The first 600

Since this is just another blog from another cyclist, and that's not very exciting; I thought I'd list out some realizations from my first couple of months cycling.

Today is November 18th. I purchased my bicycle around September 5th and since then I've logged about 600 miles.

I'd been envying cycles for about 3 months before that and had gone from thinking I wanted a mountain bike to a flat bar road bike (one of the higher end ones which is actually more road bike than not) to a straight up road bike.
So I finally had the money and it was time to buy the bike. I went to the shop and fell for an 07 trek 1500. One of the early ones which shipped with dated ultegra components. I always hated red bikes too, until then.

The first couple of rides felt a bit unnatural (not uncomfortable) and were difficult: Every hill was a battle no matter how small. I hadn't been in good shape for 5 years or so.

That weekend I went on a 55 mile ride with my brother, who'd been cycling for months. I could barely ride the last 3 miles home. The last 5 miles took something like an hour.


After about a hundred miles the bike started to feel more natural and easier to control and the seat stopped causing minor pain (or at least I stopped noticing it). After about 300 it felt very natural. And after about 500 the hills that used to kill me and I used to dread I began to look forward to.
When I first started the mention of something like San Fransisco and its famously hilly streets would make me think "if I moved there maybe I'd give up cycling." Now I think "I should visit there, I wanna ride those hills."

I'm a believer now. You do start to like the hills. And it seems that the more I used to resent a particular hill the more I love it now.

Now I just need to find bigger hills!