Hello, aero

Last weekend I tested my balance a little by borrowing a friend's clip-on aerobars and giving them a go on the road.

Now, I've always been of the "I don't need aerobars to faster" school of thought. I never really saw a need for them. I mean, I do about one or two time trials a year, and it never really occurred to me that they were a necessity for triathlons. But ... since he had a pair to lend and I was feeling brave, I had Jake hook them up and off we went on a Sunday ride.

I have my last tri of the year this weekend. That was part of the motivation for trying the aerobars out last weekend. Maybe I could use them in the tri?

So I rode around a little in the parking lot of my apartment complex thinking, "this isn't so bad." Then we get out on the open road and I start to ride. After about 10 minutes my shoulders are killing me. Then we climb a hill. Now my legs are hurting in a totally different spot. What the heck?? I thought these things were supposed to make me ride faster, easier!

Turns out the faster part was right, cause I watched my pedalstroke compared to Jake's and he was working a lot harder than I was. So that's a plus. The set up being uncomfortable (shoulder pain) is just the fact that I've never been in that much of a tucked position on the bike before. I can get used to it. The one area where I need some serious work though, is the whole riding in a straight line thing. lol. I was weaving, or as I like to call it, sweaving -- (swerving + weaving) -- all over the road. I had a REAL hard time with that. I guess it's because the aerobars made the steering so much more twitchy, aka responsive, than I'm used to. Poor Beth, I kept looking back wondering why she wasn't riding up there with Jake and I. She hollered up that she was giving me my space. Apparently I looked dangerous from behind. LOL.

I survived the ride (and the run that came after) and asked my buddy to let me keep the aerobars to use at the tri this weekend. Maybe they'll give me a miniscule advantage -- which would be good considering 600 folks have registered for the event. WTF???

Hopefully I can control my sweaving.