly normal for me, and far better than the 11:29 it reported!
Tomorrow I have my fitting for my bike. I feel very under-educated in a bike shop -- I'm always a bit nervous going into the shop because I feel like such an idiot. Running technology is so much simpler (though not a whole lot cheaper, in the end!). You need shoes, and you buy the ones that feel best and fit best in your price range. You need whatever clothes you feel comfortable in, because when you run 6 mph or slower you really don't need streamlining. Nobody laughs at you if you continue to dress this way even after years of running, and you get other gear as the need presents itself (generally making itself obvious -- how do I hydrate on a long run? Water belt. How do I keep from bouncing? Overpriced bras. How do I keep clothes from chafing? Glide stick. And so on). But with road bikes you START by dropping hundreds of dollars on a bike, and it seems kind of foolish to do that without knowing a whole lot more about the products. I don't really know what the strengths and weaknesses of different bike brands are, and I certainly don't know one type of gear shifter or brakes from another. I did spend some time reading up on frame features the other day so at least I know the parts of a frame now. More or less. If they don't use any non-standard or specialized terms on me. And they want me to wear my bike-riding gear, which, for the past several years, has generally been jeans hiked up or tucked into my socks on the right side. So I think I will wear my newer running tights, which looked VERY awesome on me a month ago but now showcase my new, flabby gut. But at least they're kind of streamlined and are what I WOULD wear on a bike in winter if I were actually trying to ride fast and not just get to the grocery store or the gym. Actually, I'd wear these on the bike to the gym, too -- I wore my gym clothes all summer the year that we biked everywhere.
I have a chronic problem of never wanting to admit to being a neophyte at anything. This posed a real difficulty in college, when I didn't want to ask stupid questions, so when a question popped into my mind I'd read through all my books and notes before being willing to ask, by which point the lecture had long since moved onto other topics and the subject was no longer relevant (or someone else had asked the question already). I also never got good at chess even though I think I could have been, because I didn't like being bad at chess, and you have to go through being bad before you can get good. Biking is like that for me -- I'm really bad at it but don't want to admit HOW bad so that I can start getting good. Phooey.
4 comments:
I've researched road bikes so much now that I feel I *could* go to a shop and sound knowledgeable enough about the components and frame materials that matter to me (and I did this for the same reason you would go through all of your written materials before asking a question--so as not to look like an idiot!). But I suspect that people who go in and admit their lack of knowledge either end up with exactly what they need or they get swindled, and I doubt you'll get swindled, so don't be afraid to admit ignorance. At the very least you know what you want to do with this bike* so you're way ahead of most people who walk into bike shops! You wouldn't believe how many people on TE buy a bike and realize two weeks later that it's not what they needed--they ended up with a cruiser when they wanted a mountain bike or a hybrid when they needed a road bike. But the good thing about bikes is that as long as you get a good frame, everything else can be swapped out, and if you're starting with the fitting you know you'll have a frame that'll work for you.
I wish I were going with you tomorrow!
*Run away from zombies.
I take a different approach, at least when it comes to outdoor activities where I am truly clueless. When we were in Vegas over Thanksgiving, after a day of hiking it became very apparent to me that we needed hiking boots and that our sneakers weren't going to cut it. So I found an REI and just asked a guy what I needed. He was insanely helpful; I walked out not only with comfortable hiking boots but also a pair of inserts that alleviated most of my plantar fasciitis pain. Those things were invaluable because the next day a lot of out hiking was in sand, and I think I would have died if I had my regular sneakers on.
I think when you go to a knowledgeable shop and admit your lack of knowledge, a willingness to learn AND that you value the sales person's opinion, people are pretty enthusiastic and want to share what they know with you. I've only had one experience opposite of this and that was at the Falls Road Running Store. The guy was just a snob. He took one look at my fatness and wrote me off, and we never went back there. I've gone to Charm City Run ever since.
I will say I would never attempt this at a "regular" store. too many morons...
Julie, I know you're right -- when Daniel and I wanted a decent camera (15 years ago or so -- before you could do research online!) we went to Best Buy first. We saw "SLR" on a few cameras and asked the guy what that meant, and he told us it was that brand's feature package. Since it was clearly labeled on three different brands of cameras, we knew the guy was an idiot, and we walked out. Instead we went to Wolf, where the fellow behind the counter spent an hour educating us about basic camera features. We walked out with a camera that cost more than it would have at Best Buy, but it was worth every penny for the education that came along with it!
It is that way with any "step up" equipment. Buy a loom, a spinning wheel or knitting needles and you don't really KNOW what you need until after you have it sitting in your house for a few weeks. THEN you figure out that the six harness would have been better than four, the less traditional castle style would have been more practical than the fairy tale saxony wheel, and the long tapered points are WAY easier in the long run than the shorter rounder points. We should all be allowed to rent what we ultimately want to buy before we invest lots of money it in. The only time I got it right was when I bought my glass torch AFTER spending a week using one in a perfect studio!
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