…  a new relationship has been formed.  Between me and Lola. 🙂  I hadn’t posted about this earlier because I didn’t want to be negative and was hoping things would change, and fortunately they have!

I rode Lola for the first time outside the week after Triple-T, just 30 miles and it was MISERABLE.  She was wobbly, the seat was painful, my hands hurt holding the hoods and riding in aero was downright scary.  Like super scary.  The next weekend I was determined to convince myself that Lola was fine to ride and super comfy, I took her out again and within four miles. FOUR measly miles (granted I had ridden my trainer the day before for an hour and a half), I turned around.  Everything was uncomfortable, I was only able to get into aero for .1 seconds without freaking out.  This just wasn’t going to work out.  Maybe she wasn’t the right bike for me.  Sadly I put her back on my bike rack and back home we went. 😦

The following Wednesday I went to the baseball game with the tri club, and two of the members were asking about my ‘new’ bike and how it was going, and I just spilled the entire story of the awful rides, aero being scary and the seat downright sucking.  I said I knew that it takes time, but I had been riding her on my trainer since January and I just couldn’t understand why it had suddenly become so awful to ride her outside.  They both recommended a bike fitter (that was supposedly the best in the saint louis area) to get a new fit.  It was a bit pricey, but hopefully worth it.  I mean, that was his full time job for the past 13 years, I guess he has to know his stuff?  So the next day I called to schedule an appointment and as my luck would have it, he had an opening that evening!  After work I grabbed Lola and off we went to get a new fit.

Pre Bike Fit (taken a while ago, must have been at night hence the weird quality)

Boy did he change a few things, my current fit was very aggressive, having the handlebars down super low and the seat pretty high.  So he raised my bars almost 2 inches, lowered my seat and did a few other adjustments.  I hopped back on and so far, it felt great!  Back home we went, and I was ready to try her out on my ride on Saturday.

Post Bike Fit

Well the ride was a success, the seat started bothering me in the middle, but by the end it felt pretty comfy.  And I rode in aero quite a bit and it wasn’t scary!  Raising the handlebars made a huge difference.  Perhaps as I get more comfortable with the position, I can lower them to be in a more powerful position, but for now, no way!!

So Wednesday morning’s ride was really the day though that we bonded.  I felt so much more comfortable, I had more control (getting used to a lighter bike) and am finally getting used to changing the gears on the aero bars.  So, hooray!  I will still take very good care of Peaches and try to not ignore her too much, but now it’s time to ride Lola because she will be my buddy for the 112 miles at IMAZ (and my buddy the rest of the season, through good and bad rides!)!