A little bit of dreaming

Similar too but not actually my bike.

Many years ago (around 2006) I bought my first adult bike.  It was a beautiful Specialized Allez. I can't find any easy to find picture of it but it was pretty and red and I loved it.
I rode a lot of miles on that bike, I occasionally bike commuted from our MPLS house to my job at ActivStyle, I did some triathlons and I just did a lot of riding.

When we moved to Minnetonka, and I had Marcus I took a pretty long break from riding and last summer when I went to start again, I realized that my beautiful bike was gone.  Some one had stolen it!  I was and still am really upset about it.  It was bad enough when I had bikes stolen in MPLS (where I expected it) but the bike theft continued when we moved to Minnetonka.  To make matters even more disturbing, in my mind, is the fact that the person who stole the bike had to walk all the way back to our house from the road (and this is not close), so they had to specifically be up to no good and that makes me sad.

So last summer I didn't have a road bike (I have a mom bike but that is a completely different story and a much different ride) and I was really sad about it. I really felt limited, no more triathlons, no more long bike rides, and it made me crabby. 

I started watching craigslist for a used bike (a new road bike is a bit out of my budget right now) and I was amazed how expensive people were selling used biked for.  If I found a decent priced bike it was pretty much instantly gone.  Last week I found one that looked very promising and over the weekend I got my "new" bike.  Here are some pictures of my new baby (ignore the messy house in the background).

I have to tell you that I feel so happy about this bike.  I took it out for a few rides over the weekend (haven't been out this week because of some issues beyond my control) and loved it.  I need to get used to riding again (road bikes are very different) and that is going to take some time.  I am not over the fact that some one stole my last bike but I don't feel the loss quite as acutely now.  Instead I now feel joy and adventure----- I was to ride again, I was to be fast (but not to fast because I am a wuss), and this makes me so happy.  I feel like options are available again, I may be slow and out shape but I have a bike, so I can, if I really want to do a triathlon this year.  I can just feel the potential!


 

I did learn a few things along the way and this bike will be well protected and always locked up.  The first thing I did was register it everywhere I could (online, specialized, city of MPLS) so that if could potentially be returned to me if it is ever stolen.  I am so excited to ride this summer.