Like Riding a Bike

As we were huffing and puffing up the incline away from Hanauma Bay, my mom got an idea. A wonderful, awful IDEA.

She wanted to take me biking.

Now, me, I'm a tad overweight and haven't so much as jogged to my mailbox in, errrr, 5 years. I've not been on a bike in even longer.

She is a competitive triathlete.

A tad mismatched, no?

I firmly veto a ride up Tantalus (mom, your idea of a SHORT ride is TEN MILES!? My CAR can barely make it up Tantalus!) and mom convinces me that "Mrs. Trek" (oh how cute, she names her bikes...) can get me up Old Pali Drive easily. Errr, this would be the original route OVER THE MOUTAIN. Really, I don't think so. It's only 8 miles? Er, now I KNOW I can't. WHAT? Mrs. Trek doesn't have pedals?! How...oh...you clip your shoes in...while you're MOVING? WHAT do you mean you only have to fall about 3 times before you figure it out?!

My mom eventually semiprevailed. She argued strongly in favor of the "never pass up an opportunity to try something new" and "you don't know you can't until you try it" philosophies. But the rain saved me at the last minute and we instead spent an hour in the semihilly surrounding neighborhood. I didn't fall but I did find out that "Mrs. Trek" is a splendid bike and the fancy expensive italian click-in shoes are horrid to walk on but absolutely lovely to bike in. You can't turn "Mrs. Trek" 180 degrees without a large area or unclipping your feet, a somewhat complicated balancing, pressure, and fine-motor-skill procedure. This made things...interesting. Mom even got me head-to-toe in the gear. After about 2 miles on semihill I don't feel bad at all, so I might try out the Old Pali Road after all, especially since she's been relegated to a lesser bike and tells me she's somewhat handicapped (mwahahahahaha) so she won't kick my ass, well, THAT bad.