The never-ending saga of the bike

Because I realize that in order for me to have the motivation to get up and run/work out each day that it helps me to have an end goal in mind, Adam and I decided that we'd do a triathlon next summer. Here in Chicago they have what's called a sprint so it's less daunting than your typical Ironman and I have decided that I would probably be ok at it, given my former awesome competitive swimming background (nevermind that I really don't like freestyle and would much rather be butterflying or breaststroking) and the fact that running is not that big of a deal for me anymore (and hopefully after the marathon, a measly few miles will seem like a piece of cake). This leaves me with only one problem. The bike part. In the seventh or eighth grade, I was riding bikes with my neighborhood friends Shannen and Will (it might have been rainy... anti-smart) and Will somehow flipped over his bike and chipped his tooth. Since then, I have been semi-traumatized by bikes. I had one in college that I rode for maybe 2 weeks before I realized that the campus of Texas A&M is insanely crowded between class times and I was likely to hit someone due to my lack of recent experience. My mom also told my brother and I an extremely life traumatizing story about her childhood friend's experience with open-toed shoes and bike riding that isn't pretty. I might have some issues to work through here.

Anyway, I need a bike for said triathlon and just for life in general in Chicago in the summer without a car so my dad volunteered to be my benefactor for the purchase. Even though my very kind Dad is funding the purchase, I am still cheap and refuse to pay more than a couple hundred bucks for this crazy-Lance-Armstrong-leaning-over-all-crazy-shifting-gears-road bike that Adam claims I will "need" even though Chicago is so flat you can get away with pedalling for a minute and coasting for two minutes. Supposedly, I need to be aerodynamic to save my energy for the run. This all coming from my engineering boyfriend... ug.

None of this would be an issue except for the fact that I am short, I have short legs and MAJOR biking control issues that mean that I want to be able to reach the ground, not on tippy toes, when I stop. After searching the city high and low, Dad found and ordered a kids bike for me from target.com. It arrived last week and Adam and Bazan put it together on Friday night. It was an entertaining process because it literally did not come with instructions. Not kidding.

(I deeply apologize for the darkness of the pictures)


My maiden voyage (and only voyage) on the bike. It wasn't as scary as I thought.

Adam decided to see if the gears would shift and it all went downhill from there. The guys were trying to figure out what happened. I still don't understand why shifting gears is so important in the first place. Bottom line, after some hideous noises, some part is irreparably bent so we have to take it back to Target tomorrow and wait for a new one to be shipped. Sadness!