Wednesday, August 11, 2010

It's Not You, It's Me . . .

As I wrote in my last post, I am not doing any more triathlons this summer and am taking a break from training.  I thought I would still swim, run, and especially bike just for fun, but I really haven't.  The truth is I haven't touched my road bike since getting back from Austin.  I feel a little guilty because it's such a nice bike and I LOVE it.

Nobody puts Orbea in the corner
At the same time, I want to be honest with myself.  If I'm not feelin' it, I'm not feelin' it.  And, it's not like I'm not getting exercise.  In fact, I go to the YMCA (err...the Y) so often that I'm the Mayor on Foursquare!  And, taking some time away from my Orbea might just lead to us having a stronger relationship in the future.

I actually have been riding, just not on my road bike.  I borrowed my neighbor's hybrid to ride the Moonlight Classic and basically never gave it back.  I started riding it around everywhere.  It was so fun and really nice not to have to deal with parking and traffic -- especially great for trips downtown and to the gym.  I never felt comfortable riding my road bike in street clothes (not to mention street shoes) and I was always so paranoid about it getting stolen that I rarely used it to get from point A to point B.  I know I'm way late to the game, but I finally get why people are so enthusiastic about biking as a mode of transportation!  I'm kinda like people who started watching DVDs of Lost after it had been on for a few years and were like "Whoa... this top-rated, critically acclaimed show that everyone's always talking and blogging about is, like, good!"

I knew I couldn't keep free-loading forever.  I got home from the gym one night (using my neighbor's bicycle, of course) and decided that the next day my mission would be Project GettaBike.  Then a friend called to see if I wanted to join her for a walk to Whole Foods to get a popsicle.  Always!  When we reached the end of my block, I saw a mountain bike chained up to a tree with a flashing neon sign (in the metaphorical sense) that said:  "Bike for Sale."  It was a Giant bike with Shimano gears, so I knew it was a solid bike (not a Wal-Mart POS).  It was in good condition and road nicely when I took it for a spin.  I googled it (thank-you Droid!) and the seller was asking for about 1/5 the retail price of the 2010 model of the same bike.  




This reminded me of how my neighbor (whose bike I had been borrowing) got her new puppy.  An unexpected sequence of events caused her to end up at the Dumb Friends League where she met a woman who was bawling because she had a newborn baby at home and couldn't take care of both the baby and her puppy.  The woman decided she had no choice but to give the puppy up.  My neighbor hadn't planned on getting a second dog, but she immediately thought of the Yiddish word "b'shert" or "meant to be."  She was so convinced that adopting this puppy was meant to be that she named the dog B'shert (BiBi for short).

BiBi the puppy (because popular opinion is that puppies are cute)

I felt the same way about this bike.  Even though it was a somewhat impulsive decision, it just felt like it was meant to be.  I considered naming my new bike BiBi, but I think it's against Jewish tradition to name someone (or something) after a living relative (or neighboring puppy).  Even though I had planned to get a hybrid not a mountain bike, it is pretty easy to turn a mountain bike into a speedier commuter by switching out the tires.  I took it to my LBS and they put on new tires and tuned 'er up (which together ended up costing more than the bike itself).  The new tires work great and I'm loving riding it!

Mountain Bike Tires

Zippy Street Tires (Look, Mom - reflective safety stripe!)



See you out there!