Yesterday was another step in our journey to become cyclists. After much encouragement from our kids that clipless pedals were something we had to get, we decided to give it a try. The theory behind clipless pedals is that both your shoes and the pedal will act as one unit. The shoe is a little stiffer through the inner sole and this allows use of force by each leg on the whole 360 revolution, instead of just on the down stroke.
Okay, that makes sense the scary part of this was that your shoes actually click into the pedal. This was especially scary for Mary Kay. The thought is that we won't be able to get our feet out of the clips if we are falling. We had our shoes and new clipless pedals and a friend Dan King said he would help us set them up and get us comfortable with them. We rode our bikes to the LifePlex to meet Dan. We were going to do all this in their Spinning room. On the way out Mary Kay said, "Maybe I can put just one clipless pedal on and one regular."
Dan was a big help. We got everything changed and practice a little with our bikes on stationary stands. We went outside to practice in the parking lot, and soon were riding home. We were pretty cautious at intersections so we wouldn't have to stop and get out of the pedals. We actually felt pretty good all the way home and were glad we had made the change. I have to say that we both nearly fell when we got home and stopped, but no harm was done. A big thanks to Dan for his help and to Chad Barden for loaning me an extra set of pedals.
49 days until we will be Spokin' Home!!
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