Biking, Part 1:

Biking is an amazing way to get in shape and really boost your cardio let me tell you. The first time I biked anywhere though, after about 5 minutes my legs were full of acid, my lungs were outside my body, and I was lying on the side of the road feeling a few inches from death! The second time I made it 6 minutes before I felt like puking all over the whole IronMan idea in the first place! Good thing I am insanely stubborn! I tell you what though, after a little bit of biking, this becomes really fun. What I mean is the pain stops and instead you get to look around and enjoy the fact that you are biking again! It reminded me of when I was a little Aaron and biking was the only way I had to get places. Why did we ever grow up exactly?

Anyway back to being stubborn for a moment. This is actually a very good quality in a human. When you decide to step out of the norm and go for something big, say an IronMan, or starting your own business, or whatever. The first thing that’s going to happen is everyone will try to stop you. Seriously! It sounds backwards at first but if you think about it for a sec it’ll make sense. I call it the Crab Trap theory (My inner geek is showing). Here is how it works. If you want to catch crab in the wild, it’s actually very simple. You keep a couple crabs in a big bowl until they get cozy in there and call it home, then you sink that bowl in the ocean where there are other crabs that eventually crawl in with the others in the bowl.  When the new crabs try to leave, the original crabs actually pull them back into the bowl trying to protect them from leaving, since the bowl is “safe” and outside the bowl is “unknown”.  Before too long the new crab buys the story and starts pulling new crabs into the bowl himself!!  Something like this happens with people too, especially the ones that love and care about you.  They just want you to stay safe and don’t go into uncharted waters, even if those waters are in fact safer and better, they will want you to stay away as long as they are “unknown”.  What is the point of this you ask?  Well I will tell you.  If you want to accomplish something you’ve never done, you’re going to have to do what you’ve never done.  The best thing you can do is find someone who HAS done it and make a friend.

So go to your local YMCA and start asking about triathlon clubs or biking groups.  It won’t take you very long before you find one that will be more than happy to ride with you.  Assuming you don’t kill them and you obey the normal rules of the road, you’ll have new friends that can answer all your questions about biking and gear and even give you great deals on bike upgrades (these guys are always upgrading their stuff and you can pick up their old stuff on the cheap!)

If you do decide to go solo, I will do my best to keep you informed and educated about bike gear and whatnot here in my humble little blog.  If you want to buy all the latest bike gear and equipment, then your first missions is to go win the lotto.  You’re going to need it in order to fund your bike buying because there are some NUTSO expensive things you can get out there for a bike!!  The good news is though that you actually don’t need any of the crazy insane equipment they sell out there.  Most of my IronMan training up to this point has been done on a Mongoose mountain bike I got 10 years ago for a couple hundred!!  Seriously, you don’t need fancy or innovative or expensive, plug in with a local biking club or triathlon club and get their old stuff.  If you’re a good friend they might even let you borrow it for free!!!  Now get out there and meet some new people you social butterfly!

Read the follow up: Biking Part Two, HERE:
http://ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/biking-part-2.html

Here is a special article on a special kind of biking:  Aqua-Biking!
http://ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/aqua-biking.html