Maiden Voyage on the SPD SL 's!

I don't think I have ever been so terrified in my entire life as I was this afternoon!

I finally got to have a very short ride on my new bike I got for Christmas!

It took me a couple of weeks to buy new pedals and shoes and then the weather has been horrendous! So after it had been sitting patiently in the garage waiting for me for 7 weeks I finally braved the roads today!

I have had experience of "clipless" SPD pedals with my old bike so I wasn't expecting too much of a problem moving up to the SPD-SL's but I couldn't have been more wrong!

I had absolutely no problem clipping my feet in - it was breaking free again that challenged me!

Not only did I have new pedals to contend with, I had totally different gears to work out too!

It was a very stressful ride!

There was a couple of times where I nearly ended up on the deck when my foot just refused to break free; mixed together with getting the wrong gear on more than one occasion and either frantically spinning or hardly moving got the better of me and I headed home after a pathetic attempt and a near panic attack!

I only braved 4 miles but my nerves couldn't cope with anymore!  I truly thought I was going to come a cropper!

So ... its going be little and often for me until I am more comfortable with this clipless lark!

It is slightly worrying me that I have my first Triathlon of the season in less than 9 weeks ... not long to become best friends with my new bike ... and pedals!

This morning, before my nerves had been jangled I went swimming!

I had a bit of a stressful start with regards getting a locker!  

The first locker I picked, I put my clothes in, put the token in but then the key came out but the locker remained unlocked! 

I went to get assistance and I was told to move to another locker and she brought some more tokens .... finally after trying FOUR lockers that wouldn't work I finally hit the jackpot and found one that did!

I think the Leisure Centre need to invest in some new lockers!

I was taking this as a bad omen and was expecting the "lanes" to be busy with OAP breaststrokers but miraculously I had the slow lane to myself!

I swam 2550 metres in 1 hour 11 seconds!  I did my usual swim set of 1700 metres slightly slower than last week at 38:50 - that's because I didn't have anyone chasing me down the fast lane!

With the realisation that my first triathlon of the season is not too far away tomorrow will HAVE to be a cycle day - whether on the turbo trainer or on the open roads!

No excuses!