Learning to ride a bike

On Friday, I went out on a ride with Marcus Moran – from Train Smart in Louisville. The objective was to figure out why I couldn't seem to have a decent ride. While running is something I've done my whole life and swimming has seemingly come naturally in the past 4 months – having a tolerable bike ride beyond a couple hours has been elusive for me.

I had always heard that if you can run well (which I can run pretty well), you can become a good cyclist. Despite spending no small amount of time on the bike, I still stunk.

Marcus is a long time cyclist and frankly way better than I'll ever dream of being. During our nearly 3 hour bike ride he provided me with loads of important information on cycling. I think I provided him with a nice warm up – I'm not sure he worked up enough of a sweat to shower.

Things I learned –

1. I never seem to bring enough liquids to consume and if I do, I don't consume them quickly enough. Bike rides are just plain sneaky. Because you don't exert as much energy as you do on a run, you underestimate the work your body is doing. As a result, you suddenly find yourself out of gas because you haven't hydrated or fed your body.
   
2. You can stick water bottles in those pouches on the back of your cycling jersey – told you I was a newbie.
   
3. Gears are there for a reason – I never realized how much you're supposed to use these things. I was kind of sticking to a favorite gear and using it regardless of hill or flat terrain. Turns out you can change gears multiple times just going up a hill.
   
4. Speed or pace isn't what you concentrate on in the Ironman – it is cadence and effort. I was trying to keep to a certain pace and I was tiring out my body too quickly as a result. Churning up hills at a higher gear, trying to keep some speed going - taps into the reserves. It's far better to keep the cadence going up the hills, with low resistance on the legs – keeping your heart rate down. From this point on, I'm not worrying about how fast I'm going.
   
5. Always keep your legs moving at an even cadence – even on downhills (if possible). This keeps lactic acid buildup from occurring.
   
6. You can get comfortable on the aero bars – particularly if someone is questioning your manhood.
   
7. Real cyclists obey the traffic laws – Marcus didn't appreciate my lack of appreciation for stop signs.