This Is How You Get Laughed At
This blog entry was inspired by this social media update by me on Friday morning.
I.... am pedal biking to work and using my clip-less shoes for the first time this year. Here's to an incident free trip.
...
This loosely translates to: Here's to hoping I don't get my feet stuck on my pedals and unceremoniously tip over in front of the general populace.
SPOILER ALERT: I tipped over. Now you don't have to read the rest.
If you want the epic details, please... continue.
So I live about 5 miles from where I work.
It's a bit of city biking, but not too bad or crowded most of the time. I can take enough back streets where I can avoid most of the busy intersections.
I'd been toying with the idea of biking in on Friday all week since it was the only reasonably nice day all week. It was cool but nice on Friday morning and it was supposed to be awesome for the rest of the day.
Now, I JUST got clip-less shoes, the kind you clip into the pedals (I know, clip-less is a bit misleading, you'd think there SHOULDN'T be clips, and then there are... I don't know, I've had it explained to me before and I still don't get it and I also don't care), and this was my second time using them ever. I was like, time to break these weirdly shaped shoes in, ya know?
So I got my bike prepped the night before, packed my clothes, lunch, etc, all that. I was on top of things. ... minor miracle in and of itself.
I set off on my trek, and I managed to do quite well most of the ride. I was even feeling pretty good about the pedals, had successfully gotten my feet out of them a few times at stop signs. I felt confident, strong, you know, all the powerful words that are used to describe something.
I got to the most populated intersection fairly close to work. In a car, I normally would have taken a left, but since the light was green going straight I chose to keep my momentum and bike on through and cut through a parking lot. Biked through this large intersection, took the quick left into the parking lot to connect to the main road I wanted to be on, and then had to stop at the main road cause clearly a light at the intersection had just changed and a long row of traffic was about to come through.
I go to stop, get my left foot out of the pedals, and as I stop, I hit a bit of sand, and the bike kicks out JUST a little bit, and I tip towards the right as I brake, thus keeping my right foot SECURELY FASTENED TO MY SLOWLY TIPPING BIKE.
I end up laying on the ground with my bike pinning my right leg to the ground, flailing like a fish out of water, as the most traffic I had encountered during the entire ride goes by me.
This whole endeavor lasted only as long as the line of traffic, as I tried to simultaneously lift the bike off my leg and twist my foot to the right side (towards the ground) to get disconnected from the bike. All the while, traffic is whizzing by and I'm the dorky helmeted girl with a backpack trapped under her own road bike. When I finally get up, I have dirt all up my leggings on the right side, and I now have to put my wounded bike pride and newly found confidence back since I totally fell over where there was the most possibility that people from work could see my shame.
Hilarious and pathetic.
P.S. I made it to work and then home later just fine, in case anyone cares.
I.... am pedal biking to work and using my clip-less shoes for the first time this year. Here's to an incident free trip.
...
This loosely translates to: Here's to hoping I don't get my feet stuck on my pedals and unceremoniously tip over in front of the general populace.
SPOILER ALERT: I tipped over. Now you don't have to read the rest.
If you want the epic details, please... continue.
So I live about 5 miles from where I work.
It's a bit of city biking, but not too bad or crowded most of the time. I can take enough back streets where I can avoid most of the busy intersections.
I'd been toying with the idea of biking in on Friday all week since it was the only reasonably nice day all week. It was cool but nice on Friday morning and it was supposed to be awesome for the rest of the day.
Now, I JUST got clip-less shoes, the kind you clip into the pedals (I know, clip-less is a bit misleading, you'd think there SHOULDN'T be clips, and then there are... I don't know, I've had it explained to me before and I still don't get it and I also don't care), and this was my second time using them ever. I was like, time to break these weirdly shaped shoes in, ya know?
So I got my bike prepped the night before, packed my clothes, lunch, etc, all that. I was on top of things. ... minor miracle in and of itself.
I set off on my trek, and I managed to do quite well most of the ride. I was even feeling pretty good about the pedals, had successfully gotten my feet out of them a few times at stop signs. I felt confident, strong, you know, all the powerful words that are used to describe something.
I got to the most populated intersection fairly close to work. In a car, I normally would have taken a left, but since the light was green going straight I chose to keep my momentum and bike on through and cut through a parking lot. Biked through this large intersection, took the quick left into the parking lot to connect to the main road I wanted to be on, and then had to stop at the main road cause clearly a light at the intersection had just changed and a long row of traffic was about to come through.
I go to stop, get my left foot out of the pedals, and as I stop, I hit a bit of sand, and the bike kicks out JUST a little bit, and I tip towards the right as I brake, thus keeping my right foot SECURELY FASTENED TO MY SLOWLY TIPPING BIKE.
I end up laying on the ground with my bike pinning my right leg to the ground, flailing like a fish out of water, as the most traffic I had encountered during the entire ride goes by me.
This whole endeavor lasted only as long as the line of traffic, as I tried to simultaneously lift the bike off my leg and twist my foot to the right side (towards the ground) to get disconnected from the bike. All the while, traffic is whizzing by and I'm the dorky helmeted girl with a backpack trapped under her own road bike. When I finally get up, I have dirt all up my leggings on the right side, and I now have to put my wounded bike pride and newly found confidence back since I totally fell over where there was the most possibility that people from work could see my shame.
Hilarious and pathetic.
P.S. I made it to work and then home later just fine, in case anyone cares.