progress, as measured by attitude

Someone on the Team Estrogen forums asked about the Tour de Pink the other day, which prompted me to go back through my fitness logs to find my TdP ride reports. As I was searching through all my old posts trying to locate September 2006, I got to wondering how I really felt about cycling when I was a newbie. (I still kind of consider myself a newbie, but I mean TOTAL newbie) Well...compare and contrast.

On spinning classes:

2003: "I have discovered my personal hell..."

2007: "The spin classes don't really stress [my achilles] either, except during the out of the saddle/high resistance drills. If I keep my entire workout seated/low resistance and just alter my cadence to match the class effort, I think I can still keep them as part of my routine."

In fairness, the instructor I love so much now is NOTHING like the instructor for that first horrifying class. I still hate those guys. (But I could totally hold my own in his class now.)

On charity rides (exactly the same 40-mile route at the same time of year):

2003: "I started to get a little nervous as we were coming to the starting place, because even though the literature said that only the 62 and 100 mile routes had hills, we had driven over a whole lot of hills to get there. I expressed my concern to Rob, and he pointed out that we were in Texas hill country...what exactly did I expect? (Answer: that "Texas hill country" was a little further west. I thought that didn't start until New Braunfels or so.)"

2006: "The ride went reasonably well, considering that I had to contend not only with rolling hills, but also a soul-killing headwind. I averaged 14 mph on-the-dot, which is half a mph faster than last year. Of course, I did 20 fewer miles this year, missing all the "real" hills..."

Another bit from that first ride report that reminded me how much more confident I am now--"I watched other people get out of their cars, and all but one was skinny and had road bikes and special shoes. I was starting to feel a little inferior, with my hybrid, walking shoes, and plus-size cycling clothes. I told Rob that I wanted to sit in the car until 7:55."

Shoot, now I'm prone to do a full costume change right there in the parking lot after a ride, un-skinny body be damned. :P

Reading some of those early ride reports was good for me, I think. My Saturday ride gets a lot of brand new riders, and I'd almost forgotten how intimidating it can be when you're first starting out.

Wait, I was on TE talking about Tour De Pink....what's your user name?! How wierd that I've been reading your blog for a while and never noticed you were on TE.....!

hee--I'm mostly a lurker over there, but occasionally I have something to say. I think I've posted all of 10 times in two years. :) I'm amelia05 (Amelia's what I call my '05 Pilot).