All Glowed Up

Photo of Julie after her 5th ride on ebike (Specialized Turbo Velo SL Kids) wearing sunglasses with her riding helmet on - glowing after an enjoyable bike ride with her husband

Happy Dancing – New Seat Post Fitted

It’s been a while since I’ve worked up a glow (read: sweat) on a bike ride, but today it happened — yeehah!

My new seat post arrived this morning and is now fitted. Yusssssss!

Confidence Building Required

I know I have lots and lots and lots more hours to clock up on this bike before I feel as confident on it, as I’ve felt on my others. Right now the saddle feels way too high and the ground farrr too far away.

Both of those are true. Yet both of those are exactly where they’re meant to be.

While I’m confidence-building, cycling feels scary. I feel wussy. And psyching myself up before every ride is required.

Consecutive Ride 005

Alan and I clocked up a few km doing left hand (all but one) circuits around the block again. I say left hand circuits because I’m still getting used to being comfortable in my starts. And mucking up a start while I’m crossing traffic gives me the heebie jeebies.

Consciously Unskilled

Hahahaha – this kinda reminds me of what it was like learning to drive with hill starts – that awkward dance manoeuvre of feet on clutch, brake and then accelerator without stalling.

I wonder how many people know how to hill start in a manually-geared car…? Probably not many.

Skill Awareness – The Competency Matrix

2x2 quadrant Skills Awareness Matrix:
Unconsciously Unskilled (Left): The individual is unaware of their lack of skills.
Consciously Unskilled (Right): The individual is aware of their lack of skills.
Consciously Competent (Top): The individual is aware of their skills and can perform them.
Unconsciously Competent (Bottom): The individual has mastered the skills to the point where they can perform them automatically without thinking.

I’m currently sitting somewhere in the lower half of this matrix when it comes to riding my new bike.

There are some things I don’t even have to think about – they happen automatically. For example, changing gears. I’ve pedalled enough kms to now not even have to think about when to change gears while I’m riding. This is a bottom left quadrant skillset: autopilot.

Other things though, like remembering to drop the seat when I stop so my feet touch the ground, puts me in the bottom right quadrant: I have to think about what I’m doing as I’m doing it.

Learning New Skills

As much as I’d love to have all of my cycling skills back (muscle memory) so my confidence was increased while out riding on the road, there’s a part of me that’s enjoying this journey.

I know that the process of forming new neural pathways in my brain is good for me! It keeps my brain stretched and elastic. Which is important because I want to stay as sharp as I can for as long as I can.

Here’s to building confidence…

Here’s to learning new skills and having elastic brains…

Here’s to working up a cycling sweat…

Here’s to SmilingOnTheInside!