Confessions of an Amateur Biker

How a Couch Potato Became Addicted to Road Biking

My husband and I are recent converts to road biking. We had been enjoying mountain biking at various locations throughout south Florida for a number of years. The mountain bike trails closest to us were destroyed in one of the multitude of hurricanes to hit south Florida in recent years. We decided to purchase road bikes as a way to continue riding while waiting for the off road trails to be rebuilt.

A few months after purchasing our road bikes I received information in the mail from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society regarding their Team in Training (TNT)program. TNT is the Leukemia Societies main fund raising program. This program trains amateur athletes for local and national events such as triathlons, marathons, and century rides while at the same time raising funds for their organization. I went to their website to find out more about the century rides and discovered there was a ride scheduled in 5 months time in Cocoa, Florida. I was 42 years old at the time and my husband would be turning the big 50 a week before the century ride. I thought joining a team would be a good way for us to increase our road biking skills while at the same time increasing our level of fitness. The longest road ride I had done up to that point was around 22 miles so 100 miles seemed nearly impossible. But I like challenges so I signed us both up for the century ride.

My husband has a bit of an addiction to bike shops and is always reading about and researching the latest and greatest gizmo's and gadgets in magazines such as Bicycling. We were riding fairly new aluminum frame Cannondale road bikes and thought they were great. But he began to read more about bikes meant to make your ride more comfortable for longer, leisurely rides such as the rides we were beginning to do while training for the century ride.